[evolved_rage]

by writers who seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve."

Bawaahhhhahahahh

[Generic_Login_1787]

Terry Pratchet is not only a great writer, he's mostly right. But he still needs to get over himself. I've always had doubts about how big the "rising tide" around Harry Potter was going to be.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Oh, please, Terry, don't sink to this level. She's writing kids books - she can't come close to your level of humor. Harry Potter will never match Rincewind, Sir Sam Vimes, or (and see my tag line) the Wee, Free Men.

I read the Potter books because my daughter does - but I've never gone back and read them again. Yours on the other hand, I'll read again and again - I catch something new each time, and always find myself laughing.

Now, hurry up and get Thud to the printers.

[Political Junkie Too]

"It has also contained come of the very best, most accessible writing for children, by writers who seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve."

Isn't this where the distinction really lies?

I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books (saw the movies), but most fantasy from my adolescent years seemed aimed at a teen/young adult audiences. I recall that the Harry Potter books first made news because it revitalized younger children's interest in reading novels, and large ones at that.

-PJ

[50sDad]

Pratchet is deep, funny, outlandish, amusing, inventive, and a tremendous writer of light fiction. He makes me belly -laugh in a way no other living author does. He writes in a Douglas Adamsish full-tilt ironic fashion, and I eagerly await his next book.

That said, this is sour grapes.

I have been marveling, having just finished the sixth Harry Potter book at the depth that Rowling's work has reached. Her target audience has aged, mostly at the same rate as Harry, and all the teen angst, all the first date jitters, all the zeitgeist of youth is counterpointed by the demands of manhood. I have watched her write him from a mostly innocent boy, beset by bad relatives, into a young man who is rapidly taking on the mantle of leadership, of standing up to both the outright evil of Voldemort and the sleazy, half-truth evil of the Clintonian Ministry of Magic. I see nuances and subtleties in her work that are not present in Pratchett.

I find it to be the choice of McDonalds vs. Burger King. Both fine products, but they are different and distinct. For him to whine about her making money is much akin to the small businessmen who complain about Walmart. (That is, "OK, now what are you going to do to change your business to compete?")

[Southern Federalist]

Small, small,small. I love Pratchett's work, but this is pathetic. And it's not like he isn't selling books, even to kids. My daughter loves The Wee Free Men, which has Discworld characters (Granny Weatherwax) but kid-appropriate subject matter.

[SpringheelJack]

Pratchett is acting pretty small. What his complaint essentially amounts to, it seems, is that Rowling is selling more books than he is, and that she's not well-versed in the technicalities of genre. This is nothing but nit-picking.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

[DeuceTraveler]

I love Terry Pratchett and have been trying to collect all his books, so I know his material, and it is definitely not serious fantasy. I would think that any writer being successful at fantasy would be good for the entire genre. I hope he finds his sanity soon.

[JenB]

He's just mad because he's been a little off his stride since that magnificent "Night Watch". I don't like his kidie fantasies (leave it to Rowling, or her superior, Diana Wynne Jones, and give us more Vimes, dude) and "Monstrous Regiment" just wasn't funny.

But. The first Discworld novel I located was on a display the night HP4 came out. I had the whole evening to read it, and I was hooked. The world's big enough for both of you, Mr. Pratchett.

[Americanexpat]

David and Leigh Eddings, Harry Turtledove, Christopher Rowley and Raymond E. Feist. I have read books of each of these authors as many as eight times each.

I like writers, grab your attention and hang on.

I don'r begrudge any good author their success they have earned it.

[altura]

Very tacky by Terry. Never read him, but less inclined to after the big whine.

Now I, on the other hand, have a right to whine, I can't even get a agent.

However, I choose not to, but to appreciate all the good writers... there are so many bad ones.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Oh calm down Pratchett.

Her book being a best seller does not take away from you. In fact the kids that buy her book may one day buy yours.

[thathamiltonwoman]

Sounds like jealousy.

[Physicist]

Sounds like the British media is playing a game of let's-you-and-her-fight. The Sunday Times apparently has written a pig-ignorant piece about the fantasy genre and Rowling's place in it. Pratchett responds, as one of the genre's "made" men, to set the record straight. He's not writing so much to attack Rowling as to speak up for his colleagues (he needs no defense himself, as he belongs to the canon already). But then the British media paint it as some sort of churlish and unprompted attack on Rowling.

In 1977, I'll bet People magazine was full of articles about how George Lucas had reinvented Science Fiction, reinvigorating a staid and stodgy genre, blah, blah, blah. And I'm sure that if Asimov ever said, "nu, that's not quite right," the blogosphere would have said, "Sour grapes! Say it ain't so, Ike!"

[Sweet Hour of Prayer]

I've always thought that Rowling got her ideas about the school (moving stairways, self-guarding library books, magic wand characteristics, etc) from Pratchett's work. I can see why he'd be somewhat irritated. Pratchett's books I very enjoyable. I'm sorry that they don't get the attention that Rowling's have as well.

[RogueIsland]

The magazine also said Rowling reinvented fantasy fiction, which was previously stuck in "an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves".

Wow, that displays quite a breathtaking ignorance of the state of the Fantasy genre pre-Rowling.

[TASMANIANRED]

Envy is an ugly thing.

[stocksthatgoup]

Soon all writers will be unionized so that we can all get a standard product to gather dust.