Slashdot Mirror
Bogus Harry Potter Book In China
elveu writes "Chinese Harry Potter fans have been blessed with the fifth book early -- only it's not the real one. The title translates to 'Harry Potter And Leopard Walk Up To Dragon.' The story has Harry getting turned into a fat hairy drawf and being void of his powers."
This is completely different because it's a parody - but it amused me:
The first chapter is available online - and is hugely funny..
Chinese Philosopher's stone auction
I bet you this thing, sadly, is going to become some sort of rare ultra-expensive collector's item stateside in the very near future... ...and this is a shame. I for one don't read the Harry Potter books, but even I have respect for J.K Rowling and her story (not referring to Harry Potter here)...so to turn something as fake as this "new" book is quite the shame, and I think I'd be upset if I were Ms. Rowling.
This will be a good collectors item.
-- Cheers!
and being void of his powers
They turned him into Newt Gingrich?
My sig sucks.
"Harry Potter, and the Wrath Of The Troll", wherein Harry Potter is turned into a slashdot editor that can't spell.
From the Bloomsbury website:
"JK Rowling is happily writing the fifth Harry Potter book and we will announce a publication date once we have received the finished manuscript. As soon as we have any more news about the publication date we will update this area."
It's also well known that the fifth book will be titled "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." Book 4, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was published in July of 2000. 2 years and counting. . . no wonder the fakes are emerging!
ancarett, historian and zombie gamer
The entire country is blocked by a huge firewall censoring the entire internet. All forms of news and entertainment media are controlled by the government. The country is ran by a one party dictatorship. People have minimal human rights. More than 60% of the country is impoverished.
But yes, let's focus on the fact that there's a bogus Harry Potter book floating around in China, God knows that's more important.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Click here or here.
I think of this as a combination of a fan-fic and street-level gray-market good. It's the adaptation of a local culture to a global one, and I think it's vital. After all, just who did Disney pay and ask permission from to use the characters in Mu-Lan, or the Lion King, or any of the other non-Western cultural figures that they freely profit from?
but harry dosn't have a thing for ginny. he wants Cho the seeker for Ravenclaw.
'Harry Potter And Leoard Walk Up To Dragon.'
In other news, the fake versions of the sixth and seventh book will be titled "Harry Potter Slay Dragon", and "Harry Potter Steal Dragon Treasure".
The manuscripts were discovered when buyers found that each only contained 2 pages of text, and a lot of blank pages.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
The BBC also has a report about this here
I never apologise, I'm sorry but that's just the way I am - Homer
And peopl eon the internet have been able to read unofficial version of Harry Potter stories for free.
-no broken link
I read the article at another source, but am left wondering how the content of 'Leopard Walk up to Dragon' is any different than the reams and reams of bad Harry fanfiction available on sites like Fanfiction.net.
While it's being sold as Rowling's work, that is the only crime I see being committed, unless the publishers want to stamp out all original Harry fiction in the name of 'protecting their copyright'. Even the most zealous of intellectual property holders, Paramount, doesn't do a thing to inhibit the vast, vast legions of Trek ficcers and slash writers because they know exactly badly they'd alienate their fan communities. Lucas doesn't either. In fact, SW stories flourish on sites like theforce.net.
I imagine that 'Leopard Walk up to Dragon' is probably a fanstory that got snapped up by an unscrupulous pirate publisher. The real author is probably not getting the credit he or she deserves for being so dedicated as to write a novel-length fan story and the legitimate Harry Potter publishers are going to make everyone's lives miserable because of it.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
I have often thought of writing Hairy Pothead and the Sorcerer, Stoned, about Harry's dissolute adventures with controlled substances and the resulting degradation of his hygiene whilst at university.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
When Miguel de Cervantes was taking too long to publish the sequel to his masterpiece, Don Quijote, some industrious person came out with a fake version as well. It's always happend, and always will
... that this book is poorly written. Direct translations from any language usually sound horrible. Chinese-English translations are particularly difficult because many language constructions in Chinese just don't have English equivalents. The same goes for English text simply translated into Chinese.
So while the article linked above mocks the book on the basis of its first sentence. I'd be curious to know if the author (who is seemingly a native English-speaker) has read the original Harry Potter books in their Chinese translation. Is this one really worse???
