Interviste della Rowling.

Io intanto procedo a inserire.

Family Education Summer 1999 Harry Potter Author Works Her Magic Katy Abel
Standing Room Only (La traduzione è QUI)

She was due any minute. The cluster of kids outside the main school entrance bobbed in anticipation, their Harry Potter books clutched tightly. Dotting the crowd were a handful of police officers. They were brought in as a precaution amidst rumors of a parental protest in this affluent Boston suburb over a lack of tickets.

Inside, moments later, the capacity crowd was ready. One of a dozen handlers from the publishing company stepped forth to announce "the rules" for book signings by J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter series. Two books only for signing, no personalization of autographs, and no questions.

"There won't be time to talk to her, to tell her all the things you want to tell her," a woman at the podium warned gently, as some young fans groaned.
But then, there she was, walking on stage as flashbulbs popped and cheers went up. The author of what is likely the most sensational children's book series in publishing history leaned against the podium chewing gum, fashionably dressed in a long charcoal gray blazer and knee-high black boots with stacked heels.

J.K. Rowling on the Record

As she stepped up to the podium, the creator of Harry Potter said with a touch of regret, "I'm afraid we haven't got a lot of time today. So what if you ask me questions, and I answer them? All right, then?" Rowling then fielded the following questions:

Q: How many words in the first Harry Potter book?

A: Eighty six thousand, nine hundred and something. See, I DO know! It wasn't a bad question; it was a perfectly good one!

Q: How many Harry Potter books will there be?

A: There will be seven in total. Oh, you look happy to hear that. I'm so glad! Harry will come of age at 17 in the final book.


Q: What are you going to call the fourth book?

A: If you've been on the Internet and seen that it's called Harry Potter and the Quidditch World Cup, that's a lie. But I don't want to give it away.
Q: Why did you sell the movie rights?

A: The reason I sold it to Warner is that they've given me quite a lot of input, and the way they're talking about doing it now, it'll be a really good film. I am, of course, still nervous they're going to make my characters do things I don't want them to do.

Q: Who's your favorite character besides Harry Potter?

A: It's very hard to choose. It's fun to write about Snape because he's a deeply horrible person. Hagrid is someone I'd love to meet.
Q: How do you come up with names?

A: Some I make up. Some mean something. Dumbledore is olde English for bumblebee. I thought I made up Hogwarts, but recently a friend said, 'Remember we saw lilies in Kew gardens (a garden in London.)' Apparently there are lilies there called Hogwarts. I'd forgotten!

Q: Will there be a Harry Potter TV show?

A: No, that's just a rumor. At the moment there's only going to be a film. I've had some very weird offers. A margarine company wanted to put Harry on its margarine if you can believe it.

Harry Potter's Fans and Foes
"I think it's just as exciting as meeting Pedro Martinez, and I'm a baseball fan!" said 11 year-old Zach, immediately following his close encounter with J.K. Rowling. 10 year-old Olivia was equally thrilled.
"She blew a kiss at me," she beamed.
"This beats Pokémon any day," said one mother of two.
But in several Southern states, the tales of wizardry that have captivated kids have alarmed some parents. In South Carolina, the State Board of Education has been asked to review whether Potter books belong in the classroom.
"The books have a serious tone of death, hate and lack of respect," one parent told the board.
In Marietta, Georgia, an elementary school principal has removed the Potter series from a fifth grade classroom, questioning their appropriateness. But elsewhere, the majority of parents seemed delighted to find their children hooked to a book in the age of Nintendo.
"This is a kid's phenomenon," said Gladys, mother of two avid Potter fans. "That matters, because it shows that when left to their own devices, children chose a piece of literature that embodies great values!"




Amazon UK ca. 1999 (La traduzione è QUI)

Magic, Mystery, and Mayhem: An Interview with J.K. Rowling

Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in stolen moments at a cafe table. Fortunately, Harry Potter rescued her! In this Amazon.co.uk interview, Rowling discusses the birth of our hero, the Manchester hotel where Quidditch was born, and how she might have been a bit like Hermione when she was 11.

Amazon.co.uk: Did you want to be an author when you were younger?

Jo Rowling: Yes, I've wanted to be an author as long as I can remember. English was always my favorite subject at school, so why I went on to do a degree in French is anyone's guess.

Amazon.co.uk: How old were you when you started to write, and what was your first book?

Rowling: I wrote my first finished story when I was about 6. It was about a rabbit called Rabbit. Very imaginative. I've been writing ever since.

Amazon.co.uk: Why did you choose to be an author?

Rowling: If someone asked for my recipe for happiness, step one would be finding out what you love doing most in the world and step two would be finding someone to pay you to do it. I consider myself very lucky indeed to be able to support myself by writing.

Amazon.co.uk: Do you have any plans to write books for adults?

Rowling: My first two novels--which I never tried to get published--were for adults. I suppose I might write another one, but I never really imagine a target audience when I'm writing. The ideas come first, so it really depends on the idea that grabs me next!

Amazon.co.uk: How long does it take you to write a book?

Rowling: My last book--the third in the Harry series--took about a year to write, which is pretty fast for me. If I manage to finish the fourth Harry book by the summer, which is my deadline, it will be my fastest yet--about eight months.

Amazon.co.uk: Where did the ideas for the Harry Potter books come from?

Rowling: I've no idea where ideas come from and I hope I never find out, it would spoil the excitement for me if it turned out I just have a funny little wrinkle on the surface of my brain which makes me think about invisible train platforms.

Amazon.co.uk: How do you come up with the names of your characters?

Rowling: I invented some of the names in the Harry books, but I also collect strange names. I've gotten them from medieval saints, maps, dictionaries, plants, war memorials, and people I've met!

Amazon.co.uk: Are your characters based on people you know?

Rowling: Some of them are, but I have to be extremely careful what I say about this. Mostly, real people inspire a character, but once they are inside your head they start turning into something quite different. Professor Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart both started as exaggerated versions of people I've met, but became rather different once I got them on the page. Hermione is a bit like me when I was 11, though much cleverer.

Amazon.co.uk: Are any of the stories based on your life, or on people you know?

Rowling: I haven't consciously based anything in the Harry books on my life, but of course that doesn't mean your own feelings don't creep in. When I reread chapter 12 of the first book, "The Mirror of Erised," I saw that I had given Harry lots of my own feelings about my own mother's death, though I hadn't been aware of that as I had been writing.
Amazon.co.uk: Where did the idea for Quidditch come from?

Rowling: I invented Quidditch while spending the night in a very small room in the Bournville Hotel in Didsbury, Manchester. I wanted a sport for wizards, and I'd always wanted to see a game where there was more than one ball in play at the same time. The idea just amused me. The Muggle sport it most resembles is basketball, which is probably the sport I enjoy watching most. I had a lot of fun making up the rules and I've still got the notebook I did it in, complete with diagrams, and all the names for the balls I tried before I settled on Snitch, Bludgers, and Quaffle.

Amazon.co.uk: Where did the ideas for the wizard classes and magic spells come from?

Rowling: I decided on the school subjects very early on. Most of the spells are invented, but some of them have a basis in what people used to believe worked. We owe a lot of our scientific knowledge to the alchemists!

Amazon.co.uk: What ingredients do you think all the Harry Potter books need?

Rowling: I never really think in terms of ingredients, but I suppose if I had to name some I'd say humor, strong characters, and a watertight plot. Those things would add up to the kind of book I enjoy reading myself. Oh, I forgot scariness--well, I never set out to make people scared, but it does seem to creep in along the way.

Amazon.co.uk: Do you write by hand or on a computer?

Rowling: I still like writing by hand. Normally I do a first draft using pen and paper, and then do my first edit when I type it onto my computer. For some reason, I much prefer writing with a black pen than a blue one, and in a perfect world I'd always use "narrow feint" writing paper. But I have been known to write on all sorts of weird things when I didn't have a notepad with me. The names of the Hogwarts Houses were created on the back of an aeroplane sick bag. Yes, it was empty.

Amazon.co.uk: What books do you enjoy reading?

Rowling: My favorite writer is Jane Austen and I've read all her books so many times I've lost count. My favorite living writer is Roddy Doyle, who I think is a genius. I think they do similar things--create fully rounded characters, often without much or indeed any physical description, examine normal human behavior in a very unsentimental and yet touching way--and, of course, they're FUNNY.

Amazon.co.uk: What books did you read as a child? Have these influenced your writing in any way?

Rowling: It is always hard to tell what your influences are. Everything you've seen, experienced, read, or heard gets broken down like compost in your head and then your own ideas grow out of that compost. Three books I read as a child do stand out in my memory, though. One is The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, which was probably my favorite book when I was younger. The second is Manxmouse by Paul Gallico, which is not Gallico's most famous book, but I think it's wonderful. The third is Grimble, by Clement Freud. Grimble is one of funniest books I've ever read, and Grimble himself, who is a small boy, is a fabulous character. I'd love to see a Grimble film. As far as I know, these last two fine pieces of literature are out of print, so if any publishers ever read this, could you please dust them off and put them back in print so other people can read them?




Edited by Ida59 - 30/8/2012, 10:25

© Barnes&Noble.com, SEPTEMBER 8, 1999

BarnesAndNoble.com Chat On Wednesday, September 8th, bn.com welcomed J. K. Rowling to discuss HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN and her other bestselling Harry Potter books.

Good afternoon, J. K. Rowling! (Well, I suppose it's late evening for you in England.) Welcome to bn.com. I can't tell you how excited we are to have you in our Auditorium. How are you?
I'm very well and very excited to be here.
Where does your insight into young boys come from?
From inside myself. I've been writing about Harry for six months before I stopped and asked myself why he was a boy and not a girl, because I'm obviously a female, but it was too late -- Harry was too real for me to change. And I liked him too much by that time.

How long did it take you to write the books?
THE SORCERER'S STONE took five years to finish, but during that time I was working full-time as a teacher, and I was also planning the whole series of Harry books. CHAMBER OF SECRETS took two years, and AZKABAN took one year. They're getting faster to write because of a kind of snowball effect. I know the characters very well by now. And the plots are fully worked out.

Jo, I want to say a big thank you for making me feel 12 again and bringing me so much joy when I read your books. I have a few questions: (1) How do you keep track of all the strange names in the world of Harry Potter that you created from scratch? Do you compile a list of characters as you go along, or did you already have a clear idea from Book 1? (2) Did you do any substantial research on wizardry and witchcraft when you were writing these books? You've quite convinced a lot of us that Hogwarts and the world of wizards and muggles do exist! Thanks again. Michelle, age 23.
It is wonderful to hear that I've knocked 11 years off someone's age. I had nearly all of the characters worked out, including names, for all seven books by the time I finished Book 1, but I do change names sometimes. I like to play around with names, and I collect unusual ones from all sorts of sources, like maps, books of Saints, war memorials, and some names I just invent myself. And, yes, I have done research on witchcraft and wizardry, but I tend only to use things when they fit my plot, and most of the magic in the books is invented by me.
This is probably a very American question, but how do you pronounce "Hermoine"?

