[HPFGU-OTChatter] Of human errors

[JC/TsuKata]

>
>  Carol:
>
> Having just made a pretty big blunder on the main list, mistaking
> comments relating to Eileen and Tobias Snape for comments relating to
> Andromeda and Ted Tonks, mentioned in the previous paragraph of the
> post, I now have increased sympathy for JKR as a human being capable
> of error. I can't remember exactly how old her youngest children are
> now, but I believe that Mackenzie (sp?) is about a year old and David
> about two, and she also has an older daughter, Jessica, about ten (?),
> as well as a husband and the usual family obligations like paying
> bills and so forth. All that plus the pressures of being a celebrity
> and producing a much-anticipated work on a deadline.
>
> Sandy:
> It is statements like this that make me so furious. Since when is having family responsibilities a free pass for doing a crappy job? My company's policy is: You leave your personal problems and life at the door when you walk in. I have family responsibilities and have to pay the bills, and with very little money I might add, but that does not give me a free pass at work. 
TsuKata:

I'm with Sandy here.  For starters, I'm sure that JKR can hire a nanny, 
as well as an accountant to take care of her bills.  But even going on 
the assumption that with all those muggle-ish things taken care of by 
the scads of money she has, she has stress in her life, it's no excuse. 
As someone else pointed out in a subthread, I think Carol (OP) may have 
felt some humility but is also unfairly comparing a personal mistake 
with a professional error.

Now, I have no problems with gaping plot holes.  I'm a Star Trek fan 
after all, and it has its share!  What I have trouble with is that JKR 
seems very arrogant about her gaping plot holes in interviews.  She 
blames them on prying fans.  She says that she carefully worded the 
prophecy, and it's bloody incoherent when put up against the plot of 
DH.  I'd be much happier if she just said "Hey, I've written seven 
incredibly long books in a short period of time, and if you saw the plot 
holes we caught at the last moment, you'd be thankful that we only left 
in the ones that we did."  Instead, it's like she's angry we have the 
audacity to query her work.

I think it's natural that with a work this large, there will be gaps.  
There were gaps in LotR, and Tolkien had years to edit, plus a mind like 
a steel trap.  I don't think it's natural to treat those gaps with the 
flippancy that JKR has.

--TsuKata