J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has joined Twitter, signing up for a verified account with the social networking and micro-blogging platform.

The British author joins other science fiction and fantasy writers such as Kevin J. Anderson, Brandon Sanderson and William Gibson, who all use Twitter to various degrees. William Gibson has become a prolific Twitterer over the past six months.

Rowling has only made three posts on the service so far, writing:

“I am told that people have been twittering on my behalf, so I thought a brief visit was in order just to prevent any more confusion!

However, I should flag up now that although I could twitter endlessly, I’m afraid you won’t be hearing from me very often … as pen and paper is my priority at the moment.”

The author is not following anyone on Twitter, although more than 60,000 Twitterers are already watching her every move.

Rowling is known to currently be working on several books after her completion of the seven book Harry Potter series, including a ‘political fairy tale’ for children and another book for adults.

J. K. Rowling

George W. Bush’s White House objected to handing an important United States award to Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling because her books “encouraged witchcraft”, a former Bush speechwriter has alleged.

Matt Latimer served in a variety of Washington roles before working for Defence secretary Donald Rumsfield and then President George W. Bush from March 2007. He has penned a new book: Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor.

In the book, Latimer reportedly wrote that Bush officials objected to the possibility of Rowling picking up the Presidential Medial of Freedom because:

“This was the sort of narrow thinking that led people in the White House to actually object to giving the author J. K. Rowling a presidential media because the Harry Potter books encouraged witchcraft.”

British author Rowling is one of the richest women in Britain due to her phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, the first book of which was first published in 1997.

Commentary
Surely, nothing could surprise people about Dubya’s administration by now, could it? After all, this is the man who has whole calendars devoted to his mis-speech.

I’m not going to get into the nonsensical debate about whether J. K. Rowling promotes witchcraft in her books or not. The far more important point is that her books are fantasy. Wikipedia defines it as such:

“Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.”

In other words, the bits of Harry Potter that the Bush administration objected to were in fact things not possible, to our knowledge, in our world. The fact that people enjoy reading about such things, and God forbid, fantasising about them is … well, normal. Get over it already and lighten up.