It's pronounced: Her-my-oh-nee.

I have seen some amazing fan work by kids online, like drawings and paintings of Harry and fan fiction. Do you ever go online to see the web pages created for Harry?

Yes, I do. And I have been staggered by the response. I only recently found the web pages devoted to Harry, and it was like Christmas --Christmas in August.

You've said in interviews that there will be casualties in the Harry Potter series. Now, everyone at a web site I visit says someone (probably Hagrid) will die in Book 4. Will someone die or is this a terrible rumor? I love Hagrid!
It is true that there will be deaths in Book 4 for the first time. It is likely that the reader will only care about one of the deaths. I can't say who it is, but I have certainly never told anyone that it's Hagrid -- hint, hint.

Ms. Rowling: Are you helping out on the movie at all? Do you have an idea when cast auditions may be? (Sorry, I know that has nothing to do with PRISONER OF AZKABAN, but no one will give me straight answers!) Thank you very very much!
Yes, I have script approval on the movie. And no, unfortunately, I have no influence on casting.

In PRISONER OF AZKABAN, Professor Dumbledore mentions Professor Trelawney's "second true prediction." What was Professor Trelawney's first true prediction?

I love a perceptive reader! Professor Trelawney's first prediction was a very important one. And you will find out in due course what it was, but I'm not going to reveal it at this stage. Sorry.

Is Harry Potter based on anyone you know? What will you do or write after the seventh book?

No, Harry came completely out of my own head, so I suppose he must have a lot of me in him. Although Hermoine is a more faithful portrait of me when I was younger. After I finish the seventh book I will cry because it will feel as though someone died. I will have been writing about Harry for 13 years when I finish Book 7. And then I will write something different.

What is Harry's middle name?
James, after his father.

Hello! Will Sirius ever be proven innocent? Or have you not decided yet? Thank you very much!!
I have decided, but if I answer it gives away something quite important in the plot, so I'd rather not...however, Sirius will be back in future books.

Without giving away any plot details, can you tell us if we might expect to hear any more from Crookshanks in future Harry Potter books? He seems to be a very smart cat!

You're right. He is a very smart cat, and you will be hearing more from him.

I know that the third installment is just out, but when will the next one be out? My children and I thoroughly enjoy reading about Harry and his adventures every evening.

There is nothing I like to hear more than that. And I hope that Book 4 will be available next summer.

What is your favorite book?
One of my favorite children's books is a book called THE LITTLE WHITE HORSE, by Elizabeth Goudge. The last great book I read was THE VIRGIN SUICIDES by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Do you have characters for other books running around in your head, or are you completely consumed by Harry and Hogwarts?

Other characters do live in my head, but because the cast of the Harry Potter books is already enormous and will become larger, they take most of my attention at the moment

What are your plans for allowing movies and toys to be made of the books? I am so very happy with the way your books have set people to reading again and have sparked the imagination. These will surely be literature classics. It just seems a shame to cheapen them with toys -- so counter to the imagination --and movies. Kids won't have to read to be in on the fun. What are your thoughts on this?

The truth is that I am both excited and nervous about the prospect of a Harry film. Excited because I would love the chance to see what I can see so vividly in my own head, especially Quidditch! However, I agree that no medium can replace reading, and my dearest hope would be that children would be led from the film to the books.

What is your favorite Harry book so far?
The first book will always have a special place in my heart, because it was the first book I ever published. However, I prefer the plot of CHAMBER OF SECRETS. And just to confuse the issue, I was looking forward to writing the third book from the start of the first because that's when Professor Lupin appears, and he is one of my favorite characters in all seven books.

You have such a phenomenal imagination! Is it a result of a very imaginative childhood?

First of all, I will be using your name in a future book. To answer your question, yes, I lived a lot in a fantasy world when I was younger and spent a lot of time daydreaming -- to my parents frustration.

Do you have any suggestions for young people who are interested in writing someday?

I think it's best to start with writing what you know. In other words, a good place to begin is your own emotions or a subject you know a lot about. But the most important thing to do is to read, because that will teach you what makes good writing, and it will also teach you to recognize bad writing.

Do you have an internet address where kids (and grown-ups) can send you email?

At the moment, I don't. But I can be contacted via Scholastic Books.

Dear Ms. Rowling, I'd like to ask if there would be a lot of romances between the characters in the upcoming books?

Good question. I'm having so much fun writing Book 4 because for the first time Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are starting to recognize boys and girls as boys and girls. Everyone is in love with the wrong people. Let no one say my books lack realism.

Did you attend a British public school?

No. I'm often asked that by British journalists. I attended what you call a public school in the United States.

My children and I love your books, and we care about Harry Potter. We are wondering if Harry will continue to live with the Dursley's every summer.

Well, you have to decide whether you want to give up the fun of seeing Harry getting the better of the Dursley's or whether you'd rather see Harry happy. I've made my choice, but I can't tell you what it is because it will ruin future plots.

Will Aragog appear in any later books?

Yes. But I'm not telling you anymore than that!

Tell us about your family! How have they influenced your books?

My mother passed way nine years ago, and her death greatly influenced a passage in Book 1. And I'm sure careful readers don't need to be told what passage that is. My father is still alive, and he really likes the books, and my sister, to whom the first book is dedicated in part, was the first person ever to hear the story. She didn't read it, but I told it to her.

How old is your daughter now? Does she read about Harry as enthusiastically as we do?

My daughter is six, and she really wants me to read the Harry books to her, but I told her she has to wait until she's seven because that will be the most important reading of my life, and I really want her to be able to appreciate them.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?
It's quite boring, and I wish I could say I went ab-sailing, but I don't. Nothing exciting and ludicrous, I'm afraid.

Have you considered creating a Harry Potter game, i.e., something that will stimulate young minds?

I haven't considered it. I suppose it could happen at some point, but I'm hoping the books stimulate minds.

Will we ever hear from Mr. Weasley's car again?

Yes, you will hear from Mr. Weasley's car again, but yet again, I'm not telling you how.

Is Hogwarts possibly located in Scotland? I am an American and have never been to the United Kingdom, but from reading the first book and going by the train station Harry leaves from and how long the trip takes, I am guessing it may be Scotland?

Thank you. You are absolutely right. If you travel north from King's Cross, you do indeed arrive in Scotland.

With the huge success of the first three books and your seemingly endless imagination, do you think that you might (please, oh please) consider continuing the story past the originally planned seven books? Maybe continuing with Harry as an adult or books about his children?

So you're convinced I'm not going to kill Harry??!! I try never to say never, because it seems that every time I do I end up by doing the thing I've forsworn. So, there is a remote possibility that there will another Harry book, but at the present time I am planning only seven.

With your recent success, you have traveled a great deal. Who is the most interesting (real!) person you've met and why?

When I was in Belfast, I was filmed speaking to a large group of children and sitting right in front of me, in the middle of the crowd, was Harry Potter. He had black hair, green eyes, and round glasses. I completely forgot what I was saying, pointed at him, and said, "Harry, what are you doing here?" He laughed, and all his friends laughed too because they all been saying it to him. So, if ever Warner Brothers asks me for the perfect Harry, I'll tell them to go to Belfast and find a boy named Nialls.

Before your success with the Harry Potter series, what was the worst job you ever had?

The worst job I ever had was working as a temporary secretary in a company that made surveillance equipment. Bugs, infrared binoculars...industrial espionage. I spent the whole time reading the catalogue. They were very creepy people. The products were very interesting, but the people were quite horrible.

Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, J. K. Rowling. Before you go, do you have any closing remarks for your online fans? I'm sorry to everyone who didn't have their questions answered, but if they keep reading, I bet most of their questions will be answered in the end.

(Le interviste originali sono QUI)

J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life (documentario video) 30/12/2007


• La battaglia a Hogwarts ha avuto luogo il 2 maggio
• I figli di Bill e Fleur si chiamano Victoire, Dominique e Louis.
• Charlie Weasley non si è mai sposato e non ha figli.
• Le figlie di Percy e Audrey si chiamano Lucy e Molly.
• George si è sposato con Angelina Johnson e i loro figli si chiamano Fred e Roxanne.
• I figli (gemelli! ) di Luna e Rolf si chiamano Lorcan e Lysander.
• Il nome completo dei figli di Harry e Ginny è James Sirius, Albus Severus e Lily Luna Potter.
• Il nome completo del figlio di Draco e Asteria è Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.





PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part two 24/12/2007
Nella sua intervista con Time e in web chat con i fan l’autrice di Harry Potter ha rivelato qualche segreto in più.

1. Perché alla fine Fred non appare nel bosco?

Sai cosa? Non ho mai pensato di far tornare Fred. È quello che ho sempre pianificato, da quando ho finito il primo libro, che i tre malandrini e sua madre sarebbero tornati. C’erano quattro eroi nella generazione precedente e uno di loro ha tradito gli altri, quindi sono diventati tre. Così ho voluto che Harry fosse circondato da sua madre, James, Sirius e Lupin tutti morti in un modo per lui. Sai Lupin ha dato la sua vita nella battaglia di Harry, non doveva tornare, non doveva combattere. James è morto cercando di proteggere la sua famiglia; Sirius è morto combattendo vicino a Harry, sua madre è morta per lui nella maniera più esplicita. Non ho mai pensato di far tornare Fred. Erano tutti della generazione precedente ed erano tutti figure genitoriali per Harry.

2. Harry era morto?

La Rowling lo ha scritto con molta attenzione, quindi può essere letta in due modi. È entrato solo in uno stato di incoscienza dove il suo subconscio gli ha detto tutto quello che deve sapere? Silente non gli dice niente che non avrebbe potuto capire con delle ipotesi. Ma nella sua mente Harry entra in un limbo tra la vita e la morte e deve decidere dove andare. Spiega sul suo sito che questo incontro coinvolge alcune leggi molto profonde della magia, che lo stesso Voldemort non capiva. Prendendo in sé il sangue di Harry, Voldemort ha mantenuto in vita il potere protettivo di Lily per Harry- se non che il potere del sacrificio di Lily è una forza positiva che non solo continua a legare Harry alla vita ma da a Voldemort stesso un ultima possibilità. Voldemort ha involontariamente messo alcune gocce di bontà in sé stesso e se si fosse pentito sarebbe potuto guarire molto più profondamente di quanto ci si potesse aspettare. Ma ovviamente si è rifiutato di provare rimorso. Inoltre, dal momento che Voldemort stava usando la Bacchetta di Sambuco, che in realtà apparteneva ad Harry, ne la maledizione Cruciatus ne l’Avada Kedavra avrebbero funzionato correttamente. Tuttavia la maledizione Avada Kedavra è talmente potente che fa male ad Harry e riesce a uccidere una parte di lui che non è veramente sua, in altre parole il frammento di anima di Voldemort che si era legato alla sua anima. Inoltre la maledizione danneggia gravemente Harry abbastanza da farlo morire se avesse scelto quel percorso.