Frankly, I'd imagine that if this thing is selling as many copies as the author claims, it's either because it's well written, or because it's fooling a lot of people. And if it's fooling a lot of people, that probably means it's well written. Either that or Rowling needs to get some better English-Chinese translators....
> she's only a pied piper for simpletons that
> haven't read any real literature since twelfth
> grade.
That's why her book was ideal for making into a major motion picture.
Actually the books are very sophisticated intellectually. The sophistication is generally lost on American readers however who are unaware of the cultural and litterary references that Rowling ads in for the amusement of older readers.
For example Hogwarts Castle is a parody of Mallory Towers. The use of Magic as a substitute for technological mod cons is a homage to the Flintstones.
This simply carries on a long tradition of British Children's works, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe is an allegory of the New Testament. The Harry Potter series as a whole is an allegory of a series of works by Foucault. The Dumbledore character is an anegogical reference to Derrida. The Dursleys are of course a reference to Proust.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
'Harry doesn't know how long it will take to wash the sticky cream cake off his face,'
...
'For a civilised young man it is disgusting to have dirt on any part of his body.
'He lies in the high-quality china bathtub, keeps wiping his face, and thinks about Dali's face, which is as fat as the bottom of Aunt Penny.'
'He keeps wonder what it is to be man when he grow up then Ginny can be wife and have two children as directed by the Queen Lizerbath II'
'The soap bubble go up then flop down next to the now dead soap bubble.'
'Harry wave his thumb and flies in his magic stick which he wave at bubble, bubble turn into TV and he watch BBC where there is a show about how to capture his uncle Black'
'Harry is not happy'
'Harry looks down and see he is man now, but he grow not tall, maybe if he play basketball he might but in England Harry only play soccer, that till Harry in school then he play his favourite sport'
'Harry turn TV into bubble then say prayer to Jesus before walking to kitchen where Aunt Penny is angry with Harry again'
'Aunt Penny look at Harry and scream'
AUNT PENNY : 'HELP HELP It's the man from Austin powers, help help!'
'Harry look puzzle and rub his scar then look in mirror'
'Harry sees mini me, Harry feel heart break into one piece'
It amazes me that someone can try to relate the Harry Potter series to Foucault and Derrida, accuse an entire nation of being unsophisticated, and still manage to spell "literary" incorrectly.
...but, judging from that title, also doesn't know how to use commas. :-)
RMN
~~~
(* The story has Harry getting turned into a fat hairy drawf and being void of his powers." *)
Perhaps they should have called it, "Harry Gets Married".
Table-ized A.I.
Overpeer's at it again!
-- Wibble
This is a case which we are aware of and, as with all piracy matters throughout the world, take this issue extremely seriously.
i am sorry, HUH? piracy matters? wtf does that have to do with this? This is more like infringement of copyright of the Harry Potter name, but there are other people writing fan fictions -- the only thing this author is guilty of is probabbly the fact that he pretended to be Rowling, but throughout the story it appears that he did not try to do that anyway, nor does people really think that he is Rowling because of the difference in writing style etc; so it just boils down to that a fan-fiction got published and we are taking it *way* too seriously because Rowlings believes it's taking away some of her money. good grief people.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Haryy's quest to continue to find He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as he journeys across the wild and exotic backdrop of rural China. Along the way he encounters the loveable but stern Master who takes him in and teaches him Leopard-Style Kung-Fu, the only Kung-Fu capable of beating the Voldemort's Dragon-Style. Armed with a quarter staff and the ability to make feathers float, he resumes his quest only to finally meet up with Voldemort against the oft-used-but-still-unappreciated-backdrop of the Great Wall. They challenge each other, make feathers float, then begin the fateful duel. Hilarity ensues. This book has dubbbed speech, or you can choose the subtitle option, where the english shows up at the bottom of the book as a footnote.
...of a fairy hat dwarf, anyway?
Anyway, it would be well worth reading if he slew the dragon, took its treasure, then later uttered the line, "Though I badly needed to hire a wizard to change me back, I spent my reward on ale and whores."
Back Cover Summary:
since when is faking something 'piracy'??? is the FBI going to look for money 'piraters' now, and can i buy a 'pirate' rolex on canal st.?
this 'pirate' thing is getting completely out of hand, it seems like the new definition just boils down to: 'someone who does something a media exec doesn't like'.
excuse me while i put a patch over my eye and change the channel during the commercials...
