Neil Gaiman on JK Rowling and fair use
Neil Gaiman has written a response to the whole JK Rowling/Steve Vander Ark drama now unfolding in the news.
Gaiman's blog entry presents an interesting take on the issue, as it's an artist who admits that all creativity, especially genre writing like sci fi and fantasy, involves drawing from other stories and other writers.
He writes: I certainly *didn't* believe that Rowling had ripped off Books of Magic, that I doubted she'd read it and that it wouldn't matter if she had: I wasn't the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school. It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them that matters.
Genre fiction, as Terry Pratchett has pointed out, is a stew. You take stuff out of the pot, you put stuff back. The stew bubbles on.
If you study the annals of literature, this precedent arises everywhere, most notably in Shakespeare. Very few of the Bard's stories originate in his plays; he was known to take inspiration not only from myth and history, but also the writing of other artists.
That said, what exactly is being stolen from JK Rowling by Steve Vander Ark.
If you are unfamiliar with the story, simply google it.
If you are unfamiliar with Gaiman, he is the author of the incredibly powerful Sandman graphic novel series, and the books Neverwhere and American Gods.
Gaiman's blog entry presents an interesting take on the issue, as it's an artist who admits that all creativity, especially genre writing like sci fi and fantasy, involves drawing from other stories and other writers.
He writes: I certainly *didn't* believe that Rowling had ripped off Books of Magic, that I doubted she'd read it and that it wouldn't matter if she had: I wasn't the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school. It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them that matters.
Genre fiction, as Terry Pratchett has pointed out, is a stew. You take stuff out of the pot, you put stuff back. The stew bubbles on.
If you study the annals of literature, this precedent arises everywhere, most notably in Shakespeare. Very few of the Bard's stories originate in his plays; he was known to take inspiration not only from myth and history, but also the writing of other artists.
That said, what exactly is being stolen from JK Rowling by Steve Vander Ark.
If you are unfamiliar with the story, simply google it.
If you are unfamiliar with Gaiman, he is the author of the incredibly powerful Sandman graphic novel series, and the books Neverwhere and American Gods.
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