3. La domanda che l’ha sorpresa: cos’è la creatura che è nell’angolo a King’s Cross?

L’impulso di Harry, fino all’ostinazione più assoluta, è di salvare. La sua natura più profonda è di provare a salvare, anche quando è sbagliato farlo, anche quando lo conduce a trappole. -- devo salvare, devo cercare di proteggere – perché gli è stato lasciata quest’impegnativa eredità da sua madre che si è sacrificata per lui e ora lui vuole provare a salvare il maggior numero di persone che può. Ma questo incontro con Voldemort è diverso. Per la prima volta si avvicina a questa creatura vulnerabile, nuda e mutilata e la vuole aiutare ma per la prima volta si sente respinto dalla sofferenza. E ha ragione a sentirsi così. Questo è qualcosa che si è mutilato da solo, per così dire, questo è l’ultimo frammento dell’anima mutilata di Voldemort. Devo spiegare perché molti me lo hanno chiesto.

4. la domanda che temeva: di cosa è fatta la bacchetta di Silente?

Quella sarebbe stata una vera domanda efficace. Perché ho sempre avuto questa cosa del sambuco nella mia mente, perché nel folklore il sambuco è l’albero della morte. Ho pensato: Cosa posso dire? Avrei dato un indizio troppo grande. Ma nessuno me lo ha chiesto.

5. Cosa vede veramente Silente nello Specchio delle Brame?

La sua famiglia viva, intera e riconciliata.

6. Dove andavano i bambini maghi a scuola prima di fosse creata Hogwarts?
La maggior parte erano istruiti a casa perché non erano molto abili a controllare i loro poteri quindi sarebbe stato pericoloso lasciarli in giro.

7. Harry e Voldemort sono parenti?
Si, lontani, da parte dei Peverell; quasi tutte le famiglie dei maghi sono imparentate se vai abbastanza indietro.

8. Con chi si sposerà Draco Malfoy?

Con Astoria Greengrass, sorella minore della famiglia Greengrass. Incontriamo Daphe Greengrass, che faceva parte del gruppeto di serpeverde di Pansy Parkinson, nel 5° libro quando Hermione prende i suoi G.U.F.O. Neville si sposa con Hannah Abbot, che diventa la proprietaria del Paiolo Magico. Ho fatto funzionare tutto nella mia mente perché non riuscivo a trattenermi dal farlo.

9. Dove lavoreranno da adulti i personaggi principali?

Harry e Hermione lavoreranno al Ministero: Harry guiderà il dipartimento degli Auror. Ron aiuterà George al negozio di scherzi. Ginny diventerà una giocatrice professionista di Quidditch e poi una giornalista sportiva per la Gazzetta del Profeta.

10. Teddy Lupin sarà un lupo mannaro?

No, sarà un Metamorphmagus, come Tonks ( che fu una tassorosso…)




Dopo traduco Amazon UK ca. 1999

Edited by Ida59 - 30/8/2012, 10:28

Allora io traduco First tears with Harry e © Barnes&Noble.com, SEPTEMBER 8, 1999, se per voi va bene!

ok, mi metto al lavoro! (sopra invece di First years with Harry ho scritto first tears )

Amazon UK ca. 1999 (L'intervista originale è QUI)

Magia, mistero e confusione: un intervista con JK Rowling
Divorziata, che viveva di assistenza pubblica in un piccolo appartamento ad Edimburgo con la sua bambina, JK Rowling ha scritto Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale nei momenti rubati ad un tavolino in un bar. Per fortuna Harry Potter l’ha salvata! In questa intervista con Amazon JK Rowling parla della nascita del nostro eroe, dell’hotel a Manchester dove è nato il Quidditch, e di come sarebbe dovuta essere più simile ad Hermione quando aveva 11 anni.

Amazon: Volevi essere una scrittrice quando eri piccola?

JK Rowling: Da quel che ricordo ho sempre voluto essere una scrittrice. Inglese era la mia materia preferita a scuola, per questo molti si chiedono perché io mi sia laureata in francese.

Amazon: quanti anni avevi quando hai cominciato a scrivere? E di cosa parlava il tuo primo libro?

JK Rowling: Ho scritto il mio primo libro quando avevo 6 anni. Parlava di un coniglio di nome Coniglio. Molto fantasiosa. Ho scritto da allora.

Amazon: Perché hai scelto di essere una scrittrice?

JK Rowling: Se qualcuno mi chiedesse la mia ricetta per la felicità, la prima parte sarebbe quella di scoprire quello che ami fare di più al mondo e la seconda sarebbe quella di trovare qualcuno disposto a pagarti per farlo. Mi considero molto fortunata perché sono in grado di sostenermi da sola con la scrittura.

Amazon: Hai in mente di scrivere un libro per adulti?

JK Rowling: i miei primi due romanzi – che non ho mai fatto pubblicare- erano per adulti. Potrei scriverne un altro, ma non ho mai un piano quando scrivo. Le idee vengono per prime, quindi dipende dalle idee che mi vengono per prima!

Amazon:Quanto tempo ci metti a scrivere un libro?

JK Rowling: Il mio ultimo libro – il terzo della serie di Harry Potter – l’ho scritto circa in un anno, che è abbastanza veloce per me. Se riesco a finire il quarto per l’estate, che è la mia data di scadenza, sarà quello che ho scritto più velocemente, circa in otto mesi.

Amazon: da dove hai preso le idee per i libri di Harry Potter?

JK Rowling: Non so da dove mi sono venute le idee e spero di non scoprirlo, mi rovinerebbe l’emozione. Ho solo una piccola, divertente grinza sulla superficie del mio cervello che mi fa immaginare piattaforme invisibili per i treni.

Amazon: come hai scelto i nomi per i tuoi personaggi?

JK Rowling: Alcuni dei nomi di Harry Potter li ho inventati, ma altri li ho trovati. Li ho presi da santi medievali, mappe, dizionari, piante, memoriali di guerra e persone che ho incontrato!

Amazon: i tuoi personaggi sono basati su persone che conosci?

JK Rowling: Alcuni sì, ma devo essere molto attenta su quello che dico. Per lo più sono persone reali ad ispirare un personaggio, ma una volta che sono nella mia testa si trasformano in qualcosa di diverso. Il professor Piton e Gilderoy Allock sono la versione esagerata di persone che ho conosciuto ma che sulle pagine sono diventate diverse. Hermione è come me quando avevo 11 anni, anche se più intelligente!

Amazon: Una delle storie è basata sulla tua vita o sulla vita di persone che conosci?

JK Rowling: Non ho deliberatamente basato niente dei libri di Harry Potter sulla mia vita ma naturalmente questo non significa che i miei sentimenti non si siano insinuati. Quando ho riletto il capitolo 12 del primo libro, “ Lo Specchio delle Brame”, ho notato che avevo trasmesso molti dei sentimenti che provavo per la morte di mia madre ad Harry, ma non me ne sono accorta fino a quando non l’ho scritto

Amazon: Dov’è nata l’idea del Quidditch?

JK Rowling: Ho invetato il Quidditch mentre trascorrevo la notte in una piccola stanza nel Hotel Bournville a Didsbury, Manchester. Volevo uno sport per i maghi e ho sempre voluto vedere una partita dove c’erano più palle in gioco allo stesso tempo. L’idea mi divertiva. Lo sport dei babbani che più assomiglia al Quidditch è il basket, che probabilmente è lo sport che mi piace di più guardare. Mi sono divertita molto a inventare le regole e ho ancora il notebook in cui l’ho fatto, con tutti gli schemi e i nomi per le palle che ho provato prima di scegliere il Boccino, i Bolidi e la Pluffa.

Amazon: Dove hai preso le idee per gli incantesimi e le materie?

JK Rowling: Ho deciso subito le materie. La maggior parte degli incantesimi sono inventati, ma alcuni di essi si basano su quello in cui devono credere le persone per far funzionare gli incantesimi. Dobbiamo molte delle nostre conoscenze scientifiche agli alchimisti!

Amazon: Quali sono gli ingredienti di cui ha bisogno un libro di Harry Potter?

JK Rowling: Non ho mai pensato in termini di ingredienti, ma penso che se ne dovrei dire qualcuno sarebbe humor, personaggi forti e un’ ottima trama. Queste cose insieme fanno un libro che mi piacerebbe leggere. Oh, dimenticavo la paura, non ho mai cercato di spaventare le persone, ma sembra insinuarsi lungo il percorso.

Amazon: Scrivi a mano o a computer?

JK Rowling: Mi piace ancora scrivere a mano. Di solito faccio prima una bozza con carta e penna e poi faccio le prime modifiche quando lo trascrivo a computer. Per qualche ragione, ho sempre preferito usare la penna nera per scrivere al posto di quella blu e ho sempre usato i block notes. Ma ho scritto anche sulle cose più strane quando non avevo un block notes con me. I nomi delle case di Hogwarts sono stati creati sul retro di un sacchetto per il vomito di un aereo. Sì, era vuoto.

Amazon: quali libri ti piace leggere?

JK Rowling: La mia scrittrice preferita è Jane Austen. Ho letto i suoi libri così tante volte che ormai ho perso il conto. Il mio scrittore vivente preferito è Roddy Doyle, penso che sia un genio. Penso che facciano delle cose simili: creano dei personaggi a tutto tondo, spesso senza descrizione fisica, esaminano il normale comportamento umano in una maniera non sentimentale ma allo stesso tempo toccante e naturalmente sono divertenti.
Amazon: Che libri leggevi quando eri piccola? Hanno influenzato in qualche modo il tuo modo di scrivere?
JK Rowling: È sempre difficile dire cosa ti ha influenzato. Tutto quello che hai visto, vissuto, letto o sentito si insinua nella tua mente e influenza le tue idee. Tre libri che ho letto da bambina però rimangono impressi nella mia mente. Uno è il piccolo cavallo bianco di Elizabeth Goudge, che era probabilmente il mio libro preferito quando ero piccola. Il secondo è Manxmouse di Paul Gallico, che non è libro più famoso di Gallico, ma penso che sia meraviglioso. Il terzo è Grimble, di Clemente Freud. Grimble è uno dei libri più divertenti che io abbia mai letto, e Grimble stesso, che è un ragazzino, è un personaggio favoloso. Mi piacerebbe vedere il film di Grimble. Per quanto ne so, questi ultimi due bei libri di letteratura sono fuori stampa, quindi se una casa editrice legge quest’intervista può rispolverali e ristamparli in modo che gli altri possano leggerli?

