Harry Potter & the Bible - ?Thirty Per Cent?

[heidit at netbox.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 17555

Richard Abanes wrote:
> ANSWER: Rowling herself says that she studied magic, 
> occultism, and Witchcraft in order to write the books and that up 
> to 1/3 of what she has in her books is real. Sorry. 


Being the research bunny I am, I just *had* to find this quote, since 
Penny is off being hugely pregnant and I didn't want to make her sort 
through her collection of JKR interviews to find this. 
So I went on to NEXIS and searched for the terms "ROWLING" and ("one 
third" OR "thirty! percent") to see if Mr Abanes' statement is 
correct.
And here is what I found - a direct quotation as published in the 
Boston Globe, October 18, 1999
"I have done a healthy amount of research on the subject of folklore 
and the history of magic. As for the magic in the books, about one 
third of it is based on what people used to believe and about two-
thirds I invented. The dementors are creatures I made up, but the 
hippogriff is something people used to believe existed. I have fun 
taking liberties with magic, but no one could ever want to use my 
books as a reference."

In the same article, she is also quoted as saying, "I don't believe 
in magic as it occurs in my books - the wand-waving and spell-casting 
type of magic. ... But I do believe in magic in a figurative sense," 
she said. "For example, learning to read is a kind of magic that 
happens in the lives of children. No one knows how it happens - one 
day a child is trying to decode letters and sounds and the next week 
he or she is reading and understanding sentences. It's a magic that 
is metaphorical." 

In my honest, humble opinion, I believe that *if* Mr Abanes is using 
this interview/quotation as the source for his statement that I 
quoted above, he is mischaracterizing what JKR said. If he's using 
another interview, I'd like the citation to it, please.