JKR the writer vs. JKR the person RE: [the_old_crowd] Re: Exceeds Expectations???

[Eileen Rebstock]

Kneasy:
> And digging into my failing memory it seems to me that once a year Jo
> does a little something for the fan-base: a webcast, a broadcast, just
to
> keep 'em entertained and to let 'em know they  haven't been forgotten.
> Seem to remember Springtime (March, April-ish) has seen that sort of
> event before.

*nods* I figured she was probably doing it mostly for the kids and
teenagers. I never actually got around to doing it myself, figuring that
the results wouldn't be too illuminating. 

In general, though, has anyone else noticed that Rowling is a lot less
hard-nosed about her imaginary world outside the books than in them? The
wizarding world almost seems sensible when she's doing interviews,
answering questions, or writing secondary canon stuff like 'Fantastic
Beasts.' Then you get into the books and it's all very dysfunctional,
anarchic etc.

For example, I can't imagine that JKR *outside the books* would endorse
officials taking bribes, yet Arthur Weasley gets tickets to the World
Cup in return for not prosecuting Otto Bagman, and the narrative view of
Arthur takes this as a commonplace not worth remark.

I enjoy her books for this sort of quirk, and am usually less interested
in the didactic secondary material, though I don't object to her doing
it on her spare time. As long as it doesn't smooth over the books, which
it hasn't so far, imho.

As to the question of whether it takes away from time writing her books,
as a constant scribbler myself, I'd say that one can't be writing all
the time, and one thing or another takes up one's spare time. If it's
not writing diary entries or WOMBATs tests, it's doing crosswords or
writing out every word you can think of that begins with a certain three
letters (two of my favourite bedtime activities.)

Eileen