JKR backlash

[ftah3]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Hella Fakhro" <hfakhro at n...> wrote:
> Interesting point, Al. I hesitate to compare JKR to Barbara 
Streisand or Jennifer Lopez <bg> just because I don't think she's 
*saturating* the media with herself as much as they do. I believe she 
only did one TV special (the BBC one) but I may be wrong.<


Also, generally the celebritie's publicist and those wanting 
interviews/potential publicity features get together, work things 
out, and then the celebrity is told "Go here, do this, I don't care 
that it eats up the next three months of your waking life."  As 
Aberforth's_Goat pointed out, she's done much much less publicity 
stuff lately than she did earlier ~ probably what happened is that 
being new to the business she didn't know how to say no before, and 
now she does.  (Kind of like, she had to go along with naming the 
first book differently for American publication because she didn't 
have the professional weight to say no.)

> The merchandise is another question - the saving grace is I suppose 
that although she gets a lot of say into what is made and what isn't, 
she doesn't get the last word.<

I doubt she has much at all to say.  Probably token input.  WB will 
do what it thinks is most marketable, because they can.  They legally 
have rights to do that.

> The other thing I want to ask myself is, why do we have these 
expectations from her? She *never* promised a book a year, and she's 
made it very clear that she doesn't know when book 5 will be done. 
Perhaps the impatience is due to our own expectations that we have 
put on her, none that she promised. Perhaps it is the fandom, the 
daily discussion of everything in the Potter books that is making us 
crazy with anticipation. I think she deserves to work on something 
frivolous, like a movie of her book; in fact I would prefer she does 
something like that than burn out while continuously writing, 
writing, writing about Harry if she's *not* enthusiastic about it, so 
that when she turns her attention back to him she will produce 
something outstanding rather than something forced.< 

Ditto!  (I know ditto's are persona non grata on these lists, but 
this is a really *fervent* ditto!)

In fact, I really hope that the delay indicates that she really is 
*not* letting public opinion sway her writing.  I.e., not listening 
to gripes and speculation and expectation, which could potentially 
cause her to doubt herself and to seriously be afraid about what 
would happen if book 5 flopped.  Her books are a really neat gift, a 
great by-product of her talent, but not something I feel entitled to 
nor entitled to demand of her on *my* timetable rather than hers. I 
don't mind waiting.  

And I've lost my train of thought because a co-worker popped in.  
LOL.  Anyhoo.

Mahoney