WI: JK Rowling dies in 2001?

Gan

Gan

Banned
Sometime in the year 2001 JK Rowling dies in a fatal accident(traffic, or otherwise, doesn't matter).

She dies, leaving the remaining three books unwritten. What affect will this have on pop culture and literature?

Will the film industry stop after Goblet of Fire, or continue with their own ideas?
 

ZhugeLiang

Roland of Gilead said:
Sometime in the year 2001 JK Rowling dies in a fatal accident(traffic, or otherwise, doesn't matter).

She dies, leaving the remaining three books unwritten. What affect will this have on pop culture and literature?

Will the film industry stop after Goblet of Fire, or continue with their own ideas?
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Please, a thousand times NO!

I would have read the first four books - and then cried. And cried some more.
 
Maeglin

Maeglin

The petty answer is that we're saved from the garbage that was later Harry Potter.

The less petty answer is that there are too many unknowns. I have no idea if Rowling had instructions to burn unfinished work, or had left notes and authority for someone else to finish them. It'd also depend on the attitude of the heir - do they want to commission someone else to write further books, or are they fiercely protective of Rowling's legacy?
 
mr.bernham

mr.bernham

Roland of Gilead said:
Sometime in the year 2001 JK Rowling dies in a fatal accident(traffic, or otherwise, doesn't matter).

She dies, leaving the remaining three books unwritten. What affect will this have on pop culture and literature?

Will the film industry stop after Goblet of Fire, or continue with their own ideas?
Click to expand...
No. Just no. God please no.

I suppose the family would have shared certain notes that revealed the ultimate timeline of events...what's supposed to happen.

I suppose more fun is if she dies in 2005. Then you have the last two books gone.
 

ZhugeLiang

mr.bernham said:
No. Just no. God please no.

I suppose the family would have shared certain notes that revealed the ultimate timeline of events...what's supposed to happen.

I suppose more fun is if she dies in 2005. Then you have the last two books gone.
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I'm much more fine with that. But what if she didn't leave notes behind?

Imagine what their minds would run wild with-

- Trelawney actually was a fraud, and so were her prophecies. The theme of the story is to "always believe in yourself, even in the face of criticism", and Dumbledore defeats Voldemort despite the prophecy.
- Dumbledore survives

The butterflies are flying everywhere.
 

HARRY

2001 was when the first movie was released so the publishers knew they were on a good thing so they would ghostwrite some more books. The big loser would be the British film industry as Rowling was very specific about the movies being made in the UK.
 

redlightning

Banned
I imagine if she dies, the publisher continues on the books using ghost writers and others to finish off the series. It declines in popularity and quality over time.
 

Alexander the Average

Who would take over after she died?

I think one possible candidate might be Anthony Horowitz. His popular Alex Rider series was just getting started (the second book Point Blanc was published in 2001), and he had previously written a sort of proto-Harry Potter story in 1988 (Groosham Grange, which was an awesome read by the way) and as well as a sequel in 1990 (the Unholy Grail, which was also pretty good). I'm not sure how he would have tackled the rest of the Potter books. A lot of his material could be quite dark and twisted, so I could see the later Harry Potter books being much darker than IOTL (and Rowling wasn't above touching on some pretty dark material). I can also see a bit more scathing satire, especially with regards to the Ministry of Magic.

Of course, if Horowitz ends up writing the Harry Potter books that might mean that he has to drop the Alex Rider books, or at least put them on the back-burner, which is going to make the anachronisms either worse (the books were written over a period of thirteen years, but the story takes place in the course of just over a year, and the pop culture references are kept up to date). Of course if the Alex Rider books get less attention, we might be able to avoid the abysmal film adaptation. Alternatively he might not re-continue the Diamond Brothers series (I haven't read enough to say if that's a good or a bad thing, but I enjoyed the first one).

This has the potential to be either one of the best or worst things to happen to my childhood.
 
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Reydan

Maeglin said:
The less petty answer is that there are too many unknowns. I have no idea if Rowling had instructions to burn unfinished work, or had left notes and authority for someone else to finish them. It'd also depend on the attitude of the heir - do they want to commission someone else to write further books, or are they fiercely protective of Rowling's legacy?
Click to expand...

HARRY said:
2001 was when the first movie was released so the publishers knew they were on a good thing so they would ghostwrite some more books. The big loser would be the British film industry as Rowling was very specific about the movies being made in the UK.
Click to expand...

redlightning said:
I imagine if she dies, the publisher continues on the books using ghost writers and others to finish off the series. It declines in popularity and quality over time.
Click to expand...

The thing is, Rowling was extremely unusual in the level of authorial control she exercised over the publishing, distribution, and adaption for film of her Potter books. She was regularly on set, tweaking lines, approving or knocking back casting choices, complaining about set design, and had it written into the contract with Warner Bros and the production companies that she would essentially have final veto over a lot of things. Are the contracts even finalised in 2001? She is notoriously difficult to work with.

