Why Rowling Cried Over 'Potter'

[NSMinistries]

MSN Entertainment News

Why Rowling Cried Over 'Potter' (http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=125821)


Why Rowling Cried Over 'Potter'
Jun 18, 2:24 PM EST

LONDON (AP) -- Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling cried after she wrote the scene in which one of the series' main characters dies, she said in a television interview.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth installment in Rowling's wildly popular children's series about a boy wizard, comes out Saturday.

Its plot is a closely guarded secret, but Rowling has said one of the central characters dies in the book. She hasn't even told her husband, Neil Murray, which one it is, she said in a British Broadcasting Corp. interview airing Thursday. The BBC released excerpts in advance.

After writing the death scene, Rowling recalled, "I walked into the kitchen crying and Neil said to me, `What on earth is wrong?' And I said, `I've just killed the person.'"

"And he said, `Well, don't do it then,'" she continued. "And I said, 'Well, it just doesn't work like that.' You are writing children's books, you need to be a ruthless killer."

She said there's a crucial Potter secret yet to be revealed, but gave no hints for eager readers.

"There is one thing that, if anyone guessed, I would be really annoyed, as it is kind of the heart of it all," the author said. "And it kind of explodes everything. And no one's quite got there, but a couple of people have skirted it."

Rowling vehemently rebutted rumors that she suffered from writer's block while creating the hefty volume.

"Just once and for all, for the record, I didn't miss the deadline. Because there was no deadline," she said. "I just produced a quarter of a million words!"

Rowling plans to write seven books total about the adventures of Harry and his friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She told the BBC she has mixed feelings about eventually finishing.

"I do look forward to a post-Harry era in my life, because some of the things that go along with this are not as much fun," she said. "But at the same time, I dread leaving Harry. ... I worked on it so hard for so long ... then it will be over and I think it's going to leave a massive gap."



You are writing children's books, you need to be a ruthless killer."

Ya show those kids how its done. Give me a break...:eek:

[kiwimac]

One of the best parts of Children's literature is that central character's sometimes die, thus reflecting the "real" world in an inconvenient way Hollywood could never manage.

Kiwimac

[Piebald]

/me wept when Aslan was killed on the stone table

[NSMinistries]

Today @ 10:51 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=127779#post127779)
kiwimac:

One of the best parts of Children's literature is that central character's sometimes die, thus reflecting the "real" world in an inconvenient way Hollywood could never manage.

Kiwimac

I would not equate HP to Christian Lit.

[bar Jonah]

Aslan being killed on the stone slab is one thing. The bloody violence of the Harry Potter books is another thing. These observations about the Potter violence should come as no surprise -- it is nothing new. The following is an excerpt from my article about Harry Potter (http://godisnowhere.org/Articles/HarryPotter.htm):

______________________________________________

BLOOD AND GORE: SUITABLE FOR 6 YEARS OLD AND UP

Rowling said in an NPR interview that she doesn't necessarily write her books for children at all, but rather writes books which she would enjoy reading as an adult. She continued, adding that as a child, her reading was never censored by her parents in any way, and she doesn't believe parents today should censor what their children read at all, either.

Some examples of gore include her description of a man drinking blood from the neck of a dead unicorn, the detailed description of the creation of a Hand of Glory, Nearly-Headless Nick (who was killed in a botched execution, his neck severed by 45 whacks with a blunt ax, his head frequently flops over, held on only by a thin flap of skin and muscle), two "good" role-model adults putting a powerful firecracker in the mouth of a small lizard and laughing as it explodes, a group of headless horsemen playing hockey with a human head, a bloody eyeball that transforms into a bloody hand which crawls across the floor like a crab, a shy and innocent child who is forced by the professors to disembowel a barrel-full of horned toads," innocent people being tortured to death, tortured to the point of madness, Harry's friend being murdered right in front of him, the brutal torture of countless other non-magical people strictly for fun, a man severing his own hand to put into a cauldron, slashing Harry and draining his blood into vials... A dark voice in Harry's mind says, "Come... come to me... Let me tear you... Let me kill you... rip... tear... kill... soo hungry... for so long... kill... time to kill... I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!"

