CBC INTERVIEW #1, PART 2

Rogers: And has she read through the series with you?

Rowling: Initially I said I wouldn't start reading them to her until she was seven, because I do think some of the themes are a little demanding for 5 year olds. But I cracked and started reading them to her at 6, because she was at school, and she was surrounded by kids asking her about Harry Potter. I thought it was mean, because she wasn't part of this enormous part of my life, and I felt I was excluding her, so I read them to her.

Rogers: A lot of kids have told us that they've read your books again, and again, and again. What do you think is different in the way children read from the way adults read?

Rowling: I'm not sure there is that great a difference.

Rogers: Do you think an adult would re-read a book?

Rowling: I do, constantly. I can quote huge passages verbatim of my favorite books, I've read them so many times. I've lost count of how many times I've read some books.

Rogers: What are your favorite books?

Rowling: Anything written by Jane Austen, anything written by Roddy Doyle. They're my two favorite writers... If I'm really tired, and I just want a quick fix, I will read a mystery novel. But I would never re-read a mystery novel. That would be too dull, once you've found out who the killer is.

Rogers: Now, this is not on your script. What would be the number one thing you want to know from Jo?

McCormick: Well, how can one series of books have such an extreme effect on readers and non-readers? And at the same time, school boards are banning them from their curriculum.

Rowling: Hmmmm ... penetrating question. It is a difficult one. I've found that the series seems to cause very conflicting emotions in people generally. For example, in Britain, the two groups of people who seem to think in Britain that I'm wholeheartedly on their side are people who support the boarding school system and practicing witches – Wiccans! – which are not two groups that one would expect to find allied in any way. And, in fact, they are both wrong. I don't believe in boarding schools. I don't send my daughter to a boarding school. I didn't go to a boarding school. And I'm neither a practicing witch, nor do I believe in magic.

It's just a strange thing. People have presented me with every possible argument. I've been told, on the evidence of the books, that I must be very right-wing, and I must be very left-wing. It's very odd – extreme passions.

Rogers: We had Joan Bodger in, who's one of Canada's best-loved storytellers. She was talking about Harry Potter after we heard from the kids. And she said it took her a while to figure out where the stories had taken her, and eventually she put her finger on it as "TV Land."

Rowling: TV Land? I'm not sure I understand that one.

Rogers: Well, that children really identify with the stories because they're full of action, full of change, full of magic and things happen quickly.

Rowling: It's a theory. I wouldn't say it's a theory I'd particularly endorse, but it's a neat theory. [laughs]

McCormick: Actually, I don't watch a lot of TV at home, and I don't think it's related with TV Land. I think it has reality, everyday life in it, and also medieval times -- castles and knights and stuff.

Rogers: Thank you for that answer, too, Lauren.

Rowling: Thank you, Lauren.

Rogers: Alix Longland was on our panel of young readers -- I'm moving ahead in our questions here. Alix is from Toronto. She's 12. I do believe today is her birthday, as well.

Rowling: Happy Birthday, Alix!

Rogers: She'd like to know why a woman writer with a daughter…

Rowling: ...chose to write about a boy?

Rogers: Exactly.

Rowling: Well, I should firstly say when I started writing about Harry in 1990, my daughter wasn't born until 1993. But she's right. It's a very, very, very good point. And what is odd is that it took me six months to suddenly think this. I'd been writing about Harry for six months when I did suddenly stop and think, Hang on a moment. Why is he a boy?

The simple answer is that's the way he came to me. A boy appeared in my brain – just this little, scrawny, black-haired boy with glasses on. And so I wrote him, because he was the character who came to me.

But I did stop and wonder. I did stop and think, Shouldn't it have been Harriet? And at that point, it was too late. It was just too late, because Harry was too real to me as a boy. And Hermione was with me at this point, and I feel that Hermione is an absolutely indispensable part of the team. I love her as a character, and so I didn't change it. I wanted to go with my initial inspiration.

Harry is becoming more girl-fixated, shall we say, as he gets older. He's 14 now, and you will find that girls become a lot more real to him. And more important, because the books are obviously told from a boy's perspective, really. But that's changing now.

Rogers: Do you think that the popularity of the books would have changed if they'd been told from the point of view of Hermione versus Harry Potter?

