Yes, she's the most famous female modern author, and richest author in the world. Plus is still in the public eye, unlike Shakespeare who hasn't sent out a tweet in years.
It just goes to show how many plebeians there are in the world!!! I have never even heard of JK Rowling... but I got Voltaire without even seeing his picture!!! If only everyone was as smart as me!
J.K. Rowling does not belong among those other authors. She wrote fantasy tales for children. I know it's a weird gripe to have, but it pisses me off when I see her on lots of famous authors as if she's historically significant at all.
And it pisses me off that your elitism blinds you to Rowling's historical significance. Lord of the Rings is a fantasy too. And if you think only children read Harry Potter...well, I'm not really sure what to tell you.
Something being popular hardly means it's culturally relevant in the long term. I have read most HP books. Their relevance lies in getting a lot of kids to read, for which she's to be commended, even if this achievement is offset by the fact many (most?) of those kids remained within the boundaries of easy, commercial YA/Bestseller type books. That kind of people, not knowing any better, tend to end up thinking Rowling is among the most important authors ever. Or that her work is comparable in quality and influence to Tolkien's, only on the very surface "it's fantasy" perspective.
Edit: To illustrate my point about some HP readers, not half an hour after typing, I run into this comment for a quiz entry about a Chosen One starting with M:
"I kept trying to figure out how to spell Harry Potter with an 'M'."
If your main reference for the old as dirt concept of a chosen one is HP, I'd guess you're not very well read.
Sure, it's a coincidence, but this kind of comment is quite prevalent.
"something being popular hardly means it's culturally relevant in the long term" I don't know how you're defining 'long-term'. But I can't think of very many books in general, not just children's books, from the 90s that are still talked about so much today,
Population, inflation, global communication, etc. will always work in favor of later works.
What I want to know is, what has Rushdie ever done except become a poster boy because the Muslim world issued death threats against him for a book that would've otherwise been a minor seller?
Rushdie, in addition to being a wonderful writer (a subjective statement that many others would agree with), has explored the interactions and tensions between the Eastern and Western world. His English writing about India has opened the subcontinent to a wider Western audience. He was also knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his services to literature if that says anything about how he's more than a 'poster boy'.
Yeah Salman Rushdie is honestly a great author. The Satanic Verses gets all the attention, but his real masterpiece is Midnight's Children. I recommend giving it a try.
I have read a couple of her books and I'm over 60. I wanted to at least have a clue about the genre. It isn't what I would pick up first to read today, but I dare say that the Hardy Boys books that I grew up on wouldn't appeal to many people today either and many people have never heard of Pearl Buck even though she is one of the all-time greats in my opinion. Anything that gets kids of any age reading is okay by me. Innocent fantasy stories like her books build imagination. Whether her work will be historically significant or not can only be judged by time. I just hope that there will be an author in the next generation who can inspire people to continue to read.
I don’t think this quiz is comparing the quality of authors included. I mean, no one would actually compare Tolstoy to Rowling. Harry Potter is widely popular, frivolous fun, and Tolstoy’s works have significantly less child-friendly wizard rompery. Anyway, Rowling seems fair game for a famous authors quiz as much as Michael Bay is fair game for a famous directors quiz. I will point out, though, that the quiz left out one of the best living authors: Margaret Atwood! Maybe one day.
She was born and raised in England and moved to Scotland in her late 20s. So probably not, but maybe, since there's no legal distinction between Scottish and English.
I was about to nitpick that Homer wasn't really an author but more of a songwriter, but then I read his Wikipedia page (first line: "...the legendary author to whom the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey ...") and decided to just accept it and not be so silly.
OMG how did I get Jack Kerouac?!?! I had NO clue who the guy was, or what he looked like. I just remember vaguely that Jack Kerouac is the name of an author. That's IT! I didn't even know what era he lived in. I'm just sitting here in happy shock 😲 😄
Edit: To illustrate my point about some HP readers, not half an hour after typing, I run into this comment for a quiz entry about a Chosen One starting with M:
"I kept trying to figure out how to spell Harry Potter with an 'M'."
If your main reference for the old as dirt concept of a chosen one is HP, I'd guess you're not very well read.
Sure, it's a coincidence, but this kind of comment is quite prevalent.
What I want to know is, what has Rushdie ever done except become a poster boy because the Muslim world issued death threats against him for a book that would've otherwise been a minor seller?