Powers

It's funny. When I first decided to write this entry, I was going to write about J.K. Rowling and how, even if she isn't the best author there is out there, she still has incredible power to touch people and inspire them. I mean, there are countless stories of kids, especially boys, I think, who hated reading and then read Harry Potter and decided that reading wasn't so bad after all. And they didn't just stop there, they went on to read other books, too. I know there are so many people out there who are bitter about the fact that there are tons of much better fantasy authors who didn't get the recognition J.K. got. There are people who are annoyed that J.K. has taken ideas from other authors and stories without giving them credit. But at the same time, there was something about Harry Potter that kept it up high on the bestseller list. There was something about it that reached out to so many people and, somehow, all those other books did not. Not to this extreme, anyway.

What I'm trying to say is, I saw this movie on The Leaky Cauldron where J.K. Rowling was reading The Half-Blood Prince to a large crowd of kids. I felt this complete and utter awe at the fact that so many people were so, so excited about a book. We might be used to the Harry Potter world or we're sucked in to the worlds of whatever other books we read and may not realize how many people out there just don't read. To see so many people excited, not about a movie, not about a singer, but about a book -- was amazing. Truly amazing.

In one interview I watched, also on The Leaky Cauldron, J.K. Rowling mentioned that it is incredible to see so many fans holding books. Books. If there's one thing J.K. Rowling has given to this world, it is the love of reading. Not many other authors have done the same. And I think that's much more important than how original she is. She hasn't done outright plagiarism, she's just used ideas from books she probably read as a child. And, to be honest, most of her ideas that people accuse her of stealing, she actually took from mythology and much older stories which belong to everyone to use.

To turn this discussion around completely, I am in the middle of watching Matilda on TV and I noticed that Matilda and her family remind me an awful lot of Harry and the Dursleys. Harry is a boy living with his uncle, aunt, and obnoxious cousin, none of whom appreciate him for who he is and for the extraordinary gifts and talents he possesses. Matilda is much the same way. She lives with her father, mother, and obnoxious brother, none of whom appreciate her for who she is and for the extraordinary gifts and talents she possesses.

While living with the Dursleys, Harry discovers he actually has magical powers. Matilda discovers the same thing about herself. The Dursleys punish Harry when he does magic. The Wormwoods punish Matilda when she acts smart. Both families try to squash their gifted member out of their talents. Granted, the rest of the stories are completely different, but the similarities are there - enough to make me wonder if J.K. had Matilda in the back of her mind when creating the Dursleys.

Anyway, I have a feeling this post came off sort of rambly and a bit schizophrenic, but make of it what you will.