Edited by Ida59 - 30/8/2012, 10:24

J.K. Rowling - I primi anni con Harry 1997-1998 (L'intervista originale è QUI)

Abbiamo frugato negli archivi e abbiamo trovato alcune interessanti dichiarazioni dell’autrice di Harry Potter Joanne Rowling, che danno un’idea di come Harry sia nato. Tutti i brani sono stati originariamente stampati sui giornali britannici, tra il 1997 e il 1998.

Leggere durante l'infanzia
Quand’era bambina, crescendo a Chepstow, Joanne leggeva avidamente insieme a sua sorella minore Di. “Il ricordo più nitido che ho della mia infanzia è mio padre seduto che mi legge Wind in the Willows. Avevo un brutto morbillo all’epoca, ma non me lo ricordo, ricordo solo il libro.” Adorava C. S. Lewis ed E. Nesbit, ma non era una grande fan di Roald Dahl. Quanto ai libri di Enid Blyton, la Rowling dice di averli letti tutti, ma non è mai stata tentata di riprenderli, mentre continuerebbe a leggere e rileggere Lewis. “Anche oggi, se mi trovassi in una stanza con uno dei libri di Narnia lo afferrerei al volo e lo rileggerei.”

Crescere
J.K. Rowling: “Hermione è la mia caricatura: non ero né tanto brillante né tanto fastidiosa quanto Hermione. O almeno, spero di non esserlo stato, perché in tal caso mi sarei meritata di affogare alla nascita. Ma lei, come me, finisce per rilassarsi. Durante gli anni dell’adolescenza, le cose migliorarono. Cominciai a realizzare che per me c’era qualcosa di più importante dell'avere sempre ragione.

“Sono una persona che è sicuramente diventata più felice crescendo. Mi sento sempre più a mio agio con me stessa e ho sempre avuto la sensazione che durante i miei quarant’anni, troverò finalmente la serenità. Spero davvero che sia così, perché potrei stare benissimo con un poco di serenità. Di sicuro non tornerei indietro a quando ero bambina. Decisamente, non guardo alla mia infanzia come a una fase di beata felicità.

Il primo libro
Dopo aver lasciato l’università di Exeter, dove J.K. Rowling leggeva il francese e I Classici, iniziò a lavorare come insegnante, ma sognava di diventare una scrittrice. Un giorno, bloccata per quattro ore su un treno tra Manchester e Londra, si inventò un ragazzo chiamato Harry Potter. Era il 1990. Ci mise sei anni a scrivere il libro. Nel frattempo andò a insegnare in Portogallo, sposò un giornalista TV portoghese, ebbe una figlia, Jessica, divorziò da suo marito e tornò in Inghilterra quando Jessica aveva solo tre mesi.

Andò a vivere a Edimburgo per stare vicino a sua sorella, Di. “Avevo toccato il fondo. Arrivai in Inghilterra circa un mese dopo che John Major aveva tenuto il suo famigerato discorso sui “genitori single e le radici dei mali della società.” Stavo lottando molto duramente per riuscire a restare a galla e la trovai una cosa veramente spregevole da dire, vittimizzare persone che già sono incredibilmente vulnerabili. La maggior parte di loro non ha via di scampo. Io fui molto fortunata, ero laureata e avevo delle capacità facili da spendere, quindi non durò molto.” L’improvvisa indigenza della Rowling le fece realizzare che era con le spalle al muro, e così decise di finire il suo libro su Harry Potter.

“Ero molto depressa e avere una bambina appena nata rese tutto due volte più difficile. Il poco denaro che avevo lo spendevo per le cose della bambina e tutto ciò che potevo permettermi con i soldi dell'assistenza pubblica era un gelido, piccolo appartamento terribilmente squallido. Mi sentivo semplicemente come una non-persona, ero molto in basso, e dovevo realizzare qualcosa. Senza questa sfida sarei diventata matta da legare”.

Aveva intenzione di lasciare Edimburgo dopo Natale, ma in qualche modo non lo fece mai. Un pomeriggio piovoso raccontò a sua sorella, Di, la storia di Harry le diede quei primi capitoli da leggere. “È possibile che se lei non avesse riso, avrei messo da parte tutto quanto,” dice oggi la Rowling. Ma Di rise – e così seguirono sei mesi di scrittura in condizioni di povertà.

“Non avevo alcuna intenzione, alcun desiderio, di continuare a usufruire dell'assistenza. È ciò che distugge un'anima più qualunque altra cosa. Non voglio drammatizzare, ma c’erano notti in cui, benché Jessica mangiasse, io non lo facevo. Il suggerimento che ci si possa deliberatamente dare qualsivoglia diritto... dovresti essere un completo idiota.”

“Ero laureata, avevo delle capacità, sapevo che le mie prospettive a lungo termine erano buone. Dev’essere diverso per le donne che non hanno quella convinzione e finiscono nella trappola della povertà – è la disperazione di ciò, la perdita di autostima. Per me, almeno, fu solo per sei mesi. Scrissi per tutto il tempo, il che salvò veramente la mia salute mentale. Non appena Jessie si addormentava, afferravo carta e penna.”

Non poteva affrontare il suo triste e freddo appartamento, così camminava per le strade di Edimburgo, spingendo Jessica nel passeggino finché non si addormentava, per poi entrare in un caffè e scrivere per due ore, con la bambina che dormiva accanto a lei. “Avevo raggiunto un punto in cui la diffidenza era un lusso che non potevo più permettermi. Pensai, ‘Qual è la cosa peggiore che potrebbe succedere?’ Ogni casa editrice in Inghilterra potrebbe rifiutarmi: bell’affare.” Batté a macchina due manoscritti – non poteva permettersi di fotocopiarli – e li mandò a due agenti a Londra che aveva reperito in un annuario nella biblioteca locale.

Perdere la madre
I libri sono carattrizati e da un vivace ingegno inventivo e da una vivida caratterizzazione. E ci sono sfondi alle avventure, un senso della moralità sottile ed emozioni che scorrono forti. Dopo aver letto il primo libro della serie, non ci si stupisce nel sentire la Rowling dire che quando sua madre morì, a 45 anni, di sclerosi multipla, cambiò il libro per riflettere il suo stesso dolore. In un capitolo Harry guarda in uno specchio magico che permettere a chi lo osserva di vedere ciò che il suo cuore desidera maggiormente, e scopre i genitori scomparsi che lo salutano con la mano. “Aveva dentro di sé un potente tipo di dolore, per metà gioia, per metà terribile tristezza,” scrive la Rowling.

“Ero cosciente, quando guardavo nello specchio, che avrei visto esattamente ciò che vedeva Harry. Ma fu soltanto dopo averlo scritto che realizzai appieno da dove era venuto tutto quanto. Per me, è un enorme rammarico che mia madre non abbia mai saputo nulla di tutto ciò, secondo solo al fatto che non ha mai conosciuto mia figlia.”

“ Era una lettrice continua, complusiva. Non avevo idea che la sclerosi multipla l’avrebbe colpita così velocemente. E io non ero lì. Questo mi provoca un tale senso di colpa! Sapeva che scrivevo, ma non lesse mai nulla. Potete immaginare quanto lo rimpianga? C’è un capitolo nel libro, in cui Harry vede i suoi genitori scomparsi in uno specchio magico, e so che se mia madre non fosse morta, avrei trattato questo argomento in maniera molto meno seria.”

Amici
Ha pochi intimi amici, che le sono rimasti vicino nei moment difficili. “So veramente chi sono i miei amici perché c'è stato un periodo in cui non vi era assolutamente alcun prestigio nell’essere amico mio. Le persone mi hanno davvero aiutato – non parlo di denaro, parlo semplicemente di chi è rimasto al mio fianco quando ero disperata.” Da quando ha avuto successo, un paio di amici – tali solo nei tempi buoni – sono tornati allo scoperto. “Non ho risposto al telefono. Ho pensato, ‘Ora non decidete che sono stata una persona fantasticamente interessante per tutto il tempo, quando per un anno non lo sono stata per niente.’”
Per tre anni e mezzo, J.K. Rowling è stata una cliente abituale al Nicolson’s, fuori Princes Street a Edimburgo, ordinando un espresso e un bicchiere d’acqua e scrivendo laboriosamente a mano, con la bambina che dormiva accanto a lei. C’erano giorni, ricorda la Rowling, in cui spingeva il passeggino sotto le scale del Nicolson’s, le gambe che tremavano per l’overdose di caffeina. Oggi, grazie all’accecante, disorientante successo economico di Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale, alla Rowling piace rilasciare le sue interviste qui nel caffè, grande quanto una sala da ballo. Il suo staff è a portata di mano e sono vicini come una famiglia e discretamente orgogliosi del loro prodigio.

Sua figlia Jessica
In Portogallo, J.K. Rowling insegnò Inglese, scritte tre capitoli di Harry Potter, conobbe e sposò un giornalista portoghese e diede alla luce sua figlia, Jessica. La bambina porta il nome dell'eroina della Rowling, sia nella vita che nella letteratura, Jessica Mitford. La ragione? “E’ sempre rimasta diversa dal contesto dal quale proveniva, suo marito morì giovanissimo, perse due dei suoi quattro figli in circostanze tragiche – e nonostante ciò non si auto commiserava nemmeno un po’, e ha avuto un senso dello humour favoloso fino all’amara fine. Ho regalato a mia figlia una copia di “Figlie e Ribelli” della Mitford per il suo battesimo.

Trovare un agente
J.K. Rowling: “Non sapevo niente sugli agenti, ma andai in biblioteca e consultai alcuni indirizzi nell’Annuario degli Artisti e degli Scrittori. Christopher Little era solo il secondo agente al quale scrivevo. Ricordo di quando ricevetti la risposta. Supposi che fosse una nota di rifiuto, ma nella busta c’era una lettera che diceva “La ringraziamo. Ci piacerebbe ricevere il bilancio del suo manoscritto su una base esclusiva.’ Fu la miglior lettera della mia vita, la lessi otto volte. Più tardi Christopher mi telefonò e disse che c’era un’asta in America. Disse che avrei dovuto prepararmi perché Mr. Athur Levine della Scholastic Press avrebbe pagato una somma a sei cifre e mi avrebbe telefonato tra dieci minuti. Per poco non morii.

