Chinese Market Awash in Fake Harry Potter Books
It's like...fanfic in the marketplace. People wrote their own versions and sold them as HP7. Then there were the pirated versions.
It's crazy no-intellectual-rights land!
Btw, Aimee, did you know that the A&E Biography on JKR is available to be seen on YouTube? It's interesting.
From the Times story:
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Some homegrown “Harry Potter” authors are also unabashed about their forays into publishing.
One such writer is a manager at a Shanghai textile factory named Li Jingsheng. “I bought Harry Potter 1 through 6 for my son a couple of years ago, and when he finished reading them, he kept asking me to tell him what happens next,” he explained. “We couldn’t wait, so I began making up my own story and in May last year, I typed it up on my computer. I had to get up early and go to bed late to write this novel, usually spending one hour, from 6 to 7 in the morning and 10 to 11 in the evening to write it.”
The result was “Harry Potter and the Showdown,” a 250,000-word novel, the final version of which he placed recently on Web sites, followed by a notice saying he was looking for publishers. The book quickly logged 150,000 readers on a popular Chinese site, Baidu.com’s Harry Potter fan Web page.
“This is fantastic,” Gu Guaiguai, an admiring reader, wrote online about “Showdown.” “I wonder if Rowling would bother to continue to write if she had read it.”
Another reader was even more breathless. “You are the pride of our Harry Potter fans,” he wrote, adding, “We expect you to go on and write Harry Potter number eight,” which Mr. Li has in fact already begun.
Btw, Aimee, did you know that the A&E Biography on JKR is available to be seen on YouTube? It's interesting.
I did not! I shall find it!! Thank you muchly, kind sir.
For some reason it reminds me of the schoolboys in the Spring Awakenings Musical
That image is my desktop wallpaper. Coincidence.
I bought the adult version in Scotland, because I really, really hate the children's cover for Deathly Hallows. Trudy is right in that the UK versions are MUCH easier to carry around - smaller in all directions. Which was a blessing on my limited-space trip.
I really sense the possibility of Hogwarts: The Next Generation, starring Teddy Lupin. Like Harry, he lost his parents to the Battle with EEEVIL, and he has a wacko godfather. He's also pre-damaged, what with being half-werewolf.
And I think the fanfic author is right about few non-purebloods surviving. I notice that the Death Eaters went light on the half-bloods (presumably due to Tom Riddle's status as one), but yeah, the off-screen deathcount was probably high.
The "missing generation" is an oft-discussed aspect of British sociology, though. Since WWI there have been towns in England completely lacking men of a certain age. WWII provided more of the same. It could make for an interesting B or C line in a new series.
Does any of the information we've seen say what Draco's doing with himiself? Or is he staying at home doing the life of "reformed" evil and managing the vast estate? I picture occasional interviews between Mr. Malfoy and Auror Potter wherein our good Auror is making sure Mr. Malfoy's staying on the straight-ish and narrow-ish.
Wrod. Because Aurors need to keep an eye on such things.
I'm picturing some very film noir thing with the very chirascuro-friendly Draco being formal but relaxed in a straight-back chair as Harry in his auror robes wanders around an interrogation room asking the occasional leading question.
The wizarding world Hot Box.
Harry as Pembleton.
Harry as Pembleton.
BWAH! I love recasting!! Hermione = Kay, natch. Ron = Beau...or, possibly, Brodie...or wait Colin = Brodie.
In less fanning-myself-with-one-hand news: Check out the Monster Book of Monsters [link]
