At least respect JKR

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 109610

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carla M. Luzzatto" 
<luzzatto at v...> wrote:

MamiBunny:
> I agree with Samnanya about the magnitude of this work.  It is one 
of a kind in attracting so many readers and adoring fans from around 
the world, including people of all ages, who are expecting the next 
book and theorizing about the plot, all while the story is still 
being written.  A work in progress is being examined in detail by 
thousands of people at the same time, on the Internet, in discussion 
groups, in book clubs, at school, etc.  I don't think any author has 
experienced this before.  When Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes' 
adventures in the newspapers, he received many letters from the fans, 
agreeing and disagreeing with the plot.  But not as many as JKR!  And 
when Tolkien wrote "Lord of the Rings", he finished the whole work 
before releasing it.  

Geoff:
Bear in mind though that, in Conan Doyle's day and also in Tolkien's 
day, there was no Internet. I have a suspicion that, if the 
Philosopher's Stone had appeared in, say, 1988, there would probably 
be as much interest as there is today, but the amount of material 
which appears on HPFGU and the many other sites just wouldn't exist 
because there would not be the facilities for such groups. Take 
Tolkien as an example. His fan following really took off in the 1960s 
after the row over the pirated US editions which put put his books 
before the public in a big way, but big fan groups could only really 
interchange ideas via conventions or through fan club magazines etc. 
We have come to expect immediate feedback to what we say because of 
the Net. This is a phenomenon of modern technology and not of the 
gifts of the author.