Vendere i diritti del libro americano
J.K. Rowling ha venduto il suo primo libro ad un editore americano per più di 1000,000 sterline. Ciò che rende l’affare degno di note è il fatto che il libro di Joanne Rowling non è un romanzo o una lunga biografia, ma una storia per bambini. Due studi di Hollywood e un produttore indipendente americano inoltre sono in competizione per pagare i diritti del film per il suo racconto di 80,000 parole, Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale. “Penso che sia probabilmente corretto dire che la maggior parte degli autori per bambini arrancano guadagnando 2.000 sterline all’anno,” ha detto Christpher Little, l’agente letterario della signorina Rowling. “Per quanto ne so, la portata di questo affare non ha precedenti.”

“E’ divertente come, quando qualcosa del genere ti succede ed è così inaspettato e va oltre i tuoi sogni più sfrenati, la tua prima reazione non sia di felicità, ma di shock;” dice J.K. Rowling. “Ero paralizzata dallo shock. E mi sentivo anche sotto pressione, dal momento che stavo per finire il secondo libro e ricevetti tutta quell’attenzione. Pensai che tutte quelle persone avrebbero creduto che era solo pubblicità se il secondo libro fosse stato spazzatura.

Non essere una Prima Donna
Ci siamo messi d’accordo per incontrarci alle dieci presso il suo editore, Bloomsbury, in Soho Square. Alle undici, una esile, giovane donna con lunghi capelli rosso fuoco fa irruzione attraverso la porta, turbata e scarmigliata. “Mi dispiace così tanto. Mi dispiace davvero davvero tanto,” continua a dire, tremando come una foglia e con l’aria di chi sta per piangere. Con un caffè forte in una mano e una sigaretta nell’altra, pian piano si calma ma non smette di chiedere scusa.
“In taxi mi è venuto in mente che della Foo powder sarebbe stata estremamente utile,” dice, con un mezzo sorriso nella sua agitazione. Si dipana una lunga e compicata spiegazione: l’hotel ha rifiutato di farla uscire, avendo perso il suo nome nel computer, e poi, dopo averlo ritrovato, insistette che la sua carta prepagata non era stata saldata. “Ero a metà strada da qui in taxi ed ero così agitata perché ero in ritardo con voi, e allora realizzai che non avevo con me la borsa. A quel punto sono semplicemente scoppiata a piangere.”

Edited by Ida59 - 30/8/2012, 10:11

ok quelle in russo me le mandi via MP o le metti sempre lì?
Dopo traduco Family Education Summer 1999 Harry Potter Author Works Her Magic Katy Abel

PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part one 17/12/2007


Anelli, Melissa, John Noe and Sue Upton. "PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part one." PotterCast #130, 17 December 2007.
Audio: (PotterCast) Direct download (22 MB) | Direct download low-bandwidth (6 MB)
Transcription by Meann Ortiz

