Pascal has called for a boycott of all Harry Potter-related content, including the upcoming Warner/Max series, in response to J.K. Rowling's support of a recent UK Supreme Court decision that legally defined "woman" and "sex" as referring exclusively to individuals born biolo
Here is a pretty decent list: https://elftor.medium.com/harry-potter-and-the-possible-plagiarism-of-one-j-rowling-c19f1b05595c
I’m not a fan of Harry Potter, and don’t like Rowling, but I read that whole damn essay and was not at all convinced. Half the examples could be said to be plagiarising each other by the standard they’re using. They say at the start the coincidences are too strong to be attributed to tropes, but I really disagree with that. Almost everything they list are common tropes, many even outside magical wizard settings. Mean adoptive family? Did she also plagiarise Cinderella?
Sure, her books generally aren’t original themes, but to say they’re so similar that they are direct plagiarism is a real stretch in my opinion. Especially when you have to list like 30 books that have one or two things in common each, and mostly in a general sense.
Exactly. It shouldn’t be considered a crime to use and build on eternal tropes. That’s what culture is about. The terrible things about JKR lie elsewhere.
I never thought she was a plagiarist, just a hack.
The first two or three books felt far more like a Roald Dahl novel than any standard issue YA novel.
She’s clearly been influenced by other children’s books. But yeah, so much of the “Rowling plagiarized!” critique boils down to how bland and generic the story was.