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Mr. Moore: So, I have a couple "just out of curiosity" questions. They deal with something that's been discussed briefly in this interview already, namely that of "borrowing or stealing" from other authors. In your original response to this issue, you quoted TS Eliot: "Bad writers borrow. Good writers steal." I have to agree. You also mentioned that if you were reading something and suspected the author of "borrowing", you would toss the book immediately aside.
I have just completed reading the Harry Potter saga. Admittedly, I avoided this for years due to the fact that it was so popular--usually a sign that the thing is not for me. But after moving to Uzbekistan, and having a very unforseen and unwanted traumatic experience, I just needed some comfort reading. (Besides, the books are in my classroom library, and since it's my goal to have read everything in that library so as to better direct my students to books they might find interesting, I figured "what the hell...") Anyway,
without giving specific details (don't want to ruin it for you if you ever do read these books), there were at least three parts of the final installment that immediately struck me as unoriginally Rowling's borrowed from Donaldson (your Covenant works). For me, it is clear that she has not only read your works, but has ganked certain details and placed them ineffectively into her own writing. She shoehorned them in for what I found to be no good reason. So my questions:
1. If you had read these books and had a similar reaction to these details as I had, what might you say to Rowling about it if anything (if given the chance)?
2. Have you ever singled out specific details or aspects of another writer's work to re-craft in your own writing? If so, what or from whom? Or do your "thefts" come without conscious choice?
As always,
Hail,
Mr. Moore
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I usually avoid subjects like this. But today I'm in the mood to blunder ahead. So-- 1) Not having read Potters 2-7, I really can't comment. But let me observe that there may well be no new ideas anywhere. One could argue that no writer ever does anything except polish up old ideas until they look shiny. So it's perfectly possible that Rowling has written something that *sounds* Donaldsonian for her own good and sufficient reasons. Maybe she made those ideas work, maybe she didn't: I wouldn't know. But keep in mind that people are forever accusing me of taking all kinds of things from Tolkien. If you're willing to cut me some slack, maybe you could do the same for her. 2) My own (conscious) thefts have all been matters of storytelling technique: design, style, timing, whatever I happen to need. To my eye, at least, the links between my work and Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and William Faulkner are pretty obvious. But I'm not privy to the secret counsels of my unconscious mind: I just take what it gives me and say Thank You. (09/26/2007) |