Actually the books are very sophisticated intellectually. The sophistication is generally lost on American readers however who are unaware of the cultural and litterary references that Rowling ads in for the amusement of older readers. For example....The use of Magic as a substitute for technological mod cons is a homage to the Flintstones.
Re-read those sentences over and over again until you realize how ridiculous they are.
The Harry Potter series as a whole is an allegory of a series of works by Foucault.
You mean Foucault the philosopher who writes about how social institutions are just power structures used as a means of social control? Not likely.
That Flintstones bit was weird enough, but this is just silly (Assuming that I understand you correctly -- the grammar in the sentence I quoted is horrid!) If you actually believe this (which I doubt) then let's hear some details.
It's a parody of critical theory that amuses only those who know so little about critical theory, that they might actually think that the satirical gun was loaded. It wasn't.
after all, she's only a pied piper for simpletons that haven't read any real literature since twelfth grade.
Only those who are both insecure and pretentious are as desperate as you are to insult other peoples' tastes. So fuck off, twit.
After all, just who did Disney pay and ask permission from to use the characters in Mu-Lan, or the Lion King
DisneyCo pirated two movies from Japan. "The Lion King" is "Kimba the White Lion". "Atlantis" is "Nadia: Secret of Blue Water".
or any of the other non-Western cultural figures that they freely profit from?
Actually, some of the Western characters that Disney uses are still under copyright. Take Peter Pan for instance. Peter Pan is still under a limited form of copyright in the United Kingdom and will be forever, or at least until the hospital that owns the copyright goes out of business. No, this isn't Bono Act pseudo-perpetual copyright; it's the real thing. DisneyCo will get a dose of its own medicine when it tries to bring Return to Never Land into DVD Region 2.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Although parody doesn't survive translation well, from the quotes given in the article, it sure feels like this is nothing more than a parody, like Barry Trotter and I'm sure some other less famous ones.
And, as all good slashdotters should know, parody is fair use under almost all nations' copyright ordinances. So why is this a piracy issue?
She'd be right to be mad if (1) this was successfully passed off as her work in the West, which won't happen, or (2) if this was direct piracy of her work, which it isn't. Under the circumstances, if she gets mad about it, she's just whining about the fact that she's popular enough that people want to parody (or build upon) her ideas. If you can't take the heat, don't become a famous writer.
I prefer the Gold Box Pools (both) and Curse to NWN. Gold box rocks.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
Harry Potter and the Mysterious Centerfold
Harry Potter and the Unnecessary Suppository
Harry Potter and the Hookah of Fire
Harry Potter and the Magic Stock Options
Harry Potter and the Tryst with Oprah
Harry Potter and the Special Master
Harry Potter and the Brown Barking Vapor
.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
The writing in the Chinese book is not quite up to the standards which have made Rowling the most popular children's author of her generation.
'Harry doesn't know how long it will take to wash the sticky cream cake off his face,' the book begins.
'For a civilised young man it is disgusting to have dirt on any part of his body.
'He lies in the high-quality china bathtub, keeps wiping his face, and thinks about Dali's face, which is as fat as the bottom of Aunt Penny.'
The book is in CHINESE. I'm sure it reads better in the original. Chinese grammar does NOT directly correspond to English, so the awkward phrasing found here is purely a creation of the person who translated this passage to English.
OTOH, it's a weird simile, and not having read the original books, I don't know if that's consistent with Rowling's writing style.
"Harry Potter and the Troll of Reading Comprehension," wherein Harry finds that despite all best efforts, people still forget that italicized text is supplied by submitters, not editors!
...any criticism should leak into your airtight Colorado biodome.
While the Harry Potter-readers are oh-so-eager to push that crummy schlock (much like the Danielle Steele-readers, the John Grisham-readers, the Tom Clancy-reader, etc.), the anti-faction haven't said anything at all about what we read. In fact, I've read all of the above (which is how I know it sucks). What doesn't suck? I'm partial to Nicholson Baker for intelligent fiction, Ian M. Banks for my pet-genre sci-fi, and the my secretary has just this moment dropped the new Granta on my desk.
Please don't take this opportunity to tell me what you read. I'm merely making the point that you're wrong about the anti-faction and porn-mags.