[Sue and John argue about House-Elves. Melissa tries to referee and they phone the Hogwarts Muggle Liaison Office help line where John jokingly connected them to Snape's extension. Eventually, they reach JKR using a secret code number, and JKR answers the phone...]
J.K. Rowling (JKR): This had better not be about House-Elves.
Melissa Anelli (MA): Jo, it is! I'm sorry! It is.
Sue Upton (SU): Hey, Jo! Hello!
John Noe (JN): Hey, Jo!
MA: Hiiiii!
JKR: What? House-Elves? Go on then.
MA: Still. Still. They are still arguing about this, and I'm sick of it, and we need you to answer it so bad.
JN: What I'm telling Sue is that, if she remembered from when we talked about this in New York, Jo said that Helga Hufflepuff was a plantation owner of the House-Elves ....
SU: Yeah, but she gave them refuge! Refuge! R-E...
JKR: Refuge.
SU: She didn't enslave them.
JKR: Yeah, it's a complicated issue, you know? I would say that Hufflepuff gave... Hufflepuff did what was the most moral thing to do at that time, and we are talking about over a thousand years ago. So that would be to give them good conditions of work. There was no kind of activism there, so no one's gonna say, "Here's an idea. Let's, let's free them. Let's, uh, let's pay them." It was just "well, we'll bring them somewhere that they can work and not be abused."
SU: See? She did not go around with like a whip and say "Yaaah! You must work in the kitchens!" you know?
JKR: Definitely not, no. That would not be... No, no. Definitely not.
SU: See? Woohoo! Thank you, Jo.
(overtalk)
MA: Well let's go into this further. Jo, we are about to get ready to start a recording here, we can talk about this for longer if you want. Would you like to join us for our show?
JKR: Well, I've got nothing better to do.
JN: Alright, you heard her, guys. Leaky and Pottercast are proud and excited to bring you a very special interview with the one and only, J.K. Rowling.
(Pottercast Intro)
JKR: Welcome to Pottercast, your number one source for news, theories, discussion, and interviews with people from the Potter books and films. I know a small amount myself, having written the books. My name is J.K. Rowling. I am now happy to introduce your hosts, Melissa, John, and Sue.
SU: Yay, Jo!
MA: Jo, I can't tell you how long we've joked in a total, like, outer space fashion, about you doing that intro one day.
JKR: D'you know what my favorite bit was? Melissa, when you posted the thing about, anyone got extra questions? What loose ends would you like tied up? And the very first comment was, "Yeah, that's a strange thing to ask us, Melissa. Almost like someone was coming on who could answer those questions." I really liked that.
MA: And I have to-- I'm glad you brought it up because I have to apologize to the reader of our site, called "nimbus_xl", who actually said that, and I actually came the closest to lying that I've ever done on Leaky when I told everybody, like, "Calm down! We'd tell you if it was Jo! Everybody relax!"
JKR: Melissa Anelli. You filthy, filthy liar.
MA: Yes. That's me. (laughs)
JKR: Previously respected webmistress...
(laughter)
MA: Yeah, no more. I hand it all in. I'm done. Oh, gosh, but we wanted to save the surprise. And Jo, that's what this hopefully is, a nice pre-Christmas surprise --
JKR: Cool.
MA: -- for everybody. So. I'm more excited than anything that John and Sue now have the chance to get and... to hear and... let's talk.
JN: We're gonna give it a shot. I was stunned silly the last time I saw her, I could hardly say anything, but...
JKR: Oh, you were completely lovely.
JN: I couldn't really see her right now, so...
JKR: You're missing nothing, I tell you. Yeah, I'm not looking good at the moment. A couple weeks of Christmas shopping and a lot of really hectic life has taken it out of me.
SU: And you've had quite a banner day already with the auction too, and everything, it's just been amazing for Mr. Beedle...
JKR: I feel kind of shell-shocked at the moment. We just watched the auction live. This is of Beedle the Bard, in case anyone doesn't know what the hell we're talking about, and, uh, yeah, it went for 1.95 million Pounds, and I can't tell you what that means. It's unbelievable, I'm really staggered, and I'm so excited. It's gonna mean-- it's just gonna make a really big difference to the charity, and it was a means of raising awareness of the charity, which was at least as important as the money, so it's really done that job. God, I'm so happy. I can't tell you.
SU: It's just brilliant, and you know, but we're all so curious! So, Jo, is there any little tidbits that you can reveal now?
JKR: What, about Beedle the Bard?
SU: Mm-hmmm...
JKR: The stories thereof?
SU: Mm-hmm...
JKR: Well, I can tell you I-- let's think. "Wizard and the Hopping Pot". It's kind of a--. the moral, really, is to teach young wizards and witches that they should be using their magic altruistically.
SU: Oh, okay.
JKR: Um, then, "Fountain of Fair Fortune" is my favorite one, and that's really about the qualities you need to achieve your heart's desire, and the moral being that magic ultimately is not the best weapon. "Warlock's Hairy Heart" is really... is quite gothic. It's quite dark, that one. And Voldemort would've done well to know that story before he set out on his campaign of terror. Uh, "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump" is the stupidest title ever written by man or beast...
(laughter)
JKR: ... and of course, when I wrote it, I never-- I had not, at the point when I gave Ron that title, I didn't imagine for a second that I was actually gonna write the story. And I did have this, there was this kind of margin of time where I could've-- where I knew I was gonna write "Beedle the Bard", and the book wasn't published, we were still editing. I could've gone back and change the titles. And I really like the idea of keeping those titles then finding out what the stories were, so... But "Babbitty Rabbitty" was a challenge. But I did get there, and it's a story about revenge, one witch's sort of cunning way of revenging herself for persecution, for Muggle persecution. And then you know "The Tale of the Three Brothers", which is the last one in the book. So I've just given them to you chronologically as they appear in the book. I loved writing them. I really really loved writing them. But I have to say, that before I had the idea of producing the books to say "thank you" to these key people, I imagined there would be like, about thirty tales of Beedle the Bard. And after I had the idea of writing them out by hand seven times, turns out, there were just the five.
(laughter)
JN: And I can't thank you enough for that copy, Jo, I've been reading it to the girls here over the weeks, and...
JKR: Did they __?__ it? The diamond-encrusted version?
JN: It was amazing, and you know, the cover was beautiful!
JKR: You don't think it's a bit too bling?
JN: Oh no, I mean, I have a lot of that stuff on my wall already, so it just kind of fit right in perfectly.
JKR: John, it was my pleasure.
JN: So...
JKR: Thank you for the inspiration.
JN: It was a pleasure to read it. You know, I do what I could.
JKR: And did you like the dedication? "You were right all along about 'Horcri'?"
SU: Oh, no!
MA: Oh, Jo!
SU: There's that word!
JN: Nobody would believe me.
MA: Oh, he's never gonna let us--
JKR: So, I did write him a letter. And I did say that, actually, "horcri" is-- I mean, it occurred to me, you know, it really would've been, I think, a more correct plural, but I already had "inferi", and I didn't wanna have too many, umm, you know, Dark Arts weapons ending in "R I", so it was a kind of stylistic choice, really. I like "horcruxes" as a plural.
JN: It's grown on me, too.
JKR: As a linguist... Oh, thanks, John. (laughs) Oh, isn't he kind. See, this is why I gave him copies of Beedle the Bard, he's a generous man.
SU: Oh, Jo, but those "horcruxes", though, I tell you, they're so much to ask still about those, you know?... I mean, who, okay, we have to know. Who created the first Horcrux? Was it Grindelwald? Salazar? Who did that?
JKR: D'you know what, I've got a feeling it was Herpo, which is H-E-R-P-O.
SU: Herpo the Foul?
JKR: ... Herpo the Foul, exactly, yeah. Yeah. But you know wizards would've been looking for ways to do exactly what Voldemort did for years, and some of the ways they would've tried would've killed them, so I imagine it... well, there's huge parallels. Splitting the atom would be a very good parallel in our world. Something that people imagined might be able to be done, but couldn't quite bring it off, and then... and then people started doing it with sometimes catastrophic effects. So that's how I see the Horcrux.
SU: Right, because you said that Tom Riddle said there would've been, or Dumbledore did, somebody said that there was only one person--
MA: Slughorn.
(overtalk)
JKR: Yeah, but I would imagine that other people, you know, other people are going to have tried. I think it would be naive not to think that people have been trying for a long time, and thought they succeeded and hadn't, or else, or else you know maim themselves or kill themselves in the attempt. It's such a dangerous thing to do.
SU: Oh. Evil thing. You know, just...
JKR: Yeah.
MA: What is the process? Do you-- Is there a spell? Is there a-- What do you have to do?
JKR: I see it as a series of things you would have to do. So you would have to perform a spell. But you would also-- I don't even know if I want to say it out loud, I know that sounds funny. But I did really think it through. There are two things that I think are too horrible, actually, to go into detail about. One of them is how Pettigrew brought Voldemort back into a rudimentary body. 'Cause I told my editor what I thought happened there, and she looked as though she was gonna vomit. And then-- and the other thing is, how you make a Horcrux. And I don't even like-- I don't know. Will it be in the Encyclopedia? I don't know if I can bring myself to, ummm... I don't know.
SU: Oh, Jo, you mentioned the "E" word! Encyclopedia!
JKR: Oh, God, yes I did. I just wish you'd call it something like (low voice)"The Scottish Book".
JN: "The Scottish Book"
MA: Oh, geez. You don't want to curse it now, Jo.
JKR: It must not be mentioned live on air.
MA: Yeah, exactly. We can't wait for that. We hope you get on that as soon as you feel comfortable doing so.
JKR: Yeah. But would it be okay if that's ten years? (long pause) No one laughed. (laughter) I absolutely do intend to do it but, you know, I can't pretend that I'm in a hurry right now. It's gonna be a hell of a lot of work, but I have-- You know, I've kept everything, and I know where things are, and yeah... at some point I will get myself together and do it.
JN: I was gonna offer, just in case you needed help on that particular chapter. Ummm, I've got a lot of baby pictures and childhood anecdotes for the Dawlish chapter that might just help fill things in a little bit.
JKR: You know what, again John, you're always there when I need you. That would be great.
SU: You know, Jo, he idolizes a man, an auror guy who got pwned by an old lady wearing a dead bird on her head, you know, on her hat. Now, come on!
JN: They don't understand this, Jo. I know we've talked about this. They don't understand the night that this-- They call it a duel. It wasn't a duel. At least in my mind anyway, I think it needs a little explaining of how somebody as, you know, as skillful as Dawlish, you know, could've got taken down like this.
JKR: John...
JN: And feel free to let all the air out of my sails, that's fine, if you'd like.
MA: John maintains she socker-punched him.
JN: Yeah, she socker-spelled him.
JKR: You know what, I find it so incredibly endearing that you like Dawlish, and that's why his name is now John Dawlish, as we know. In tribute to you. And that will indeed be a note in the Encyclopedia, or "The Scottish Book", as we are now calling it. Dawlish had to be good. He had to be good because he became an Auror. There's no denying that. But he has his weaknesses and Dumbledore knew how to exploit them. Let's face it. Anyone, anyone going up to Dumbledore pre-trying on the Horcrux, pre-maiming his hand, anyone is gonna be in trouble going up against Dumbledore. Even Voldemort didn't want to do it. So there's no dishonor to Dawlish.
JN: Well, certainly though, was Dumbledore involved in--
JKR: In weakening him?
JN: You said it was Mrs. Longbottom?
(laughter, overtalk)
JKR: By the time Augusta Longbottom got to him, he had been-- several people had attacked Dawlish. I mean, I think he was a bit punch-drunk by that point, you know. He had become a favorite punch-bag of the Order of the Phoenix by then. So I don't think he was firing on all cylinders. But I really saw Mrs. Longbottom as a powerful witch. So, um, sorry.
JN: I suppose...
JKR: Do you know, I went down to Leavesden recently and I saw Michael Gambon with his withered hand. That was quite exciting, yeah.
JN: Gosh.
MA: There was just a funny report about Michael Gambon and we're pretty sure he was joking. About how he was scandalized to learn that one of his lines was lifted directly from the book. He was railing around cursing and throwing things.
SU: How dare they use your words, Jo?
JKR: Listen. Michael has a very good, very good and very dry sense of humor. And you should really-- Yeah, he's a funny man. And you should bear that in mind and not take things as they may appear flat on the page.
MA: Yeah. Speaking of Dumbledore.
JKR: Bless his little heart.
MA: We wanna talk about Dumbledore so bad. We know that you've created worldwide intrigue when you said that he is gay. But I wanted to ask you about homosexuality in the Wizarding World in general. Is it a taboo?
JKR: Now, that's something I never thought of. I would think that that would be-- it would be exactly what it is in the Muggle World. But the greatest taboo in the Wizarding World is, well, for some wizards... I mean if we're talking about prejudiced people within the Wizarding World, what they care most about is your blood status. So I think you could be, um, gay, pure-blood, and totally without any kind of criticism from the Lucius Malfoys of the world. I don't think that would be something that would interest him in the slightest. But, you know, I can't answer for all witches and wizards because I think in matters of the heart, it would be directly parallel to our world.
MA: Hrmmm. Yeah. The reaction was so astronomical to that.
