by Sassy Jones

Created on: July 29, 2009   Last Updated: July 30, 2009

Years ago, before the Harry Potter (HP) movies came out, I was supervising recess for elementary students. One 7 year old girl was playing by herself, with no toys or props of any kind, yet we all, adults and students alike, knew she was Harry Potter playing Quidditch on her broomstick. She played masterfully, too. JK Rowling's ability to capture the imagination of that girl so much that she could see and play the game in her mind without ever having seen it with her eyes, and that everyone watching knew exactly what she was playing and could visualize her dodging and diving on a broomstick in their minds as well, is illustrative of the totality of the world that Rowling created and how the Harry Potter books captured the imagination of a new generation of readers. This feat has won JK Rowling great acclaim, but does she deserve? Despite all that, though, JK Rowling has received more acclaim than is justified.

To begin, Rowling's writing is not that masterful. Kids reading her works will not notice, but those who have some knowledge of good writing or have experience superior writing no doubt cringe at not so much the story but the way she uses language. One of the most egregious examples is Rowling's overuse of adverbs. Almost every description uses one. She also uses the same descriptions over and over again. Hagrid always "drinks deeply". Not varying the descriptions and constantly using adverbs instead of other ways to describe is essentially lazy writing.

The main reason JK Rowling doesn't deserve all the accolades she has received is because she has just taken other stories and repackaged them. She has acknowledged many books that inspired her as well as other works that have influenced her. Yet in those instances it is difficult to draw one-to-one comparisons in those works. In works she has not acknowledged, though, the resemblances are striking and too similar to be coincidental. The most egregious examples are from the Lord of the Rings (LotR). First, take Grima Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings and compare him to Wormtail from Harry Potter. Obviously, the names are incredibly similar. But then you add that they both are spies and turncoats, willing to sacrifice their friends to achieve a modicum of perceived safety, and the similarity begins to morph into something more. But then you add the giant, deadly spiders (Shelob in LotR and Aragog in HP) and the resemblance between the Nazgul (LotR) and the dementors (HP), and something more than a homage to Tolkien emerges.The final straw occurs when analyzing the parallel between Sauron (LotR) and Voldemort (HP). Both series center around a quest to destroy the most evil being in their worlds, Sauron and Voldemort respectively. Both villains imbued items with part of themselves and both heroes, Frodo (LotR) and Harry (HP), had to destroy those items in order to vanquish their nemesis to save their worlds. http://ifoughtthelaw.cementhorizon.com/hplotr.html illustrates this hilariously.

Yes, JK Rowling did create a world and inspire children and teens to read. Yes, kids all over the world flew around on their broomsticks just like the girl I supervised all those years ago. Rowling definitely deserves kudos for that achievement. But the sophistication of her writing coupled with her excessive borrowing of others ideas severely curtails the impressiveness of her achievement. She deserves some praise, but not adulation.

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