The librarian-author at the heart of the Harry Potter encyclopedia lawsuit controversy, Steven Jan Vander Ark, broke down sobbing on the witness stand on Tuesday.
The 50-year old librarian was described by courtroom observers as “school boy charming” and an obvious Harry Potter die hard. On the witness stand, the librarian portrayed J.K. Rowling as ‘his idol, his true literary love, who had been unaccountably bewitched by the evil, money-grubbing forces of publishing, like one of Voldemort├óΓé¼Γäós vassals.’ He couldn’t understand how Rowling one day was singling out his Harry Potter Lexicon Web site, out of ├óΓé¼┼ôhundreds of thousands├óΓé¼┬¥ of Potter fan sites on the Web, for praise and then the next is accusing him of plagiarism for wanting to turn it into a book.
The report goes on to recount that when the librarian was asked by his lawyer if he considered himself part of the Harry Potter community:
“I did,” he said, his face reddening, as he turned away from Ms. Rowling, who was sitting 10 feet away at the plaintiff’s table, listening intently. Then he burst out crying. “Sorry,” he said, regaining his composure. “It’s been difficult because there’s been a lot of criticism, obviously, and that was never the intention.”
Pussy!
Rowling reacted to the librarian’s testimony through an e-mail message from a spokeswoman, saying, ├óΓé¼┼ôA fan├óΓé¼Γäós affectionate enthusiasm should not obscure acts of plagiarism.├óΓé¼┬¥
Can’t they find a way to work together?
[Image via WENN.]
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