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J K Rowling

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Marty McFly

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here is an artical I found..... :lol: sounds alot like Dr Simon Prichett or Dr Ferris no?

Film director sparks debate over origins of 'Harry Potter'

A Norwegian film director has sparked a debate in Norway over whether JK Rowling really is the enormously successful author who launched the Harry Potter craze, or whether she's just a good actress fronted by multinational commercial interests.

A Norwegian film director has doubts as to whether JK Rowling is really behind the story of Harry Potter.

Nina Grünfeld has her own theory about who or what is behind the global success of Harry Potter.

Film director Nina Grünfeld simply thinks the rags-to-riches story of JK Rowling is too good to be true.

Writing in a commentary in Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten's cultural pages this week, she questioned whether it's really possible for Rowling to have been the sole creative force behind what's become an international book and movie empire.

Grünfeld recounted the stories told about Rowling, where it's claimed the aspiring author was a poor, single mother with a hungry child to feed, who got the idea for Harry Potter while she sat on a delayed train between Manchester and London. With no money for paper or an office, Rowling reportedly started scribbling out the story of Harry Potter on paper napkins picked up in Edinburgh's cafés

Grünfeld called it a "fantastic" story, that "gives hope" not least to single mothers around the world as well as mothers with unrealized dreams and strong purchasing power.

"But can a person be so productive and commercially successful in a media industry where nothing is left to coincidence?" wondered Grünfeld. "Is it possible that a person can write six thick books that are translated into 55 languages and sell more than 250 million copies in less than 10 years? Is it probable that the stories then get filmed and commercially exploited to the degree seen here, without any well-thought-out strategy or highly professional players behind them?"

And then came Grünfeld's provocative question: "Is it possible that JK Rowling exists?" Her own answer: "Well, who do they think they're kidding? Not me!"

Grünfeld then went on to float what she willingly concedes may be a conspiracy theory, that the books instead have been produced by hack writers like those at the syndicate that produced the "Nancy Drew" mystery series for young readers. The author printed on all the books, "Carolyn Keene," never really existed, Grünfeld notes, adding that she thinks Rowling is a product of "a gigantic concern with the names Bloomsbury Publishing plc and Warner Bros" in the concern's ranks.

"I may be both paranoid and conspiratorial, but I can't shake the thought that JK Rowling is a pseudonym along the same lines as Carolyn Keene," wrote Grünfeld, the 36-year-old daughter of a prominent psychiatrist who's been decorated by King Harald. Grünfeld recently completed a highly acclaimed documentary on her father's life as a juvenile Jewish refugee from Slovakia who was sent to Norway in the 1930s, and knows all too well the challenges artists face in securing financing for projects.

"I think the secret behind JK Rowling is guarded more strongly than the entrance to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory," Grünfeld wrote. The truth, she believes, won't emerge until "the market for Harry Potter is saturated, until the actress behind JK Rowling gets tired of her role and not until the real authors behind the pseudonym feel an enormous need for recognition."

'Pure speculation'

Nonsense, reply Norwegian publishers and translators. Torstein Bugge Høverstad, who has translated the "Harry Potter" books into Norwegian, says the books offer evidence that just one author is behind them. He notes how it took three years to get the fourth book finished, and he sees consistent weaknesses in Rowling's writing that no group of hack writers would leave behind.

Tom Dahl of publishing firm Damm, which releases the books in Norway, says he doesn't take Grünfeld's theory seriously.

"This is pure speculation," Dahl told Aftenposten on Thursday. "It's fun to fantasize about such theories, but this one is entirely without facts. We're parking (Grünfeld's theory) here and now."

Øyvind Hagen, head of the first publishing house who had the rights to "Harry Potter" in Norway, Bazar Forlag, laughed at Grünfeld's commentary in Aftenposten. "I met the author (Rowling) a few years ago, and she was decidedly genuine and human, in addition to being a charming and quite special person," Hagan said. "There are actually some people who are very talented and productive."

:)

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  • 5 months later...
"This is pure speculation," Dahl told Aftenposten on Thursday. "It's fun to fantasize about such theories, but this one is entirely without facts. We're parking (Grünfeld's theory) here and now."

I think this is the essential part of the article.

Regardless of who wrote them (be it one or two hundred people), I still enjoy the story immensely. JK Rowling didn't have to be a sob-story to get me hooked.