JKR: Well, I said it to you, Melissa, before I think, that to me, it's wrong not to answer a question honestly. I just think that's immoral. And I was asked that question by a young woman at Carnegie Hall who prefaced her question by saying "these books have helped me be more fully myself". Well, I mean, that's just one of the most wonderful things anyone has ever said to me about the books. And then she asked, "Has Dumbledore ever been in love?" So I was absolutely honest about how I saw the character: I always imagined that Dumbledore was gay. How relevant is that to the books? Well, it's only relevant if you considered that his feelings for Grindelwald, as revealed in the 7th book, were an infatuation rather than a straight-forward friendship. That's how I think-- In fact, I know that some, perhaps sensitive, adult readers had already seen that. I don't think that came as a big surprise to some adult readers. I think a child would see a friendship, and a very devoted friendship. But these things also occur. So I-- How relevant is it? Well to me, it was only relevant in as much as Dumbledore, who was the great defender of Love, and who sincerely believed that Love was the greatest, most powerful, force in the universe, was himself made a fool of by Love. That to me was the interesting point. That in his youth, he was-- he became infatuated with a man who was almost his dark twin. He was as brilliant, he was morally bankrupt, and Dumbledore lost his moral compass. He wanted to believe that Grindelwald was what he wanted him to be, which is what I think, particularly, a young person's love tends to do. We fill in the blanks in the beloved's personality with the virtues we would like them to have. So Dumbledore was wrong. And his judgment was entirely-- was very suspect at that time. And of course, it was more than being infatuated. Grindelwald appeared to be offering him a solution to this horrible dilemma. I mean, Dumbledore was not cut out, to his shame, to be a carer. He was cut out to go out on to the world stage and be a brilliant man. He knows that about himself, and he's ashamed of it. So it's a complicated issue, but, yeah, that's the way I always saw Dumbledore, it wasn't a particularly big deal to me. And I never, once before, been asked at an event, about Dumbledore's romantic life. I've been asked other things about him. But I have to say that until "Hallows" was published, people were mostly interested in the Trio's futures and Dumbledore's backstory. In fact, I remember, Melissa, when you and Emerson interviewed me after "Half-Blood Prince" was published, we were talking about what fans should be asking. And I said, "Dumbledore's family." I didn't want to say "Dumbledore's past", but you know, Dumbledore's family would be a profitable line of inquiry because I always knew that he had this tragic story from his late teens. There. That was a long answer.
SU: That was brilliant.
JKR: But it was a full answer.
MA: We love full answers.
JN: I guess, people are gonna yell at me.
JKR: Like you care. Come on.
JN: Okay.
MA: We love it when he starts sentences that way!
JN: Just trying to save a little face. I know a few people out there have been wondering if Madam Hooch had ever been in love.
JKR: (laughs) Do you know what? Madam Hooch really did not have any kind of romantic backstory. Well, not my invention, I don't know. We'd have to go and trawl the fanfic for that.
MA: I'm sure we'd find it, Jo.
JKR: Yeah. I bet we would.
JN: I think there's categories of it, actually.
SU: So we were talking about ships, though. Can we talk about romance, romance at all?
JKR: Yeah, we can talk about romance.
MA: I don't know. Last time we did this, Jo, quite a lot of hubbub followed.
JKR: Really?
SU: You know.
JN: But it's fun. It's fun hubbub.
JKR: Yeah, okay.
MA: But before we get into romance, I want to get something cleared up.
JKR: Okay.
MA: After we got back from Carnegie Hall, we brought back your message of how Harry is kind of not really a Horcrux. And I won't dwell too long on Horcruxes, but, I'd love to hear you talking about how he is or isn't, or wasn't.
JKR: Well, I tell you-- You know what, this will not end the discussion. I know that, and you know that. But here is the thing. For convenience, I had Dumbledore say to Harry, "You were the Horcrux he never meant to make." But I think, by definition, a Horcrux has to be made intentionally. So, because Voldemort never went through the grotesque process that I imagined creates a Horcrux, with Harry, it was just that he had destabilized his soul so much that it split when he was hit by the back-firing curse. And so this part of it flies off and attaches to the only living thing in the room. A part of it flees in the very close-to-death limbo state that Voldemort then goes on and exists in. I suppose it's very close to being a Horcrux. But Harry was not-- did not become an evil object. He wasn't-- he didn't have curses upon him that the other Horcruxes had. He himself was not contaminated by carrying this bit of parasitic soul. The only time he ever felt it stirring and moving was in "Order of the Phoenix", when he himself goes through a very dark time. And there's a moment where he's looking at Dumbledore and he feels something rear like a snake inside him. And of course at those times, it's because the piece of soul inside him is feeding off his emotions. He's going through a dark time and that piece of soul is enjoying it and making its presence felt. But he doesn't know what he's feeling, of course. Also I always imagined the Sorting Hat detected the presence of that piece of soul when Harry first tried it on. Because it was strongly tempted to put him in Slytherin. So that's how I see it. Now, I know that won't end the debate, but I do think that the strict definition of Horcrux, once I write The Scottish Book, will have to be given and that the definition will be: the receptacle is prepared by dark magic to become the receptacle of a fragmented piece of soul and that that piece of soul deliberately detached from the Master Soul to act as a future safeguard or anchor to life and to safeguard against death. So that doesn't clear anything up but it elucidates what I believe. But I don't think it's necessarily going to convince people who have a strong feeling, one way or the other, on the matter. You know what, that's been the case with most of "Harry Potter". I gave my explanation and it just fuels more debate.
JN: I was thinking, as you were talking about that, just a second ago. I've just been reading "Philosopher's Stone". There was a chapter when Harry goes to sleep for the first time, and he's in his dormitory, and he has this dream that he doesn't remember again, that he was being tempted to go to Slytherin. I thought maybe at that point, that might have also been that little piece of Voldemort in there, wreaking havoc on his dreams really early on.
JKR: Well, of course, the pain he feels whenever Voldemort is particularly active, is this piece of soul seeking to rejoin the Master Soul. When his scar is hurting him so much, that's not scar tissue hurting him. That's this piece of soul really wanting to get back out the way it entered. It really wants to-- It entered this boy's body through a wound and it wants to rejoin the Master Soul when Voldemort's near him, when he's particularly active, this connection-- it was always there. That's what I always imagined this pain was. Yes. So. There you go. There's a moment when Dumbledore casts a charm and you see a two-headed snake split--
SU: Yes.
JKR: Do you remember that?
JN: Yes.
SU: In essence divided?
MA: That's in his office, right? In essence divided?
JKR: It's in Dumbledore's office, and he suddenly does this strange-- he performs this strange piece of magic in which he watches images and these are his-- and this snake dividing and that's the way he sees Voldemort's soul dividing. He's playing through his own theory about what's happened and his theory, is of course, correct. That Voldemort, as summed up by the snake, divided. So Harry never understood what the two-headed snake was all about. But that's what it was.
SU: You know, you just answered a question that people have been asking about, talking about that "essence divided", what that meant, so, yes!
JKR: "In essence divided", exactly, and the essence being, the soul. So Dumbledore knew all along that he must have split-- he suspected until "Chamber of Secrets", and then at the point where he saw what was clearly the remains of a Horcrux, in other words, the diary, he thinks, okay, there you go. And not only has he definitely done it, but he's got to have more than one because he's treated this one very casually.
SU: So, can I ask this? This is kind of a random question but if Harry had this Horcrux in him, of course, sort of, would he have actually have died, like say when a dragon could've killed him, or when he was falling during Quidditch, or anything?
JKR: Well, you've got to-- if his body had been irreperably destroyed, he has to die to get rid of that piece of soul. His body has got to be irreperably damaged. So a lot of people asked, and I think I've answered this since... but a lot of people immediately said, having finished "Hallows", "(gasps) But then, that means, in Chamber of Secrets when he was pierced by the basilisk..." But no, no, no, no. He didn't die! He didn't die! That was stated right at the beginning with the Horcrux. The receptacle has got to be destroyed. His body wasn't destroyed. He got a bit poisoned, and then he got the antidote immediately. So, you know, that's not gonna drive out this piece of soul. Sorry if I sound frustrated but occassionally, (overtalk) occassionally, you feel some frustration. People, please, just read the book, because it's there! And then ask something that's not there! Which plenty of people do, don't get me wrong. But on that one I felt... there was a certain feeling of weariness. (laughs)
JN: Now I'm nervous.
JKR: No no no no. Don't be nervous. Because I was so careful with this stuff. I don't know if you've seen on my website, I recently did a small number of updates, and one of the things on there was... It's about the end, and how Harry survived right to the end. He doesn't fight and Voldemort uses the Killing Curse on him. It was important for me to say on the website, I never saw this, as in the finale, the deneouement, the moment when Harry faces Voldemort prepared to die and doesn't die-- that isn't like a scientific equation. Harry-- it's not guaranteed, there has to be space, to make Harry truly heroic, for free will. It has to be his choice. The whole thing's his choice. He chooses to sacrifice himself just as Lily chose to sacrifice herself. He chooses to pull himself back to life, and that's his own will and courage. So ultimately, those things, all of them were more important than the magic.
JN: Oh. My brain is firing in so many different directions right now, 'cause I got like a thousand questions...
(overtalk)
MA: And I'm sitting here biting my tongue...
SU: 'Cause like, I wanna ask you about your website, and then I wanna ask you about love, and this is like...
JKR: Yeah, we were going to talk about romance, and we got sidetracked.
MA: Yeah, sorry.
SU: I'm no Ravenclaw, and I read these books just because I love them and I am just enamoured of the world that you've created and...
JKR: Thank you.
SU: ...the one character I do see in myself is someone named Neville Longbottom. And...
JKR: I love Neville. I love Neville so much. Always loved Neville. And I always had big plans for Neville, you know? And he really was The Boy It Could've Been, because as you know, as I made clear, he was born hours before Harry, he was born on the 30th of July, Voldemort singled him out as the other possibility. But the great thing about Neville's story for me, the over-arching story about Neville, is that he proves himself to be a boy who could've done it too. Yeah, Harry had the scar and arguably, Harry had an edge more talent because Harry-- he has an extraordinary instinct for the right thing to do. He's just got the right instinct, and that's what would make him, in due course, a phenomenal Auror. But Neville was, I think, amazing in the final battle, and proved himself a hundred times over worthy of being a Gryffindor, his parents' son, despite the very difficult childhood he had in the hands of his very pushy grandmother, and I know, she loves him and he loves her, but she's not an easy person to be raised by. So yeah, so that for me, was the big thing about Neville. He's not on the surface-- I suppose he's not as cool when it comes right down to it, although Harry, of course, made himself cool. He was a scrawny little kid in glasses, and he comes through, and he becomes the guy everyone wants to know.
SU: You've written so many brilliant scenes, but I personally think one of the most powerful...
JKR: Thank you.
SU: ...scenes was when Neville goes into St. Mungo's, and I understood, when I was listening to that scene, that Neville probably never had the love of his mom and understood, like hugs, you know, all he got were these wrappers.
JKR: He's got these elderly relatives who just wanted him to match up. "Why aren't you matching up?" The trouble is, I think, that they would be the kind of people who forget what being young is like and want him to be-- imagine themselves to have been prodigies and expect him to match up to really an impossible standard. So I felt so sorry for Neville from the word go, but I knew that he was gonna have a comparable journey to Harry's, and he does. And bizarrely, Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville, has undergone a bigger physical transformation than any other person who works on those films to the point that when I went to the read-through of "Half-Blood Prince"-- That we were all sitting in this great square-- They put all the tables from the Great Hall into this big square so everyone's facing inwards for the read-through. And facing me with Dan and Rupert and Emma and Evanna and Bonnie and, you know, the main lot. And there's this really big, cool guy, sitting there with a bit of stubble, and wearing this woolen hat and a leather jacket... and I didn't recognize him and my eyes passed on, and I sort of thought, that would be the guy they've got playing McLaggen, you know. And then I thought, where's Matthew? I looked back, and, my God! When did that happen? So he's really a very cool dude and... He and Devon and Evanna and Bonnie all came to my reception for Beedle the Bard last Monday, it was great to see them, it was so nice.
SU: Oh, that's so cool. Can we just ask kind of a sad thing, though. What did the Longbottoms do that they earned that wrath from Bellatrix? Such-- There's three times, like the Potters thrice defied the Dark Lord.
JKR: They were efficient! They were efficient. That's all they needed to do to earn her wrath. They were-- They had rounded up Death Eaters, they were very good Aurors, they knew what they were doing, they were responsible for a lot of captures and arrests and imprisonments. And-- So there you are.
MA: What about the three times-- The thrice-defying of Voldemort?
JKR: Of James and Lily?
MA: Of Neville's parents. Well, James and Lily, too.
