Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ian Fleming vs. J. K.Rowling

Now, I get that people have been drawing parallels between Harry Potter and several other books (namely the Lord of the Rings trilogy), but recently I descovered another one. J. K. Rowling appears to have borrowed her description and characterization of her character Dolores Umbridge from Ian Fleming's novel From Russia With Love. The character I am referring to is well known to other Bond fans; Comrade Colonol Rosa Klebb. The similarities are actually quite apparent when you read Rowling's The Order of the Pheonix and The Deathly Hallows. Umbridge is portrayed as a sickly toad-looking stump of a woman, falsely sweet and shaped like a pear. This description is practically taken word for word from Fleming's description of Klebb. Again, the parallels can be drawn by their love of torture, feeding off the abused sensations of their victim's. This leads to my personal question, of whether or not Rowling stole most of her characters from other, more talented writers; Wormtail - Wormtongue, Dark Lord Voldemort - Dark Lord Sauron. Harry Potter, Ron Weasly, Hermione Granger - Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia. Albus Dumbledore - Obi-wan Kenobi. Dolores Umbridge - Rosa Klebb. WTF. I'd really like to hear some thoughts on this, 'cause it's seeming as though Rowling really is stealing her characters from other authors.

2 comments:

  1. Everyone borrows from everyone else.
    Even the Bible borrowed from Egyptian mythology to get Jesus just right.
    To give Rowling credit, she gives her characters really etymologically significant names.

    Umbridge = umbrage
    Remus Lupin = adopted son of the wolf (Roman myth) + lupus (Latin: wolf)
    Cassandra Vablatsky = prophetess who is cursed with never being believed + spoonerism of Blavatsky (early 20th century theosophist clairvoyant claimant who never amounted to anything but hoodwinked people like W.B. Yeats)
    That's where I have fun with Rowling.

    As for stealing her characters, sure, she probably stole everything...but at least sub-consciously you are stealing everything too.

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