Author Topic: Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike  (Read 20973 times)

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike
« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2007, 04:51:51 pm »
I just finished "Deathly Hallows" a little while ago.

It's very good, lots of excitement and plot twists. It is a satisfying conclusion to the series.

But now I have that empty feeling. It's all over? I am done reading? No more, nothing to look forward to? Sigh...

L
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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike
« Reply #21 on: August 05, 2007, 02:14:58 pm »
'Harry Potter' author ties up loose ends

Lindsay Toler
Associated Press
Aug. 5, 2007 12:00 AM

LONDON - Just because J.K. Rowling has stopped writing about Harry Potter and his friends and foes doesn't mean she has stopped thinking about them.

She told fans last week what she thinks happened to many of the book's characters after the final installment.

In a 90-minute live Web chat, she fielded some of the approximately 120,000 questions submitted by devotees. It was her first public comment since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, debuted July 21.

Rowling said she was elated to share with fans the secrets she'd been harboring since she conjured up the idea for the boy wizard during a train journey across England in 1990.

"It is great to be able to do this at last," she said. "I've looked forward to it for so long!"

Deathly Hallows sold over 10 million copies in its first weekend. The seven books in the blockbuster series have sold a combined 335 million copies worldwide.

In the novel - which centers on Harry's journey to kill Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard of all time - the young wizard learns of three powerful magical objects called the Deathly Hallows that, when combined, will make their owner the Master of Death, meaning he or she accepts mortality without fear.

Rowling said in the online chat the hallows were in part inspired by "The Pardoner's Tale," one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales about greed and death.

Rowling shared with fans, many of whom said they'd read the final book several times in the last week, where she imagines their favorite characters went after the series' conclusion.

SPOILER ALERT: Those who don't wish to know what happens to the characters after the book ends should stop reading here.










Rowling said the world was a sunnier, happier place after the seventh book and the death of Voldemort.

Harry Potter, who always voiced a desire to become an Auror, or someone who fights dark wizards, was named head of the Auror Department under the new wizarding government headed by his friend and ally, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Harry's wife, Ginny Weasley, stuck with her athletic career, playing for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. Eventually, Ginny left the team to raise their three children - James, Albus and Lily - while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet.

Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley, joined his brother, George, as a partner at their successful joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione Granger, Ron's wife and the third person of the series' dark wizard fighting trio, furthered the rights of subjugated creatures, such as house elves, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before joining the magical law-enforcement squad. The couple had two children, Rose and Hugo.

Luna Lovegood, Harry's airily distracted friend with a love for imaginary animals who joins the fight against Voldemort in the Order of the Phoenix, becomes a famous wizarding naturalist. She eventually marries the grandson of Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And what Muggle, or non-wizard, song would have been played at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, the most brilliant and talented wizard the world had ever known?

"Surely 'I Did It My Way,' by Frank Sinatra," Rowling told her fans, referring to My Way, written by Paul Anka but popularized by Sinatra, among other singers.

As the chat wrapped up, Rowling thanked readers for their loyalty to the series.

"What can I say? Thank you so much for sticking with me, and with Harry, for so long. You have made this an incredible journey for Harry's author."


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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike
« Reply #22 on: August 17, 2007, 07:26:24 pm »
I know...I have been missing the book and series since I finished it two weeks ago.

L
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Offline opinionista

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Re: Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike
« Reply #23 on: August 19, 2007, 09:46:49 am »
There won't be more Harry Potter books but JK Rowling seems to be working on a new crime-themed novel. I'm not sure how accurate is this since it is not clear how the source found out exactly what was JK Rowling working on when she saw her writing at a cafe.  Anyway, here is the scoop.


Report: Rowling writing detective novel

LONDON - J.K. Rowling has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday.
The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Ian Rankin, a fellow author and neighbor of Rowling's, as saying the creator of the "Harry Potter" books is turning to crime fiction.

"My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel," the newspaper, which was available late Saturday, quoted Rankin as telling a reporter at an Edinburgh literary festival.

"It is great that she has not abandoned writing or Edinburgh cafes," said Rankin, who is known for his own police novels set in the historic Scottish city.

Rowling famously wrote initial drafts of the Potter story in the Scottish city's cafes. Back then, she was a struggling single mother who wrote in cafes to save on the heating bill at home.

Now she's Britain's richest woman — worth $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine — and her seven Potter books have sold more than 335 million copies worldwide.

In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Rowling said she believed she was unlikely to repeat the success of the Potter series, but confirmed she had plans to work on new books.