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This has to take the trophy for the most mundane conspiracy theory. Actually if you read the Harry Potter series (the ones I have read so far anyway) churning out six 'thick' books like those wouldnt be all that difficult, especially when you are writing only about mystical events and how they relate to one another, you can make it up as you go along, you dont have to worry about internal consistency or integrating philosophical worldviews. I think Rowling just hit on a good fiction theme at the right time and *that*, more than anything else, accounts for its immense popularity. The fact that she has gotten millions of kids to read who otherwise wouldnt have is a great added benefit as well.

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I was actually kind of surprised to hear the "sob story" well after I was into the third book in the series. It didn't fit the idea I had in my head of Rowling being some old lady professional children's writer. My only response was, "wow, cool, good for her writing her way to success!"

I think King Harald maybe smacked this psychologist a bit too hard with the ceremonial sword.

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If you believe writing, or any creative process, is the result of some mysterious, mystical and fortuitous inspiration, then it makes sense to conclude that no one person could possibly write several good books. It would seem like winning the lottery six or seven times in as many years.

Prolific writers often face similar acusations. Even active bloggers like Charles Johnson of LGF are regularly accused of being a front for some kind of vast blogging machinery. Because for some people it's hard to believe that other people are not afraid to work in order to produce results.

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  • 1 year later...

I don't know whether I should laugh or cry after reading this. Has our time really come to the assumption that an individual is incapable of creating his or her own success?

As for the question whether a single person could write seven "thick" books fairly quickly...well, the stories are extremely formulaic, and it is a series. I think of the HP books as more one epic than individual books that stand alone (except perhaps for the first, which could).

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  • 3 months later...
Oh wow! I completely agree with this! Why stop at JK rowling? ho says Bill Gates actually did make his own fortune? Couldn't it just be Earl Warren inventing a new man so he could get even more money?

It actually turns out that every success, fortune, and achievement in mankind has been orchestrated by one evil banker hiding deep underground, with his trillions of dollars. The man also single-handedly engineered every major event in history, so he could make more money. None of the historic people we read about are real. In fact, who says anyone is real?

:) God, I can't believe this person scored an article.

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So if one day I publish my comics and happen to become famous, that guy (or those guys) will say it was all an Objectivist conspiracy? :lol:

I can see the 60 minutes episode now:

You've heard of cartoons that promote indecency...that promote homosexuality... that send evil messages when you watch them backward... now, in the latest addition to the cartoon conspiracy to destroy America, Jill's Objectivist Cartoons!

Wallace: Did you kill Kennedy?

Jill: What? No, of course not!

Wallace: Then you were connected to the conspiracy? Is that where you got your funding? How about the Roswell incident? The Watergate cover up? Was Nixon talking to you during those 18 missing minutes?

Jill: This is insane, I'm leaving ...

Wallace: SHE CONFESSED! WE'VE GOT THEM NOW!

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What's worse... has anyone actually SEEN this woman's movies?

I had to sit through "Looking In" during an international film festival and I have NEVER sat through a movie where I constantly hoped I would nod off and fall asleep. That is, until I sat down for Grunfeldt's movie. I can certainly understand how she might fantasize about a whole cabal being behind a commercial success when all she can produce is tepid cinema. Mediocrity seldom believes that anything beyond what they can do is possible.

What's sad is that Nina Grünfeldt hasn't even accumulated enough of a cult following to have some poor soul on Wikipedia dedicate an article to her- that is a sad state of affairs for her, considering Numa Numa boy has his own article.

Don't confuse Nina Grünfeldt the crazy film director from Norway with Nina Grunfeld, a successful writer of books for children born in Britain. It's who Nina Grünfeldt hopes she'll be when she grows up.

One thing I found very telling in the article:

Grünfeld recently completed a highly acclaimed documentary on her father's life as a juvenile Jewish refugee from Slovakia who was sent to Norway in the 1930s, and knows all too well the challenges artists face in securing financing for projects.

Ah, Nina, Nina, Pretty Ballerina... could it be that nobody wants to finance your movies because, as a film director, you are about as tasteful as a bowl of Rakfisk? Could it be that bad artists might have problems getting financed? Of course not! It's a conspiracy!

Edited by kainscalia
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