JKR: It depends how you take defying, doesn't it. I mean, if you're counting, which I do, anytime you arrested one of his henchmen, anytime you escaped him, anytime you thwarted him, that's what he's looking for. And both couples qualified because they were both fighting. Also, James and Lily turned him down, that was established in "Philosopher's Stone". He wanted them, and they wouldn't come over, so that's one strike against them before they were even out of their teens.
SU: Rock. That's so cool. I was glad to hear more about them, the night of their murder, in "Deathly Hallows", but there's still a little bit of confusion about that 24 hours, Jo. How did Dumbledore find out what happened in Godric's Hollow?
MA: And what happened, there's this whole 24 hours that's like... People have been fantasizing about for years.
JKR: Yeah, I know. You know, I-- I've got a bit of a problem with this myself, because every time I think it straight in my head, I go back and look at what the fans are theorizing about, and I think, yeah, maybe they've got a point. There is an easy answer to "how would Dumbledore know?", because you can-- he... you can, one can... (laughs) Forgive me if I speak as though it's all real for a moment.
SU: It is real. What do you mean, it's not?
JN: We all do.
MA: That's how I feel as well, yeah, so. Okay. Obviously Dumbledore could cast a charm on a dwelling that would immediately alert him if something happened to it. So he can know instantaneously. That's not a problem at all. And then he could dispatch Hagrid, and so on. But I think The Scottish Book will have to answer that question. I'm gonna have to really go back through notes, and either admit I've lost 24 hours, or, I don't know, hurriedly come up with some back story to fill it. Either way, you either get to be right, or you get more story. So you can't complain.
MA: No.
JN: Now, I have to ask, and, oh, I don't know that it's something that you probably haven't even decided it yet, but, when you do go back and you do, in ten years, so be it, do The Scottish Book, are you thinking more in line of a, like an account of events or more like small stories for things.
JKR: To be honest, John, at the moment, I'm not gonna say "don't hold me to this", but you know, I'm just gonna say "this might change". But I imagined it as half of it, I mean maybe on facing pages, but that might be difficult to do just through layout. But the ideal would be, to have, say, on the left-hand side you've got a page showing all your back story, extra details on characters, or an entry on wands showing what every character's wand was, and all of this stuff. And then I think also, it might be interesting to have information about the actual writing and what I discarded. So on one side, it's acting as though the whole world is true and I'm giving you extra information on that real world, and on the other side, we're admitting that it's actually fiction and I'm showing discarded plots, characters that didn't make it, problems in the plot. I think both lots of information are interesting, so it would be nice to unite both of them.
JN: Absolutely. That sounds like a student's textbook...
JKR: Yeah! Yeah.
JN: ...where in the margins, they have, you know, fact tables and things and then there's also snippets of stories that they rescued from things and then...
JKR: Well, it's actually-- To be honest, I think the point of doing it, if I'm going to do it, it's about doing the absolute, definitive, giving-people-everything guide. Well, I mean everything, could I ever give everything? But everything that I've got, to put it that way. That's what I would aspire to, at the moment. It might, for practical reasons, not be possible to do both sets of information in that way, but I would like to. That would be the ideal.
JN: I think fans would wait ten years for something like that, to be honest.
JKR: Oh well, if that's the case, I'm delighted. Because I don't-- you know, what I really-- I mean, I don't want to get into, God knows I do not, this near Christmas, want to talk about legal stuff, it's just too depressing, but I think there's no point in me doing it unless it's amazing. I think there's no point in writing it unless it is everything. The last thing I want to do is to feel that I have to rush something out because-- do you know what I mean? My hand has been forced, or I've got to rush it out because there's demand and other people will fill it first. I wanna do it right or not do it at all, and I really do want to do it right.
SU: Well, I'll wait ten years if you give me a little bit of the history of Hufflepuff, and then I'll be just happy.
JKR: Yeah, well, I would definitely-- you know, that's-- all of it, yeah.
MA: Oh, Hufflepuff.
JN: It's been a hundred and thirty something weeks and we've managed to get you on the show, so I mean, ten years, what's it matter...
JKR: What does it matter? That's the spirit, John!
MA: I don't know, you guys are being very permissive about this whole ten years thing. (laughter) I don't know, man. Let's not expand it, no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Since you mentioned Hufflepuff, I just wanna ask a sort of specific question about Hannah.
JKR: Hannah Abbott?
MA: Yeah, there's a line in "Deathly Hallows" when Harry sees someone that he thinks might be Hannah Abbott's long-lost relatives, what's her deal? Is she a Muggleborn? Did she lose her family...
JKR: Oh, you mean the grave?
MA: Yeah.
JKR: Uh, no, she's not Muggleborn. No, I'm pretty sure Hannah's a pureblood. I know her mother died...
MA: In that old documentary, you showed a picture where they had like all the family associations and Hannah appeared to be Muggleblood in the fans' careful reconstruction of--
JKR: Did she? Because I'll tell you what, if that's the case-- and I've got that notebook and that's one of my cornerstone notebooks, in that case, then I've been misremembering that, because I thought she was pureblood. Interesting. I've certainly written about her, and thought about her for years now, as pureblood. So that's interesting. Maybe we'll just split the difference and call her halfblood. (laughter) Yeah, that's how decisions are taken in the fairly random world of J.K. Rowling. (laughter)
SU: I didn't care, though, because Hannah goes on to become landlady at The Leaky Cauldron, my favorite pub, and--
JKR: Damn right, she does, and I think that's a pretty cool career, and I think that makes Neville quite cool that he married her, don't you think?
MA: Yes it does, woohoo!
JKR: Thank you.
SU: Thank you, Jo! I like it.
JKR: My pleasure.
SU: You know, I love your website. You made Hufflepuff-- You know, when you did the Four Founders, and you had all that stuff, so we were really really grateful to learn about all those things.
JKR: Thank you.
SU: Bring it on.
JKR: I know that the website's been really quiet lately and I just said in my diary entry, people around me keep saying "oh, it's been really quiet now". They have no idea. The second half of 2007 has been insane and manic and strange and full of stuff that I'd really rather not deal with. I'm afraid to say the website's been one of the things that kind of went bye the bye. I hoped, by starting the website, which I've enjoyed so much, it's been a great way to directly communicate with fans and definitely the most effective way I could've found. I was getting a lot of pressure or a lot of requests to do a fan club. You know, from people who wanted to run it and people who wanted to have a fan club. And I really didn't want to do a fan club because I thought that it-- they're nearly never as good as they promise to be. And they're never free, you've got to pay, and then a lot of material need to be generated and so I thought doing the fan site, creating that, at least it would be free and people would feel that, you know, they were getting something. So if there was a quiet phase, then it wouldn't matter too much. I do need to update, and I will. I will.
SU: Yes, 'cause we're dying about those W.O.M.B.A.T.S.
JKR: Oh, God. Listen, I gotta tell you. The W.O.M.B.A.T.S. are done, I'm sorry. There are no more W.O.M.B.A.T.S.
SU: Okay.
JKR: I'm sorry. I worked really hard on those W.O.M.B.A.T.S.
SU: But what was the purpose of them, though? Just for fun? Just to do those? I mean, why would you-- we felt like, oh man, we're like--
JKR: I'll tell you what it was, and this is kind of sad. I was told that it would be very unwise to put hints about "Hallows" on my site because we've had enormous trouble in "Half-Blood Prince" because I had put hints about it, and it was argued in court by people who wanted to put the whole book on the internet, or press people who've got hold of it, and wanted to put it out early, and-- an argument would be "well you put it on your site, so we have the right to put it up as well." So I was told it would be very foolish to start putting chapter headings and so on, up. I would be weakening my own case against people who wanted to do spoilers. So then I started looking for something that I could give fans that wasn't foresha-- Although I hope you noticed-- Sorry, I'm going off on a slight tangent. I was going to say, to give fans stuff that wasn't foreshadowing Book 7. But in fact, if you were paying attention, W.O.M.B.A.T. 3 had loads of stuff from Book 7 in it. Hahahaha. And no one knew. and no one realized, including the lawyers, yay! So I win.
SU: Yay! And Jo wins! Yes you do, you go girl!
JKR: Thank you.
(overtalk)
JKR: Actually, there was a whole lot of stuff in at W.O.M.B.A.T. 3 that was taken from Seven, and people picked up on some of it. I had some stuff in there about Gryffindor's sword and a few other things.
MA: Will you put up the answers so that people can kind of figure it out?
JKR: D'you know, I could. I could... would you like that?
SU: Yes, please.
MA: That would be fun.
JKR: Okay, that would be cool. It did amuse me. I can't remember, someone gave-- some site gave a guide to what you should be putting, and I think people who followed their advice were not getting the top marks, so....
JN: I mean, I got an "O" on all of my tests
SU: He did not!
(overtalk)
JKR: Did you? Well, the embarrassing thing is my husband only got "Acceptable" and he was in the room while I was writing the questions and was listening to me telling him the answers. So, uh, what that says about how much my husband listens to me, I shudder to think.
JN: That sounds very much like a Hermione/Ron kind of thing.
JKR: Yeah, we have our moments, believe you me. Yeah, so, he got an "Acceptable" and then got discouraged and didn't take another one. (laughs)
MA: Oh, that's very Ron.
JKR: Yeah.
SU: Oh, speaking of Ron/Hermione--
JKR: Yeah, did they graduate from Hogwarts?
SU: Yes, did they?
JKR: Harry and Ron didn't go back, Hermione did. Did you bet right? You must've, I mean, come on. No one's gonna think Hermione wouldn't go back.
SU: I predicted, yeah.
JKR: Of course she'd go back. She has to get her N.E.W.T.s. Ron was really done with schooling. It would be kind of tempting to go back just to mess around for a year and have a break, but he goes into the Auror department. He's needed. Anyone. Anyone who was in that battle on the right side, Kingsley would want them to help clean up the-- I mean, anyone who's old enough to do it, who's over-age. But Kingsley would've wanted Ron, Neville, Harry and they would've all gone, and they would've all done the job. And I think that that would've been a good thing for them, too. Because to go through that battle and then be religated to the sidelines, I think they would've felt a need to keep going and finish the job. So that would've been rounding up, really, the corrupt people who were doing a Lucius Malfoy and trying to pretend that they weren't really involved.
JN: Wow. We had all been thinking of these big complicated-- We always over-complicate things.
JKR: Yeah, you do.
JN: Maybe they do this distance learning kind of thing where they were...
JKR: A Kwikspell Course!
JN: ...working on school from home. Yes, exactly.
MA: We were imagining Hermione on the back of the dragon on the deluxe edition doing her N.E.W.T.
JKR: No, she would definitely, definitely go back, and she would want to graduate. And I think that she was-- I mean, I love Hermione. She went with Ron and Harry because she has a really good heart. That's not about brain. Ultimately, she had a bigger heart than she had a brain, and that's saying something for Hermione. But was she naturally drawn to battle? No, she wasn't. She's not a Bellatrix. She's not a woman who actually wants to be hurting, fighting, killing. Not at all. She would be glad to go back to school, be glad to get back to study, and then would join them at the Ministry.
JN: You know, what I'm curious about now. What I think is one of the neatest things about the Hogwarts tradition is the entrance ceremony, from the whole riding the boats to the castle to the Sorting ceremony. What kind of traditions is there for graduation and leaving Hogwarts?
JKR: D'you know, John, I'm really glad you asked that, because I felt a huge sadness that I wouldn't write a graduation scene. You know, I really did. I knew-- I mean, I knew from early days that we would never see them graduate. I knew that he would-- well not he, they, all three of them, would not. We would not see them at school during what would've been their final year of education. But I really, during the final book, I kept thinking it would've been-- I felt sad that the book wasn't gonna end with that Feast scene, the graduation scene. But it couldn't, you know, it just couldn't. That's not the way it could've ended. It would've felt far too trite and-- you know, a lot of people felt the Epilogue was too sentimental, I think to have a graduation scene on top of what just happened would've been an absurd bit of anti-climax.
JN: Did you have ideas for what kind of traditions that they would do? Like ride the boats back out of Hogwarts, obviously, I think it's the cutest thing...
JKR: Oh yeah, definitely. No, I think the boats would've been the most poetic and beautiful way to get-- for them to leave. And symbolic in that they-- Harry wouldn't have seen the thestrals again, you know what I mean? It would've been a return to innocence, really. And passage over water is so symbolic, you know, in the history of magic, so, yeah. That would've been great.
MA: You've just-- Jo, you've just hit on something that happens all the time here on Pottercast. John says-- he throws out some nonsense thing that he just thought of at the top of his head...
JKR: It turns out to be accurate.
MA: ...then it's the perfect thing. And it turns out to be accurate. I can't tell you how much he got right in "Deathly Hallows".
JN: Well, I think I find that very interesting because it's often those things that just strike you like lightning that are the right things, you know. Sometimes you have to work very hard for something and finally something shifts in your brain, and you say "yes, of course, that's it". But I love it, there's no better feeling when it just comes out of nowhere and you think, "ah, perfect, thank you."