Friday, March 5, 2010

J. K. Rowling

From J.K. Rowling's interview with O: The Oprah Magazine:

O: You're saying it's difficult to write outside your gender, but you've chosen to create Harry Potter. Is that hard?

JKR: If I say no now, that's going to sound really arrogant. But I had been writing the first book for six months before I stopped and thought, 'Why's he a boy?' And the answer is, He's a boy because that's the way he came. If I had stopped at that point and changed him to Harriet, it would have felt very contrived. My feminist conscience is saved by Hermione, who's the brightest character. I love Hermione as a character. She's kind of a caricature of me when I was younger. I was obsessed with achieving academically, but underneath that I was insecure.

O: We love Hermione, too! We identify!

JKR: I think we have a very strong female character in her.

O: You have a young daughter. Do you read Harry Potter to her?

JKR: I kept...[read on]
The Harry Potter books made Sarah Ebner's list of the top 25 boarding school books; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is #1 on Brian MacArthur' list of the 100 books that defined the noughties.

--Marshal Zeringue