Especially disturbing is one book's description of the harvesting of mandrake roots for a potion. Real mandrake root has the shape of a human body, and legend has it that it shrieks when pulled out of the ground. But in the Potter books, they look like actual human babies. Here's what the book says:

Professor Sprout... grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard. Harry let out a gasp of surprise...

Instead of roots, a small, muddy and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.

Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost...

"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries don't kill yet... However, they will knock you out for several hours."

Professor Sprout had made it look extremely easy, but it wasn't. The Mandrakes didn't like coming out of the earth, but they didn't seem to want to go back in either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their teeth; Harry spent ten whole minutes trying to squash a particularly fat one into a pot.

These Mandrakes are later used to create a potion. How they are "processed" into potions is less clear, but even left to the imagination, it is a violent and unpleasant prospect to say the least, considering they are little babies screaming and kicking.

Rowling confirms that, "the books are getting darker." The fourth in the series, "is the book in which the deaths start. I always planned it this way. It's become a bit of an idee' fixe with me. I have to follow it just the way I wanted to write it, and no one is going to knock me off course."

[Piebald]

These Mandrakes are later used to create a potion. How they are "processed" into potions is less clear, but even left to the imagination, it is a violent and unpleasant prospect to say the least, considering they are little babies screaming and kicking.

You are correct about the violence save for this part. I responded to this in my response to your article:


As for the mandrakes getting processed into potions -- it's assumed that they are not comparable to human beings in essence, they only look like human beings. Furthermore, the "babies" were not ground up, but would have been "adult" mandrakes since Professor Sprout had to wait for them to "mature" before she could use them. I really see no difference between this and eating gingerbread cookies shaped like men.

[bar Jonah]

That's funny... I've never eaten a gingerbread man who writhes and screams in terror. :eek:

[Piebald]

two "good" role-model adults putting a powerful firecracker in the mouth of a small lizard and laughing as it explodes

Could you explain which scene this is from? I have a terrible memory but I don't remember what part of the book this is from... unless you mean the part where the Salamander (a fire elemental lizard) makes popping sounds like a firecracker.

her description of a man drinking blood from the neck of a dead unicorn

Yes, that was the evil villain - and it disturbed me as well. Her message was that you have to be truly selfish to kill something as beautiful and defenseless as a unicorn for personal gain, which is what the villain was doing.

a group of headless horsemen playing hockey with a human head

:lol: That was the headless hunt scene. A Scene in which ghosts who have lost their heads toss their ghostly heads back and forth in a game. I guess that can be disturbing, but it didn't look like anything that I couldn't imagine seeing on Casper or a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

a bloody eyeball that transforms into a bloody hand which crawls across the floor like a crab

Which scene was this from? :huh:

a shy and innocent child who is forced by the professors to disembowel a barrel-full of horned toads,"

Yes, the villanous Professor Snape was torturing Neville by making him disect horned toads for a magical potion. This is disturbing to people who love animals and oppose disection. I don't know how you could describe Neville as "innocent" though :huh:

innocent people being tortured to death, tortured to the point of madness

Which is not described as a scene in the book but is said to have happened by the evil marauding death eaters. The People tortured to the point of Madness are Neville's parents. This is not something done in jest, but to add background to why Neville was raised by his Grandmother. This is not appropriate reading material for someone under 12, though.

Harry's friend being murdered right in front of him

The worst thing in the series. He dies instantly (as if that's any consolation) and is killed by the evil Voldemort. Rowling has said that she will not water down what she calls "evil" -- that evil is real and it is deadly, but still I don't see how this is proper for anyone under 13.


"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what hapepned to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."


the brutal torture of countless other non-magical people strictly for fun

By the Wizarding equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan, and not graphically.

a man severing his own hand to put into a cauldron

One of the villains, yes, and truly graphic. Another reason why the book shouldn't be read by anyone under the 13-14 age group. I can only imagine what nightmares a 7 year old sitting down to read this book would get.

A dark voice in Harry's mind says, "Come... come to me... Let me tear you... Let me kill you... rip... tear... kill... soo hungry... for so long... kill... time to kill... I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!"

