Miles Gift ATDTDA (1) pg 23/24

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Rowling grew up middle-class.  She attended Exeter University, where she majored in French.  She taught English in Portugal, where she met her first husband.  They were divorced, and she returned to England to raise their daughter alone.  She was on public assitance for a short time during this period, before getting a reasonably well-paid job teaching French.  She's currently married and has had two more children.   She lists her influences as:  Jane Austen, Paul Gallico, C.S. Lewis and E. Nesbitt.  She likes Tolkien, but has never cared for Roald Dahl (she's been compared to both).  Nothing in what I've read about her suggests that she's a fan of Pynchon, though, of course, she may have read him.  You're right, there's absolutely no way of knowing whether or not she's read Pynchon, though between the fact that all her favorite authors seem to be British, and the fact that she studied French in college, it seems  to me to be a reasonable assumption.  Anyone who's read and been enthralled by Pynchon's work has a tendency to say so.

My 16-year old daughter is an obsessed fan of Rowling, but admits that her writing style is nothing special.  I agree that she's created a new generation of readers, for which we should all thank her.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Ande <andekgrahn at olympus.net>

>
>Not too likely.... because she is not an academic?  Because she is a 
>single mom?  Because she is a she?  She clearly doesn't have a problem 
>with books with lots of pages (and may be responsible for creating a 
>generation of readers that eagerly await, unterrified , 650 page novels).
>
>Ande
>
>
>
>kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>
>>Mason and Dixon, which pre-dated the first Harry Potter by a year, contains the whole flying over England on a broomstick sequence [I have to re-read it to be more specific].  Perhaps Rowling read Pynchon? [not too likely, I'm guessing]
>>
>>Laura
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>>-----Original Message-----
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>>>From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>
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>>>I wonder whether Pynchon read Harry Potter. There are certainly a number of 
>>>elements in AtD which remind me of Rowling's wonderful novels. The hidden 
>>>alley in London on page 234 recalls Diagon Alley, on page 716 there is a 
>>>reference to a "cloak of invisibility", and the conscious fez on page 832 
>>>brings the sorting hat from the Potter books to mind. Of course, Pynchon 
>>>wrote about magic before J.K. Rowling was even born, and the 'references' 
>>>may just be a continuance of his old preoccupations, but I'd like to believe 
>>>that Pynchon reads and enjoys the Harry Potter series, and that the 
>>>references are intentional.
>>>
>>>Best,
>>>
>>>Tore
>>>    
>>>
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