And it seems like complete rubbish in my humble opinion.
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Slytherin_Goddess — 15 years ago(June 09, 2010 01:43 AM)
I'm not very familiar with the Books of Magic, but I have read and watched some of the Worst Witch. No way do I doubt that there are very many similarities. The biggest one, of course, centering around a school of magic, but it's impossible for a book to be 100% completely original. If someone wrote a book about a donkey befriending a hamster and they go to Costa Rica together - sure it sounds original, but money says there's a book similar to it somewhere.
The thing to keep in mind is that magic and wizardry is a very popular topic to write about and a school is a common setting in books due to the freedom, company and drama is associated with it. In my mind, putting two common things together like that, you're going to have links between stories. It doesn't mean that they're copying them, it just means that it's popular.
Also, if similarities means 'unoriginal,' I highly doubt that the two books you referenced are 'original' works. We could look back into books written 100 years ago and find a book about a wizard attending school. And then if we looked back farther, perhaps some more. Does that mean that the only person allowed to have an original piece of work about a magical person attending a school is the very first person who wrote about it whether their tale has been lost to time or not?
The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn Is Just To Love And Be Loved In Return -
Slytherin_Goddess — 15 years ago(June 15, 2010 08:21 PM)
I'm glad that we can agree on the situation of similarities, thought we still do not agree of the situation with JKR. You are entiled to your belief, but if you do believe that books are able to have close similarities, I don't see how it would be different from the HP series. JKR has said she hasn't used other works as a base for her series and there really is no proof against her except some similarities in the book, which you have expressed you understand, even providing a source I was WAY too lazy to look up. Thank you for that, btw. Then why can't it be a coincedence? Why can't two people come up with similar stories?
From my own experience, I had started writing a bunch of short stories about a girl attending a witchcraft school. It was loosely based off of me and my friends and it wasn't 'hocus pocus' type of magic. At the time I was writing them, I was very interested in Wicca and Paganism. I was using true life experience and knowledge to fuel my writing. I was 9 when I started writing them. Yes, HP was out, but in 1998, the books hadn't spread so globally. What else could have influenced me, one might ask? Well, I wasn't a big reader then, I doubt the Full House books have much magic in them. I watched some disney and other childrens films. I was not interested in any music groups that strayed away from pop. Backstreet Boys, N Sync, Spice Girls.
There really was no influence except for my interest in witchcraft. The school setting I wanted so that my main character could grow and learn. I also definitely remember wanting the school atmosphere for the drama. There was so much drama I could write about. I wrote about what I saw. My story also had an evil wizard who wanted control of the magical world who had a following of loyal supporters.
This kind of makes me want to write it again, but then, I suppose, I would be sued left and right as well. Perhaps even by JKR.
The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn Is Just To Love And Be Loved In Return -
phonenumberofthebeast — 15 years ago(June 17, 2010 10:47 AM)
An example was when lexicon tried selling an encyclopedia of her work. It was taking her ideas and putting them in their own way. Why shouldn't she sue?
Actually, if they had done that, that wouldn't have been a problem. Any guidebook, by definition, must take the ideas of another and express them in its own fashion. That's what guidebooks do. The problem was that they were taking Rowling's
own words
and using them extensively without attribution.
the Harry Potter books have too many similarities to The Worst Witch and The Books of Magic for me to believe that she didn't deliberately copy from them.
Re: The Books of Magic. Gaiman has come to Rowling's defence on this. He pointed out that he stole most of his ideas for that story from TH White's
The Sword and the Stone
, which Rowling has also admitted stealing from. So they're both equally guilty there. Can't say about
The Worst Witch
, but I do feel sorry for Jill Murphy, who's never made much money off her creation and is constantly being heckled for ripping off HP.
Never say "Worst movie ever" to someone who's seen
Highlander 2 -
Slytherin_Goddess — 15 years ago(June 26, 2010 11:29 PM)
No reason to pick apart tiny mistakes I make in my post. Also, when has JKR ever admitted to stealing ideas from the sword in the stone? I have looked all over and cannot find anything about that. If you could please reference something, I would appreciate it.
The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn Is Just To Love And Be Loved In Return -
phonenumberofthebeast — 15 years ago(June 27, 2010 07:09 AM)
Actually, I did that because I was replying to two different posts in one. JKR once referred to Wart as "Harry's spiritual ancestor".
Never say "Worst movie ever" to someone who's seen
Highlander 2 -
phonenumberofthebeast — 15 years ago(July 01, 2010 03:40 PM)
But it's true. Fantasy is a very narrow genre; there aren't that many tropes to draw on. Pretty much everyone is either ripping off Tolkien (who was ripping off Beowulf and Germanic mythology), Lewis (who was ripping off Judeo-Christian and Romano-Greek mythology) or White. Nearly everyone stole from Dunsany and they're all ultimately aping fairy tales anyway. Horror is even worse. King steals openly and proudly from Lovecraft, who stole openly and proudly from Poe.
Never say "Worst movie ever" to someone who's seen
Highlander 2 -
Slytherin_Goddess — 15 years ago(July 02, 2010 08:50 AM)
Well that's similar to what I'd posted poreviously. Pretty much all topics have been covered in books. I could write about a teacup trying to quit smoking and someone somewhere has already written something very similar. It's damn near impossible to write something these days that's not sharing ideas or themes with another book. It's bound to happen. But saying that writers deliberately take ideas from other works of literature is a very generalized statement and can't be said for every single author out there.
The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn Is Just To Love And Be Loved In Return -
dlmedley2003 — 15 years ago(August 13, 2010 10:44 PM)
'Re: The Books of Magic. Gaiman has come to Rowling's defence on this. He pointed out that he stole most of his ideas for that story from TH White's The Sword and the Stone, which Rowling has also admitted stealing from. So they're both equally guilty there. Can't say about The Worst Witch, but I do feel sorry for Jill Murphy, who's never made much money off her creation and is constantly being heckled for ripping off HP.
For crying out loudThere is nothing wrong with setting up some of the biggest fantasy cliche's or at least what's popular at the moment and re-imagining themHarry Potter is simply superior world building to all these books that came beforePlus her writing is simple and meaningful like early Beatles musicShe is the best
LOL! You stole my ideas then broke my balls on a Metalocalypse extra!