Though Harry thought it was in his mind, it wasn't. It was a monster only Harry could hear.

[Piebald]

Where did it say they were screaming in terror? Well, I guess that could be why they're screaming.

The Mandrake is a mythological plant - ya pluck it and it utters a cry that kills everyone who hears it. The reason people pluck it is because it has powerful restorative abilities, including the ability to save all of Harry's friends who have been petrified by the monster in the second book.

It's not as if there's a scene in the book where all the wizards gather and throw babies crying for their mommies into a shredder.
:hrm:

Again, when they were processed they were "adults", and they barely pass for humanoid (as the picture I posted shows). It's assumed that they don't have "minds" or are relatable to human beings in any other way than vague appearance.

[Piebald]

And Let's Be Consistant Here:


"Muzzle him!" said the Witch. And even now, as they worked about his face putting on the muzzle, one bite from his jaws would have cost two or three of them their hands. But he never moved. And this seemed to enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those who had been afraid to come near him even after he was bound began to find their courage, and for a few minutes the two girls could not even see him - so thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd of creatures kicking him, hitting him, spitting on him, jeering at him.

At last the rabble had had enough of this. They began to drag the bound and muzzled Lion to the Stone Table, some pulling and some pushing. He was so huge that even when they got him there it took all their efforts to hoist him on to the surface of it. Then there was more tying and tightening of cords.

"The cowards! The cowards!" sobbed Susan. "Are they still afraid of him, even now?"

When once Aslan had been tied (and tied so that he was really a mass of cords) on the flat stone, a hush fell on the crowd. Four Hags, holding four torches, stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch bared her arms as she had bared them the previous night when it had been Edmund instead of Aslan. Then she began to whet her knife. It looked to the children, when the gleam of the torchlight fell on it, as if the knife were made of stone, not of steel, and it was of a strange and evil shape.

As last she drew near. She stood by Aslan's head. Her face was working and twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still quiet, neither angry nor afraid, but a little sad. Then, just before she gave the blow, she stooped down and said in a quivering voice,

"And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die."

The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They couldn't bear to look and had covered their eyes.

[Sher]

Today @ 04:04 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=128039#post128039)
RightIdea:

That's funny... I've never eaten a gingerbread man who writhes and screams in terror. :eek:

Oh, Honey ... let me send you the recipe :wink:


:eww:

[Piebald]

:lol:

Run, run, as fast as you can

[Robyn Banks]

RightIdea:
Some examples of gore include her description of a man drinking blood from the neck of a dead unicorn, the detailed description of the creation of a Hand of Glory, Nearly-Headless Nick (who was killed in a botched execution, his neck severed by 45 whacks with a blunt ax, his head frequently flops over, held on only by a thin flap of skin and muscle), two "good" role-model adults putting a powerful firecracker in the mouth of a small lizard and laughing as it explodes, a group of headless horsemen playing hockey with a human head, a bloody eyeball that transforms into a bloody hand which crawls across the floor like a crab, a shy and innocent child who is forced by the professors to disembowel a barrel-full of horned toads," innocent people being tortured to death, tortured to the point of madness, Harry's friend being murdered right in front of him, the brutal torture of countless other non-magical people strictly for fun, a man severing his own hand to put into a cauldron, slashing Harry and draining his blood into vials... A dark voice in Harry's mind says, "Come... come to me... Let me tear you... Let me kill you... rip... tear... kill... soo hungry... for so long... kill... time to kill... I smell blood... I SMELL BLOOD!
Cool! I may even get around to reading one of these Harry Potter books some day!!

In the meantime, I'll just continue to be amused by the preciousness of some of the fundies and PCers who issue denouncements from on high for children's entertainment in the form of good old fashioned gore and adventure.

And hey - who's that on the cover of the latest Harry Potter book?
http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=127557#post127557

RightIdea - you sly dog!! :rofl:

[bar Jonah]

Well shoot, Robyn, I've never had any problem at all with adults and older teens reading the books. My problem is that they openly admit they market Harry Potter to kids as young as 6 yrs old. And that, I believe, is very wrong for a variety of reasons.