There is no way Bloomsbury would be able to hire a ghost writer without the say-so of her estate in the event of her death and, whilst it does make for an interesting (albeit depressing) timeline, I can't see any reason why her family would agree in the short-term. Her husband is a Doctor and her kids were all quite small apart from the eldest girl, and I can't see the family wanting to risk her legacy as the greatest British children's author in a century being diluted by some rushed job. Follow-ons and ghost writers are notoriously risky business.

Alexander the Average said:
I think one possible candidate might be Anthony Horowitz.
Click to expand...

Horowitz is the obvious choice - he is popular and has a good track record of adapting for screen. Hell, half the things on UK tv at the moment seem to be written by Horowitz. But I don't see this "authorised" continuation taking place until a good 5-10 years after her death. The family don't need the money and aren't going to risk gambling with her legacy as an author for a quick roll of the dice.

What you are more likely to see is the film industry desperately cast around for a replacement. Something like Percy Jackson or Hunger Games (complain all you want about how different they are, but essentially those franchises owe a lot to the young adult adventure genre Rowling helped recreate and popularise) but preferably from a British perspective to fill the void.

Who that is, though, I'm not sure.
 

teg

Reydan said:
What you are more likely to see is the film industry desperately cast around for a replacement. Something like Percy Jackson or Hunger Games (complain all you want about how different they are, but essentially those franchises owe a lot to the young adult adventure genre Rowling helped recreate and popularise) but preferably from a British perspective to fill the void.

Who that is, though, I'm not sure.
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May I suggest Mortal Engines as a replacement? Much darker, yes, but still very high quality work and with Goblet of Fire already out, the studios are going to be looking for some with a bit of darkness in it.

teg
 

Alexander the Average

Reydan said:
Horowitz is the obvious choice - he is popular and has a good track record of adapting for screen. Hell, half the things on UK tv at the moment seem to be written by Horowitz. But I don't see this "authorised" continuation taking place until a good 5-10 years after her death. The family don't need the money and aren't going to risk gambling with her legacy as an author for a quick roll of the dice.

What you are more likely to see is the film industry desperately cast around for a replacement. Something like Percy Jackson or Hunger Games (complain all you want about how different they are, but essentially those franchises owe a lot to the young adult adventure genre Rowling helped recreate and popularise) but preferably from a British perspective to fill the void.

Who that is, though, I'm not sure.
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Well if you permit me to grind my axe a little longer, I think the Alex Rider or Diamond Brother series could be a good contender for a replacement. Of course they might end up botching the adaptation, as was the case IOTL with Stormbreaker, but it would be interesting to see what could have happened if it worked out. In particular I'd be interested in seeing how they tackle the casting in a successful Alex Rider series, given that he's supposed to be 14-15 across the entire series. Maybe they'll do what the Bond movies did and recast the actor every few movies? Bonus points if Daniel Radcliffe gets the role at some point.

teg said:
May I suggest Mortal Engines as a replacement? Much darker, yes, but still very high quality work and with Goblet of Fire already out, the studios are going to be looking for some with a bit of darkness in it.
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That would also be awesome. Though personally I think it would work best as a miniseries.
 
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Tovarich

Tovarich

Banned
teg said:
May I suggest Mortal Engines as a replacement? Much darker, yes, but still very high quality work and with Goblet of Fire already out, the studios are going to be looking for some with a bit of darkness in it.

teg
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I'll go along with that suggestion, Philip Reeve's books are what kept my kids going inbetween Potters coming out.
(Plus I was at CCAT with him and was in a pantomime and a revue he wrote there....not often I get to name-drop!)
 
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ghappy1000

Assorted Questions

Religious impacts
Knowing the magic and Satanism in the books, could religious people worldwide [especially Christians] increase a boycott of Harry Potter [-related] products after the author's death? Could this be even more problematic for the revisions and sales of existing books besides new books in the series and how to write them?
Plagiarism
Could the books be plagiarized by other [mostly 'fan-fiction', different age audience and foreign] authors during the initial debates and disputes?

Also, how would her children [if already born] be taken care of?
 
Tovarich

Tovarich

Banned
ghappy1000 said:
Also, how would her children [if already born] be taken care of?
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In 2001 she only had her firstborn, fathered by her ex-husband.

He hasn't seen her since she was a baby, and it is perfectly possible to get court-mandated contact with your child if you're the father.

It seems he didn't try very hard, so the child will probably be left in care of her 'new' husband who she married in 2001, presuming there's a demonstrable family relationship between the girl & her stepfather.
 
jpj1421

jpj1421

I would feel really bad for the people of that TL. Rowling was the kind of author whose writing got stronger with each book (the problems people have with later books, that I don't, can be chalked up to a) being free of editorial oversite and b) that epilogue being mostly written earlier in her writing career). So what we'd have are 2 very good books, 1 great book, and 1 exceptional book. Book 4 is when the turn into true greatness in the series occurs. That...would suck.

But yes, as to the actual point, the YA genre would be in pretty bad shape, especially in delaying the acceptance of female authors. Someone like John Green, being white and male, would probably be the turning point in the genre pushing off it's wide spread acceptance until the mid 00's. Maybe. I mean, Harry Potter had already gotten the ball rolling by the end of the 90's, but the real dark turns in the genre wouldn't be nearly as palatable.
 
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