I’m about to become very unpopular.
Emotionally, I keep two lists. One is labeled, for sake of this discussion, “Creator.” The other is labeled “Company”. The “Creator” list is filled with folks like Shakespeare, Gene Roddenberry, Stan Lee, even Stephen King, people who have created some of the coolest work around, “cool” being defined here as “stuff I dig.” Spider-Man. Othello. The Stand. Star Trek (original series). Just cool. The “Company” list is reserved for those creators who started cool,but have since sold out. You can easily define them by the copyright circle after their names. George Lucas. Ian Fleming. Dick Wolf, who created “Law and Order.” That guy who writes all those teen horror flicks. All sell outs, “sell out” here being defined as “My creative life is all about the Benjamins now, baby.”
Here’s where I get unpopular: as of a few hours ago, Creator JK Rowling just became Company JK Rowling.
Here’s the story: It seems that Rowling’s massive Harry Potter series has spun off a boatload of fan website (there’s no surprise), one of which is the Harry Potter Lexicon, run by Steve Vander Ark. It is an unofficial encyclopedia of all things Potter, and has been touted by Rowling herself (on her own web site) as a kind of dependable “cheat sheet” when she was writing. You’ll find essays on the socks as theme, for example, or the character of Petunia, or the quality of a Hogwarts’ education, a gold mine if you’re a Potter fan. Says Rowling of this site:
“This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet caf??’ while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home.”
However, Rowling has a limit. Vander Ark wants to publish the lexicon–all 400 pages–in a print edition. Rowling is fighting this (along with megacorporation Warner Brothers who owns all things Rowling), claiming the print version would make her feel “exploited.”
Like I said, she’s a company now.
Let’s get real for a moment. Fandom is a strange phenomenon of popularity. It goes beyond simply appreciating a good book, a good movie, or a good scotch. A real fan will spend hours, days, weeks, months, years spreading the good word of Product X, won’t get paid for all that free advertising, and is okay with that. Their love for product X overrules capitalism. And that’s a good thing. What creator would be crazy enough to say, “Hey, wait, fans. Stop loving my creation so much. Stop buying my books, stop rereading my books, stop pouring over line after line of my words, stop spending your time and effort and energy and money to promote my books and help me sell even more. Please stop.”
(?)
Apparently, Company Rowling is.
Rowling is a billionaire. She is a talented storyteller. And the one series that she will be forever connected with has ended. So why not allow Vander Ark and other fans the opportunity to publish some related material? No one is going to mistake his book for anything she wrote, he might make a few dollars, and that one kid out there who hasn’t read Harry Potter will be exposed to it through the Lexicon and, BINGO!, another sale. It’s all a win-win.
But that’s not how the Company works. The Company takes a great creation, slaps the (C) on it, and then dares anyone to muck about with it. I do understand the business of books and creation and would never advocate stealing someone else’s work. That’s criminal. But when a fan like Vander Ark is transparent in his love for Harry Potter, what’s the harm?
Actually, I feel sorry for Rowling. She’s built the Potter World, but it’s fast becoming the Potter Machine, too big and bloated to be fun any more, in perpetual danger of losing its fun and magic because Rowling is holding the reins too tightly. Now, I will grant that I haven’t published anything that has captured the audience that Rowling has. When I do, maybe I’ll follow Rowling and let my lawyers be a buffer between me and my fans. But God help me from taking it all too seriously.