transfer students

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 38240

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "nuriaobradors" <nobradors at h...> wrote:
> Grey Wolf wrote:
> 
> > JKR was heavily pressed by movie directors and publishers to 
> include an 
> > "American transfer student" in Hogwarts, because they felt it 
would 
> > make the books more attractive to American children (that was way 
> back, 
> > when she started to be famous). JKR, obviously, put her foot down 
> with 
> > her characteristic strenght, and no transfer students have been 
> > included.
 
 Nuri:

> Is this true?! Bloody businessmen! Good literature is obviously not 
> in their vocabulary... I know *I* would stand up to any "more-
> attractive-to-whatever-market" suggestion they made me about MY 
> story. 

Grey Wolf:

> >I probably expressed the idea the wrong way: JKR does not say 
> > she hates transfer students in general, only she doesn't want 
> >transfer 
> > students in Hogwarts at this particular time, 

Nuri:
 
> Or we could rather say, what she doesn't want is *to be told* to 
take 
> a foreign student ;-)

I don't think that being told what to do is any part of it. What JKR 
*wants* is that Harry Potter remains being the good story. Having a 
transfer-student included in a story just for the sake of having one 
simply isn't good storytelling! It's a matter of following 'kill-your-
darling' principle: An author might love an idea or a sentence, but 
if it doesn't fit in the story, it must go.

The purpose of details is to create atmosphere and to give 
foreshadowings. To show how things are instead of telling so...

-- Finwitch