World Building And The Potterverse

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 167633


va32h:
> >> I certainly don't think she finds it insulting to be considered a
children's author, if that is what you mean.
> >> <snip>
> >
> > Betsy Hp:
> > I think it was more that she didn't like the idea that her books
were *merely* children's books, in that they were somehow lesser than.
 I can't recall the quote, but I think she said something to the
effect of not coming at the series as if she were writing children's
books. (And now that I think on it, I think she did specifically say
she's not at all insulted to be called a children's author.)
> 
> Magpie:
> Being somebody who also hates the idea that books written for
children are supposed to somehow be lesser than books for adults, I
believe what she said was that she just wrote the story she wanted to
write and it turned out to be a children's book. In the past people
have used that quote to try to prove they're not children's books, but
of course she's actually validating that's exactly what they are. If
they weren't they wouldn't be published by the people who published
them. As the series has gone on they've become YA. <snip>

Carol responds:
I'm not sure which interviews the three of you have in mind, but right
before OoP came out, JKR was referring to herself as a writer of
children's books. Here are the relevant excerpts from the BBC
Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman from 19 June 2003:

JEREMY PAXMAN: Let's talk a little bit about the next book. Harry and
Ron and Hermione are all going to be older. How are they going to change?

JK ROWLING: Quite a lot because I find it quite sinister, the way
that, looking back at the Famous Five books for example, I think 21
adventures or 20 or something, they never had a hormonal impulse -
except that Anne was sometimes told that she would make someone a good
little wife whenever she unlaid the picnic things.

JEREMY PAXMAN: But that's the usual pattern of children's books isn't
it? Swallows and Amazons is the same isn't it? The children never age.
But your....

JK ROWLING: And it reaches its apotheosis in Peter Pan obviously,
where it is quite explicit, and I find that very sinister. I had a
very forthright letter from a woman who had heard me say that Harry
was going to have his first date or something and she said "Please
don't do that, that's awful. I want these books to be a world where my
children can escape to." She literally said "free from hurt and fear"
and I'm thinking "Have you read the books? What are you talking about
free from hurt and fear? Harry goes through absolute hell every time
he returns to school." So I think that a bit of snogging would
alleviate matters. <snip>

JK ROWLING: Yeah. I went into the kitchen having done it....

JEREMY PAXMAN: What, killed this person?

JK ROWLING: Yeah. Well I had re-written the death, re-written it and
that was it. It was definitive. And the person was definitely dead.
And I walked into the kitchen crying and Neil said to me, "What on
earth is wrong?" and I said, "Well, I've just killed the person". Neil
doesn't know who the person is. But I said, "I've just killed the
person. And he said, "Well, don't do it then." I thought, a doctor you
know....and I said "Well it just doesn't work like that. You are
writing children's books, you need to be a ruthless killer." 

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2003/0619-bbcnews-paxman.htm

So JKR clearly considers her books to be "children's books," and she
has a clear idea of what they should and should not be. They should
include "hurt and fear," but they should include "snogging" as well
when the kids are adolescents. And they should included death with no
holds barred. A children's author has to be "a ruthless killer."

Evidently, she doesn't make the "children's books," "young adult
books" distinction that Magpie is making. And she clearly disapproves
of children's books that don't allow their characters to suffer the
pangs and awkwardness of adolescence.

I didn't search for any additional quotes on the subject since I think
that these, which refer to a book in which Harry is fifteen and his
best friends turn sixteen suffices to make the point.

Carol, noting that this is the same interview in which JKR references
her carefully planted clues and red herrings, indicating that she also
sees the books to some extent as mysteries or detective stories