(Kunde inte hålla mig, utan skrev nedanstående utgjutelse på en engelskspråkig sf-lista. En lätt spoiler i slutets Ps. Det är verkligen bedrövligt med tusentals 12-åringar som köar för något som säkert inte är skit, men inte ett dugg bättre än andra böcker. --AE)
I own several of the Harry Potter books. I have at times opened one. And puked. They are probably very well written. But they have taken too much interest away from *other* fantastic literature, and other fantasy, which is more deserving. If you want much better fantasy, I'd say you can turn to Ursula Le Guin or Jack Vance. Both are marvellous. Swedish media have the last days been *packed* with stuff about the Harry Potter craze. Our 24/7 channel SVT24 for instance show all the ca a dozen local news programs, and virtually all of them had reports of youngsters standing in line outside their local bookshop *all over* Sweden, from the north to the south. I understand that the scenes have been similar all over the Western world, particulary in the UK. In Stockholm up too 2000 people were lined up outside SF-Bokhandeln (The SF Bookstore, the fan-owned very successful chain with soon up to three stores - the third will open in a few weeks). That bookstore is in the Old Town and the line took up most of the main shopping street for about 1 km. They opened 01.01 yesterday. I had before this seen much of the "PR" material and spoken to the staff (I know all the owners personally, since up to 30 years back) and I have no criticism towards them. They are a bookstore and do what bookstores are supposed to do: sell books. They have a high profile in fantasy books and should take advantage of the Harry P phenomenon. They'd be stupid if they didn't. I wish them luck. But this HP craze in general is something I find hard to swallow. How the heck could one author sell 350 million books in less than 10 years? That's more than Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton and Dan Brown (perhaps not Danny B, I dunno - his one-hit wonder may proportioanlly have sold more.) Wouldn't, say, 10-20 million copies had been sufficient? Rowling could buy a wonderful house from that and be set for life. And I can't understand why *Swedish* youngsters line up for a 700+ page book in English. We are pretty good in English but 12-year-olds are lining up for some very complicated and out-of-the-ordinary stuff in a foreign language. (The Swedish translation is said to be due in November, and I fear similar lines of kids then.) Why the lines? There's no risk of any bookshop running out of books. You could go into the SF Bookstore or any other bookstore after 01.01 and still get your book. It's not a rock concert with a limited number of tickets. You can all get your book, so why line up? You want to prove that you are a much more hard-core Harry Potter fan than the next guy in the line? Why would anyone want to be a "hard core" Harry Fucking Potter fan? Get. A. Life. Jeezus H Christ! (Dunno where the "H" is from - perhaps "Harry"...) --Ahrvid Ps. And as said, I hate Harry Potter. H dies in the end. Not too soon! -- ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxxx/ahrvid@xxxxxxxxxxx/tel 073-68622[53+mercersdag] Pangram för 29 sv bokstäver: Yxskaftbud, ge vår wczonmö iqhjälp! Novelltävling, info http://www.skriva.bravewriting.com - gå med! ----- SKRIVA - sf, fantasy och skräck * Äldsta svenska skrivarlistangrundad 1997 * Info http://www.skriva.bravewriting.com eller skriva- request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx för listkommandon (ex subject: subscribe).