"I'll do exactly what I did with Harry — I'll write what I really want to write," Rowling said.

The office of Rowling's literary agent, Christopher Little, was not immediately available to comment late Saturday.


From: Yahoo News
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. -Mark Twain.

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike
« Reply #24 on: October 20, 2007, 07:26:38 am »
Thank you to magicmountain for alerting me to this interesting news item!



Rowling outs Hogwarts head Dumbledore

AP - Harry Potter fans, the rumours are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.

JK Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series, outed the beloved character while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall in New York. After reading briefly from the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love".

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down".

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy".

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour there since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority".

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.
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mvansand76

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Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals
« Reply #25 on: October 21, 2007, 03:53:50 pm »
Mods, hear me out, please, this DOES belong here...  ;)

Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals
Headmaster of Hogwarts in "Harry Potter" series is gay, J.K. Rowling says

Readers had long speculated on the character's sexuality

Rowling: Dumbledore in love with, let down by his rival, Gellert Grindelwald

NEW YORK (AP) -- Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.

J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall. After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.


Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.








I've never read any other fanfic than BBM, but thought this would be fun to share! I bet the HP fandom is 1000 times the size of BBM!

Offline SFEnnisSF

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Re: Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals
« Reply #26 on: October 21, 2007, 11:41:18 pm »
Which one is Dumbledore again?  Not really into the series but I saw a few of the movies...

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals
« Reply #27 on: October 21, 2007, 11:58:41 pm »
 :D
I heard this today on the news!  I quite like this development and actually can see what Rowling means about Grindelwald and Dumbledore.  It's pretty cool that she's so willing to talk about or bring out that aspect of the story line.

Which one is Dumbledore again?  Not really into the series but I saw a few of the movies...

Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the main characters throughout the series.  And, at times he's quite a father-figure to Harry and he often definitely acts as Harry's protector. Dumbledore's known as the best (or at least one of the best) wizards of all time.  In the movies, etc. he's the old wizard with the long white beard.
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Offline MaineWriter

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Re: Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals
« Reply #28 on: October 22, 2007, 07:05:25 am »
Which one is Dumbledore again?  Not really into the series but I saw a few of the movies...

The Headmaster, the guy with the long white beard.

Leslie
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Offline MaineWriter

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Most fans applaud Rowling's "outing" of Dumbledore
« Reply #29 on: October 23, 2007, 08:52:56 am »
More on the Dumbledore news...

Most fans applaud Rowling's "outing" of Dumbledore
Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:43pm EDT

By Solarina Ho

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - The Muggle, or non-wizard, world is agog at author J.K. Rowling's bombshell announcement that one of the main characters in the Harry Potter books was gay.

By Monday afternoon, after a weekend of gossip about Rowling's "outing" of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, there were almost 6,000 comments on the issue on two popular Harry Potter Web sites, www.leakynews.com and www.mugglenet.com.

"Mostly people are happy that she has done this," said Melissa Anelli, webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron site, admitting that the site has seen a small subset of vocal readers unhappy at the revelation.

"I think it's great, I think the way she handled it was that this was just another fact about him, the same way that he's a teacher, he likes bowling, chamber music. And if more people were like that, we'd have less of a problem today."

Rowling unveiled her news in New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday, in answer to the question of whether Dumbledore -- a believer in the prevailing power of love -- had ever fallen in love himself.

"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay," she replied, explaining that Dumbledore fell in love with his brilliant friend Gellert Grindelwald, who later became a powerful dark wizard whom Dumbledore defeated.

In the book that describes their friendship, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", one character says the two "got on like a caldron on fire."

"To have one of the coolest, most respected wizards in history and mentor of Harry Potter as gay, is the bravest move JKR has ever made. I salute her," a fan identified as "Shain" wrote on the Leaky site.

"Deathly Hallows" was the final installment of the Harry Potter series, where an orphan child wizard is pitted against the evil Lord Voldemort.

The series has already courted controversy for its themes of witchcraft, and is on many banned lists.

Dr. Solomon Shapiro, a child and adolescent psychiatrist who heads the Gender and Sexual Orientation Service at Toronto's Hincks-Dellcrest Centre said the revelation could be positive for gays.

"There's a paucity of gay characters in literature, especially in children's literature, which reinforces a belief that being gay is unusual and not normal."

"Having a positive gay role model in a popular children's series can help thousands of young people who are gay, or think they might be gay, come to fully accept themselves as they are."

Rowling, who appears in Toronto on Tuesday, said her books were a plea for tolerance.

"The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry," Rowling said during the Carnegie event.
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