Vaultboy

As a scientist used to having to do meticulous citations, i also found Rowling's position to be absurd - no one would take anything away from her if she stated where she got ideas or inspiration from. One of the reasons I like authors like Dan Simmons and Stephen King is that have time and time again explained their writing process, and cite inspiration (in their books, and in interviews, etc). Regardless of what the HP series has done to reinvigorate readership, her lack of acknowledgment to her peers and predecessors doesn't sit well with me. Ultimately I regard her as a Spice Girl - someone with enough talent who saw a gap in the market, and profited immensely from it - and nothing more.

I should say though, that I sympathise with Le Guin. Whilst reading the first HP novel, I recognised the links with A Wizard of Earthsea immediately (as well as the more one-dimensional comparisons with LoTR and Ender's Game). Given though, that Earthsea is my favourite childhood novel, and one I re-read about 5 times as years went by, I felt that HP was not as complex as Sparrowhawk, and that actions (like summoning the dead) had far less consequences, and that world was less rich and less thought-provoking. Only with Prisoner of Azkaban did JKR start to impress me.

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