Some things that rowling *might* have copied from other authors

[Majimaune]

Originally Posted by orionsixwings

SHHHH! I am Orion on this board.

Or Demosthenes as I see under your name I'll leave out the Narya for now...

Teresa, there have been worse sh*t makers websites though...

[Overread]

I don't know if its vanity or legal fees that is making her so defensive. Remember her books are worth a very large fortune and if some one can prove or get her to admit to plaguarism then they could get onto a winner and there are enough lawyers who would be willing for such a case. So it would make sense that she would be getting legal advice which would be more direct, certain and (overall) harsh and selfish sounding inorder that she defend herself from possible legal action.
Like I said remember these cases might not come to anything, but it will still cost her in time and money to get rid of them - and it also leads to bad publicity - something both she and her publisher would be keen to avoid

[hopoffhopon]

Writers always copy from each others. That's kind of the point of writing because you can't be a good writer unless you rival with others. There must be at least millions of orphans, underage heros, dangerous quests, magical tools and dragons in the genre of fantasy. Whether the imitating is obvious or not on the text itself, is of course a different subject.

[orionsixwings]

Originally Posted by hopoffhopon

Writers always copy from each others. That's kind of the point of writing because you can't be a good writer unless you rival with others. There must be at least millions of orphans, underage heros, dangerous quests, magical tools and dragons in the genre of fantasy. Whether the imitating is obvious or not on the text itself, is of course a different subject.

Agreed, which is my gripe with Rowling since she seems oblivious of this fact and arrogantly repels the idea that she copied anything from anyone. So, I wanted to prove to people that she's not entirely original and yes, there had been others who thought of that world before.

[Antubis]

The HP books reminded me of two books that Anthony Horowitz wrote, long before HP. I also read it years before HP came out. I will mention some similarities.


Groosham Grange (1988)

A boy (David) about Harry's age or Harry age.
He has a abusive home
A letter arrives (magically I think) at his home from a school
David is send to that school which is located at a fairly isolated place
The school has water surrounding it
The school has a dark forest near it
It also has a cemetery
The school has not a very "normal" (odd) name
The school is a school for witchcraft and magic
David first needs to go to a trainstation
After that, he takes a hearse
And after the hearse, a boat to arrive at his school
On his way to the school he makes friends
Two friends
One is a boy, one is a girl
One teacher is a werewolf
David also has some sort of family connected history, with him being the seventh son of a seventh son

This one I am not sure of anymore, but it is possible that he is relatively wellknown for the whole seventh son family background and position as such, similar to Harry's family background and his position make him famous.

I thought that the school is a old building, but I am not sure about that either.


The Unholy Grail (1990, the sequel)

David tries to win a Cup, the (Unholy) Grail
He isn't really liked as participant
He has a rival
He gets sabotaged/tricked along the way
Some evil force is at work

In both books there are odd teachers.

And I believe that in both books, the students get lessons in making potions and flying a broomstick. Or it is featured in just one book. Not sure about that.


I had to use Amazon as resource, because I only remembered half of the things I mentioned in the list . It has it's fair amount of similarities. And there might be more that I have not mentioned. It's up to you to decide which similarities are too much of a coincidence or if it is normal that a author would make up these things (anyone would come up with the idea to have their fictional magic school give potion lessons, as example), when they try to create a story about a boy who goes to a magic school.

I'd like to point out that HP and Groosham have not the same atmosphere; Groosham is darker in tone. HP has more imagination put in it (the ceiling that shows the sky, etc.). Also, in HP magic is more or less neautral; you can do good and bad with it. In the Groosham books, magic is dark. You could probably do some good stuff with it, but in the Groosham universe, as far as I can remember (correct me if I am wrong), all magic is pretty much not "good" magic, but black magic, fitting to the darker tone of the books.

[Grimward]

Good connection, Antu, with or without resourced help. I liked this thread originally for the links to similar such stories/characters/settings (regardless of how well they use the English language, by the way), and the Groosham Grange stuff is more of the same. I also like the blurb about the first book on Horowitz's site:

A school on an island that teaches magic. A boy with magical powers living with unpleasant relatives. Heard it all before? This one was written first!

And it was, even before Gaiman's work. Good digging, Antu!

[Antubis]

Originally Posted by Grimward

And it was, even before Gaiman's work. Good digging, Antu!

Thanks

But I didn't need to dig; when I read the first HP book, the Groosham books were the first to come to mind. I read probably nearly all of his (children) books to that date and did not think that HP would be such a succes at all. I didn't think the first book was that great. I was proven so very, very wrong

And Horowitz himself has written a book (Granny), which I thought was somewhat similar to Roald Dahl's "The witches".

I forgot to add to the list of possible similarities, that David is older in the second book, similar to how Harry ages with each book.

[Grimward]

Roald Dahl, now there's one of my favorites! The 2 Wonka books (am surprised no one came back with a movie about the Glass Elevator; thrids would be cool!), James and the Giant Peach, and now I learn that one of his first works, The Gremlins, was the inspiration for a campy 1970's horror movie Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, (posted elsewhere in a "I can't remember the name of this" thread on this site, too!).

OK, I'll stop hijacking the thread now....

[Lith]

I heard somewhere that Rowling claimed Dahl as one of her inspirations. As well as claiming a love of Monty Python.

The Anthony Horowitz thing is interesting, as is the picture of point #3 of the OP, but I'm not sold on the rest. There's just too much of this kind of stuff in so many authors. A teenage boy with glasses is nothing special for YA fiction- it instantly creates an awkward, bookish feel that many writers and readers can identify with (though Harry himself isn't bookish, his readers often are). And magic schools- for children that are in school, it's something they can relate to.

It may not be original, but it falls short of plagiarism.

[LJonesy]

Additionally, you can draw a few parallels between the HP Series and David Eddings The Belgariad. Major difference here is that Pawn of Prophecy was first released in 1981 (or earlier, can't remember) and The Pilosophers Stone was released in 1997.

Garion is, much like Harry, the "Special One" who in the end has "Special Powers". There is a grand Enemy within both stories (although it's a common trend to have such an enemy in most books) who has not yet revived, and has many agents still working for him, whether it be Torak One-Eye or Voldermort.

There's obviously more i can say but my memory on both books is quite foggy, i'm sure another Eddings fan can take over for me lol...

[Boneman]

Now read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. A kid's parents are killed, he fends for himself, then enters a college to study all sorts of things magical, there's a tutor who hates him on sight, and they continually battle against each other as he progresses through the years, (the tutor aided by an evil student who also hates the hero) and there's an unexplored basement with hundreds of tunnels etc etc. It's Harry Potter for adults, and you know what? I couldn't give a damn, I loved them both equally for different reasons, and I don't care where they get their ideas from they are both (All?) writers of stupendous talent, and I, for one, salute them both. In creative writing it's always taught that there are only 7 stories, and everything is a derivative of one of them. Hell, can't we just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy? I know I want to read and be transported to someone else's world without analysing the whys and wherefors and spoiling my enjoyment. Curl up with a book? That's me......