The new pre-epilogue

[sunnyskywalker]

Excerpt here.

Maybe Pottermore members can fill us on on what's in the rest of "Rita's" article?

I have to wonder what they have added to the wizarding world's water supply. Remember how wizards used to be fickle creatures, capable of going from hero-worship to deep suspicion and hatred based on a few gossip columns or rumors in the halls? No longer!

As the crowd stampeded, tents were flattened and small children mown down. Fans from all corners of the globe stormed towards the area where members of Dumbledore’s Army were rumoured to have been sighted, desperate above all else for a glimpse of the man they still call the Chosen One.

Since Harry is about to turn 34, this is roughly 16 years after the DA did its thing. That they're still famous for being the DA, and Auroring and whatever else is clearly a distant, secondary consideration, suggests that they haven't really done anything all that newsworthy lately. (I would bet on the cut being from a game of pickup Quidditch with Ron & co. or something equally boring.) Yet they're excited enough to see Harry that Rita can spin it into a stampede?

There must have been nothing happening at all in the WW for the last 16 years. I guess they really do disappear when Rowling isn't looking.

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

I read what was at the link you gave. This is just embarrassing and stupid.

Starting with something you left out of the above: "a certain gang of infamous wizards (no longer the fresh-faced teenagers they were in their heyday, but nevertheless recognisable) had arrived for the final"

Well, my lord, I hope they're recognizable! Unless they've had major plastic surgery to conceal their identities, there's no reason they wouldn't be. It's been 50 years, but people still recognize Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

That's the stupid part. Now for the embarrassing part. Re the stampede passage you quoted, if John Lennon and George Harrison rose from the dead, and the Beatles reunited, there might be this kind of excitement. Other than that, it's not going to happen.

Speaking of the Beatles, Rowling really needs to quit comparing HP to them. The comparison does not hold up. She sold many tons of books, but she did not revolutionize literature. Half a century from now, people may still be reading HP, but they won't be using it for artistic inspiration. They might be analyzing it to see if it possesses a formula they can use to get rich, however. ; )

I also found this part of the vapid pseudo-article interesting: "The jury is out on whether she [Ginny] really had the talent or experience to be sent to the Quidditch World Cup (jury’s back in–-no!!!) but let’s face it, when your last name is Potter, doors open, international sporting bodies bow and scrape, and Daily Prophet editors hand you plum assignments."

Yeah, works for people named Rowling, too. Major publications give everything you write inordinate attention and rave reviews because they're afraid to incur the wrath of you and/or your fans if they don't. :D