Let it be known – you don’t mess with J.K. Rowling. Don’t even make a snide remark in her general direction. If you do anything to spite the creator of Harry Potter, she’ll do everything in her substantial power to make sure you suffer for it. And you won’t suffer just once, or even twice, but many times over the span of years. This is what we’ve learned from Stephen Fry, English actor, comedian, and the wonderful voice behind the Harry Potter audiobooks. The owner of a dulcet esophagus revealed that Rowling made him suffer linguistically for a sarcastic remark he made to her after the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at a stand-up show.
Here’s the gist of what Fry said at the show, posted to Tumblr’s Petty Revenge Stories:
Saw Stephen Fry live last week, and he told us this story: Just after the first Harry Potter book had been released, he was offered the role of narrating it for audiobooks. He hadn’t read it, and was simply told it was a children’s book, so figured it would be an easy afternoons work. When he met JK Rowling, she mentioned that she was writing a sequel. Stephen replied very condescendingly “good for you”.
A few years down the line, the books are selling well, and he is doing the recording for The Prisoner of Azkaban, when he runs into the phrase “Harry pocketed it”. Stephen could not say this line. It always came out as “Harry pocketeded it”, unless he said it ridiculously slowly. They tried time and time again to get it right, but to no avail. Eventually, he called up JK and asked if he could say “Harry put it in his pocket” instead. She thought for a moment, then said “no”, and hung up.
The phrase “Harry pocketed it” appeared in the next four books.
Yes, J.K. Rowling’s patronus is a middle finger.
(Via Daily Dot)