[Robyn Banks]

RightIdea:
Well shoot, Robyn, I've never had any problem at all with adults and older teens reading the books. My problem is that they openly admit they market Harry Potter to kids as young as 6 yrs old. And that, I believe, is very wrong for a variety of reasons.
There's nothing like being scared out of your wits by a book or TV show when your six. I remember clearly being terrified by a TV show called "Worzel Gummage" when I was 6. It featured one of the Doctor Who actors.

Of course, I got over it. :smile:

Robyn Banks

PS. But did you like your book cover? I put a lot of work into it!

[Piebald]

Yeah, I agree six years old is waaaay too young to read even the first book IMHO. I think they should read them as Harry ages in the book. That is, 11 years for the first book, 12 years for the second book, etc.

[kiwimac]

Worzel Gummidge! Now there's a blast from the past, along with Paulus the gnome & Gigantor!

Kiwimac

[Aravis]

I must admit that I am so emotionally attached to a few Potter characters that I am very, very nervous about whom Rowling has killed. Of course, I would thoroughly enjoy crying over the death, myself.

As far as ages for reading Potter, I do not think that a child who is too young to read them to himself or herself should have them read to him or her, but most emotionally stable children who have the reading skills can probably handle it pretty well. If I remember correctly, children are much more mentally tough than adults give them credit for. In fact, I'm fairly certain I am more emotionally affected by literature now than I was when I was younger. Unfortunately, I'm still usually a block of ice.

[Piebald]

/ot Aravis, love the name!!

[Aravis]

Thanks, Hamster! It's the first time I've used this particular alias; I felt like doing something different on this board.

I guess you noticed the reference to C.S. Lewis's A Horse and His Boy... Speaking of which, to keep back on topic, I agree with an earlier poster that Aslan's death scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was as upsetting as anything in Harry Potter so far. However, it was certainly not as gory. Much as I love Potter, I must admit that the books are a little rough,especially in the last few chapters of Goblet of Fire. I will, however, still maintain that most children can handle roughness.

[Piebald]

Yeah, the bottom part of Goblet of Fire was intense... I guess ability to read it comfortably varies age to age. I know when I was 5 and 6 years old I was reading really scary stories... of course I also got scared of the end of Neverending Story so go figure :doh:

[Epoetker]

a bloody eyeball that transforms into a bloody hand which crawls across the floor like a crab

Which scene was this from?

Boggart, Prisoner of Azkaban, scene where Professor Lupin was teaching the kids how to defend against it, since it would take the shape of the things they most fear.

Might I add that riddikulus is the best rejoinder I can offer to RI at this point for continually mining his own article for the same tired arguments devoid of context. Investing of insignificant objects with significance not tied to context or experience is idolatry, RI. That is one legacy of previous witchcraft that may need more dealing with. Teach your kids to confront sin head on, rather than cutting themselves off from anything which might be remotely connected to it, and they will be fore-armed against the dangerous elements much better than anyone who was simply kept away from them. Better the light piercing the darkness than continually dancing away from those trapped within it.

[brother vinny]

Why did Rowling cry over Book 5 of Harry Potter? You mean it wasn't because of the carpal tunnel syndrome she must have acquired while writing it? Nor over the hernia she must have brought on herself by lugging the manuscript to the publisher?

(Sorry, I'm reading the book now. It's not the longest book I've ever read [that singular honor belongs to Stephen King, for his complete and uncut version of The Stand], but at 870 pages, it's the longest "children's" novel I've ever seen!)

[kiwimac]

870 pages, Bwahahahahahaha, 1 page ... 2 pages ... 3 pages...Bwahahahahahaha, I am the Count!

Man o Man!:ahem:

[brother vinny]

You guys down under get Seasme Street, too, huh?

[Piebald]

I already finished it -- it was fantastic!!!

[Rubens]

In the words of Aussie comedy man Shaun McCaliffe

If JK Rowling, (or J. Ro, as she likes to be called) cried after killing off a fictional character, how's she gonna go when she kills a real person??

[kiwimac]

Brother Vinny,

Yup, I like the Count but GROVER rules!


Kiwimac