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I just knew this was coming… he had to go on and verbally attack Melissa. That was just low. I don’t know why he felt the need to say such things as I’ve never heard Melissa say anything bad about the case. She’s made it very clear that she’s just presenting the facts as they are. And an outcast he says? He can’t blame anyone but himself for that.

Interesting piece. He doesn’t seem to be taking any sides of this matter. He’s just reporting on the people involved, and the effect it’s had on us all. Very sad.

I didn’t think Steve deserved to be ostracized by the community until he started talking about Jo so horribly. This is just the final straw for me. He had at least some sympathy from me until he started talking smack about Melissa. Melissa was trying hard not to badmouth him, and he just turns around and says those terrible things about someone who was once a close friend! That’s not just an isolated man trying to defend himself; that’s someone trying to bring others down unfairly. Melissa and Jo have contributed so much to the HP community, SVA has done less than either of them. Jut because he read the books so many times and he made the Lexicon. The Lexicon is good for quick reference, but compared to Jo’s and Melissa’s contributions, its nothing.

The diference between an atlas maker and SVA is that an atlas maker doesn’t pretend the contents of his book were made by him. Word-for-word descriptions were taken from the books and put into the Lexicon. That’s disgusting. And he deserves to be kicked while he’s down if that;s the atitude he’s going to have. Everyone else is trying to be civil about this whole thing despite the fact that he is one hundred percent wrong, and he just keeps insulting people. Disgusting.

It really annoys me when reporters don’t bother to check facts. I think they should formally apologize to Melissa and Pottercast.

TLC has gone out of its way to be even-handed in reporting everything about this lawsuit. If Mr. VDA doesn’t understand why so many of the fans have turned against him, he should read that last quote. Melissa has bent over backward trying to be fair to him. He just keeps shooting himself in the foot. It seems to me he’s really started to ‘court’ the press. I think he’s realized that they don’t bother to check anything and are buying his sob story. Since he couldn’t get a job with J.K.R. he’s probably angling for a reporting job when the court proceedings are finally complete. As for Melissa’s book, her’s is ENTIRELY written by her. It’s about the history of Harry Potter fandom and the various controversies that have occurred along the way. It is nothing BUT commentary whereas his ‘Lexicon’ book is a hack job of J.K.’s work with very little of his own work added. And I would guess the main reason that J.K. has endorsed it is because Melissa bothered to check with her first, unlike a certain former school librarian (who lost his job for ‘fudging’ his academic credentials.).

ouch! i hope he doesn’t think making comments like that are going to put him into any better standing. is he trying to alianate himself from the rest of the fandom now that he’s done with the Jo purists?

“Melissa is prophet” Who the HECK does this guy think he is? Just because the PC quartet support Jo doesn’t mean they’re sucking up.

We love you Melissa!

Steve can attack J.K.R. as much as he wants, but saying what he did about you takes this way to far.

let’s hope the judge doesn’t do a fudge.

Um, excuse me, but Melissa actually wrote her own book! She didn’t just copy Rowling’s words. This is ridiculous! SVA shame on you! This makes me so angry. Regardless of the merits of his book, there is no need for him to go attacking Melissa. And if he really has read all 7 books “40 or 50 times a piece” he needs to get a life, he needs to find some new books. It’s true the HP books are so good I will read them over and over again for the rest of my life, but I think that statistic sounds a little unrealistic. 40*7 = 280. that means 28 potter reads a year for the past 10 years. Doable, but difficult.

@ Diaperchangindaddy…

You wrote: “You have to be fair and remember that we all probably frequented his site in its hey-day. Don’t kick him while he’s down – the lawsuit probably hit him as a total surprise and he’s got his reasons for defending it.”

Unfortunately I can’t agree with you here. When RDR approached VDA, he turned them down, saying he believed that publishing his site would constitute copyright infringement. When RDR pressured him, he agreed, but wrote into his contract that if he was sued, that RDR would assume all legal responsibility. He can say many things, but he cannot say this lawsuit came as a surprise.

Yes, the Lexicon is a great site. No, Steve does not have the right to publish it. And yes, Steve totally deserves the treatment he is receiving from Jo, Warner, and the HP community. He tried to take advantage of Jo and her kindness (and her HP Fan award) and not take any responsibility for something he knew was wrong. And now he’s attacking and lasthing out at others who’ve gone about writing a book the proper way: legally, and with respect to the author of the material.

He has no one to blame for this mess other than himself and his publishers at RDR.

Kristin, Tim Wu compared Steve to Arachne, not Jo. Rowling is Athena in this metaphor.

Updated because I SWEAR I corrected to Athena before I hit “post”...

For anyone who feels like publicly stating they are boycotting his book if it gets published, please join the Facebook Group “Harry Potter fans boycotting Steve Vander Ark and RDR books”. I did not create this group, nor am I an officer, I just ran across it and thought it was an excellent idea.

I just saw your post – thanks, Bandersnatch!

I can’t believe he actually said “Many readers dislike the epilogue in the final book; Vander Ark urged them to disregard it entirely, and even invented his own spell to do so (“expelliepilogus”). “Jo’s quit, she’s done,” he told the audience. “We’re taking over now.”

I’m sitting here with my mouth open in disbelief. That is so rude. If I had of been there I would have started booing him.

Melissa your site is the best and you are well rid of Steve. He has shot himself in the foot yet again and maybe now this will open up the eyes of the people who still felt sympathy for him.

Isn’t Melissa’s book about the fandom (correct me if I am wrong)? How can Mr. Wu compare Steve’s book with Melissa. She writes about how the HP fandom works together and analyzes the impact the book series has had on society. All Steve does is organize Jo’s work into a spoiler book.

Wow, sounds to me like SVA has lost touch with reality completely. Melissa is a prophet? JKR is God? He has been vilified? (well he has but by his own hand) Just when I thought this whole thing couldn’t get crazier. Seriously, the guy needs some mental health professionals. I really, REALLY think he has somehow put himself in the HP world and that has become his reality.

And as for the, ummm, author of this scholarly piece (choke, gasp) what the heck is with this ancient Greece garbage? Seriously bad, bad writing here and facts completely disregarded or misconstrued.

I cannot wait till the judge renders a verdict so we don’t have to hear about SVA anymore.

I think we should all call Mr. Wu telling him to appologize to Melissa and all of the HP community. If nothing else, send him an e-mail with the words “GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT!”

A big thank you to everyone at Leaky for the way they’ve handled their coverage of the trial from the beginning!! Leaky and PotterCast are the only sources I’ve found for consistent and accurate coverage about this situation. If Mr. Vander Ark wants people to have any sympathy for feeling like an outcast, he should probably stop making cruel and ridiculous comments about everyone and everything that the Potter community holds dear. Neither he nor Mr. Wu have any right to go after Melissa, Sue, or any of the Leaky crew!!