Interview with JK Rowling?
Ok, so that title may be a bit misleading. No, I am not doing an interview with the world renowned author that we all love so much. Nor do I even hope to have something like that on the horizon. She’s just too big for that. However, I was thinking to myself today, what if I could interview JK Rowling? What if I had the chance to ask only 5 questions? What would those questions be?
Today, I’m doing just that. I’m writing out my 5 questions to Rowling, and the reasons behind them. And maybe even what I would answer if I were her. I’d like to know, also, what you would ask. Please leave a question or two in the comments, and the reasons behind that particular question…
OK, lets begin…
1) Something I’ve wondered since reading Deathly Hallows, and then re-reading Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s)Stone… There were several tidbits left throughout Chapter One of SS. The Deluminator, Sirius Black etc… Was that intentional foreshadowing or did the ideas come later?
Mostly, readers, my interest in the question lies in particular with the deluminator. It becomes such an important tool in Deathly Hallows, but before that it’s entirely inconsequential. It’s just another bit of magic. Just another tool that the wizards have that we do not. So I wonder, pretty regularly, was this meant to become so important when she wrote the first words about it so long ago?
2) We find out in Order of the Phoenix that James was kind of a jerk. At least when it came to Severus. Since we all saw James through Harry’s eyes and he thought James was a saint, was it a difficult decision to burst his, and our, bubble like that?
Now I realize that James being a jerk to Severus was a necessary plot device. It’s explains everything. Why was Snape so mean to Harry? Payback. Why did Snape still do everything to keep Harry alive? True love. It just makes sense. Still, I was crushed when I found out that James Potter was one of “those” guys…
3) What age do you think is appropriate to begin, and finish, reading the Harry Potter series?
The first couple books are very much for children, in my opinion, but when it comes to the final books it kind of disturbs me to see 6 & 7 year olds reading them. I don’t know when I will let my son start them, but he will be at least 8, and I may very well be a mean mommy and start him at 11 with a new one each year on his birthday…
4) If you were to give any one of the characters that died in the series a free pass, who would it have been?
This is such a hard question for me to ask, as I’m sure it would be a very difficult question for her to answer. Especially since we know she did give one character a second chance at life. When Arthur Weasley was bitten by Nagini in Order of the Phoenix, he was supposed to die. Rowling changed her mind at the last minute, saying that it would have affected Ron too deeply for the remainder of the series. Still of the one’s that did die, if I were her, I would choose Dobby. I think his death was just so unnecessary. And not in the way that she shouldn’t have written it, but like so many deaths in wars are unnecessary. He was an innocent, not a warrior. His death affected me more deeply than any other in the books.
5) What is one interview question that you always wish would be asked, but never has been?
Of course the reasoning behind this is clear, what do you want to say that you never get the chance to?
I have so many more questions, but that is the point, if I could only ask her 5 things, what would they be. These are mine readers, what are yours?
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:59 am
1). Who is your least favorite character?
2). Are any characters in the stories based off any body you know?
3). What do you think of the movies?
4). With the movies what do you wish that they would do differently?
5). Do you wish you would of do anything differently with the books?
June 6th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Those are all excellent questions. I think I can answer the second question for you. According to JKR’s official website she has only set out to depict one person she knew in real life. The result of that was the character, Gilderoy Lockhart. “I assure you that the person on whom Gilderoy was modelled was even more objectionable than his fictional counterpart,” she states in the Extra Stuff section of her site. She, of course, doesn’t reveal who the person is, and assures the readers that he will never ever figure it out.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I heard with Gilderoy Lockhart was based after her ex husband.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
You know, it seems that was a very popular rumor. Popular enough that she put the correction in more than one place in the section of her website where she fights harmful rumors.
According to her official website Gilderoy Lockhart is in fact NOT based on her ex husband. Now I can see why if it were true, she would still deny it, but honestly if it were true she could have just ignored those rumors. Instead she has made a point of denying it.
I don’t know how this rumor got started, but I’ll tell you what I do know. If you are divorced, people automatically assume that you hate your ex. If at that point you admit that a really unpleasant character is based on a real person, the first place the modern mind goes, is your ex. I’m sure that somebody just said, if he’s that unpleasant, it MUST be her ex husband!!! That MUST be the reason they got divorced!!!
The fact is that none of us knows enough about her life to assume we would begin to know who he is based on, but she is sure not going to tell us anytime soon.