Giants collide

Must-read for fantasy/kid-lit fans: from the BBC

Author Terry Pratchett has complained that the status of Harry Potter author JK Rowling is being elevated “at the expense of other writers”.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Rowling said she was “not a huge fan of fantasy” and was trying to “subvert” the genre.

The magazine also said Rowling reinvented fantasy fiction, which was previously stuck in “an idealised, romanticised, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves”.

Pratchett, whose first fantasy novel was published 34 years ago, wrote to the Sunday Times saying the genre had always been “edgy and inventive”.

“Ever since The Lord of the Rings revitalised the genre, writers have played with it, reinvented it, subverted it and bent it to their times,” he wrote.

“It has also contained come of the very best, most accessible writing for children, by writers who seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve.”

He also expressed surprise at Rowling’s comments that she only realised Harry Potter was fantasy after the first book was published.

“I’m not the world’s greatest expert,” he wrote. “But I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?”

Here’s Neil Gaiman’s take on the whole thing. Lots of good links