Rowling: I honestly don't know. But then, that wouldn't have stopped me doing it. If Hermione had strolled into my head as the main character, then I would have done it that way. I truly never once have never stopped and thought: “I won't do that because that won't be popular.” Because the day I do that I might as well pack up, because the fun for me all along has been writing for me. The only people I have ever listened to have been my editors, in terms of what makes the book better or worse. And, occasionally, I've argued against them and kept it the way I wanted to do it.

Rogers: Who won?

Rowling: It depends. I mean, I'm not a tyrant about this. I have changed things when I think they've had very valid points, and I haven't changed things on other occasions. I have felt particularly strongly about a passage and I have really wanted to keep it, and I have. It's never gotten acrimonious -- I have great editors.

McCormick: This is a question from Bridget from Toronto, and she's 12. Bridget's wondering, "Why did you create a magical society where men and women play such traditional roles? It seems most of the women Wizards pitter and patter around the house while the men do all the dark work."

Rowling: [laughs] That's not entirely true, because if you look at Professor McGonagall, she's a very, very powerful witch, and she's in a position of power. And in fact, if you look at the Hogwarts staff -- I had this discussion with someone the other day – it is exactly 50-50. Although it is true that you do have a headmaster as opposed to a headmistress, but that has not always been the case. As you will find out, there have been equal numbers of headmistresses.

Do witches patter around the house? No. Mrs. Weasley stays at home. But if you think it’s easy raising seven children, including Fred and George Weasley, then I pity [you]. … [laughs] Women who've had seven children will not see that as a soft option.

But no, I don't think that's true. I've said this before. I sometimes feel frustrated in that I'm just over halfway through the series. It's like being interrupted halfway through a sentence and someone saying, "I know what you're going to say." No, you don't. When I've finished, then we can have this discussion. At the end of book seven, then I can talk about everything in a full and frank way. But right at the moment, we're only halfway through.

Rogers: Is seven going to be … do you know that already?

Rowling: Mm-hmm. I know exactly what's going to be in five, six and seven. And when I've finished that, then we can have the full and frank discussion. But until then, if I give full and frank answers I'm giving away things about the plot, so I don't want to do that.

Rogers: I have to go to another member of our panel. This is Graeme Maitland, who's 11. He's from Calgary. It's not unrelated to Alix's question, but how can you think like a boy? The exact question is, "How can you think like a boy? Do you have a brother or something?"

Rowling: No, I haven't got a brother.

Rogers: I like the "or something" part! [laughs]

Rowling: [laughs] Do you have a brother … "or something?" No, I had a cousin. He isn't dead, but I haven't seen him for years and years. My family is very small – I have very few blood relatives, but I haven't seen them for years, actually.

How can I think like a boy? I think that I have always had boys and girls as friends, and I think probably that's where it comes from. Yes, I've had good male friends as well as female friends.

Rogers: I know that as you started off, you couldn't possibly have imagined how …

Rowling: Never, no. I'd have to have been insane to have imagined this.

Rogers: Well … [laughs] I'm actually going to ask you about SkyDome!

Rowling: Thank you! [laughs] What happened with the SkyDome, really … First of all, you can imagine, I get thousands and thousands of people asking me to go and do readings in bookshops and schools, and if I did them all, I literally would not sleep, eat, see my daughter or write another word. And I can't do it.

I was asked earlier this year, and they said it would be a big reading at the SkyDome in Toronto. I was feeling very fraught at the time, because I was halfway through book four, and I said “yes.” And at that point, I did say yes to quite a lot of things just to stop people from asking me anything else, because I really wanted to be writing. Then I sort of emerged from the madness that was book four and realized exactly how big the reading was going to be. And then I got terrified. So thank you for reminding me this early in the morning. [laughs] I try and block it out.

Rogers: Sorry about that. Anyway, if you can get through this, I think you can get through anything, really.

Rowling: I'm kind of looking at it like that. If I can do this, yeah…

Rogers: A lot of people have pegged you as a sort of ambassador for single parents. Do you feel that way, and is there still a stigma attached to being a single parent?

Rowling: I can only talk about Britain here, obviously. Lone parents in Britain, perhaps, don't get a very fair deal in certain ways. At first I felt slightly uncomfortable about it – being called an ambassador – because I felt that what I did is not a typical thing to do. And, it was perhaps unfair to tell other single mothers that they could do the same thing. But I have now become patron of the Council of One Parent Families in Britain, so I am out there trying to better everyone's deal.

Rogers: It is so great to have you both here. I want to thank Lauren McCormick as well. Thank you very much, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, and Lauren McCormick, who helped me just wonderfully, on CBC Radio One.

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