A lot of what makes it neat is the deliberate contrast. Maybe not more than 50% of what made it neat but it’s be a nontrivial hit. Some story beats I think were sort of dependent on the deliberate contrast for their narrative heft, so you need to redo them, which would require some craftmanship.
So, like, sure, it’s doable. But the whole point of HPMOR was also to be something he could do for fun in is off hours with no willpower (which it eventually failed at anyhow).
A few years ago I remember him talking about how he was thinking about writing a thriller to get money but couldn’t muster the motivation. It feels like if that’s still a possibility it at least makes sense to try to hire an editor to do this for a few key chapters and see how it turns out.
Is this question based on some intent or plan that Eliezer has?
It’s perhaps possible to make it technically compliant with US and UK copyright law. Change the names, acknowledge the thematic (non-protected) inspiration, rewrite maybe 1⁄10 of scenes that are based too closely on HP books and films.
It’s almost certainly impossible to do so without violating the wishes and goodwill of J.K. Rowling, who gives her blessing to create non-commercial derivative works. Making such a derivative work, then when it becomes popular due to the nature of the derivation, to skirt the law to sell it, would be fairly evil.
Context for “How does this relate to Eliezer’s plans?” is basically he was at one point talking on Facebook about writing a thriller similar to The Davinci code to make a ton of money and get connections(my memory about his post, don’t quote it) but had trouble motivating himself to write a thriller.
Making such a derivative work, then when it becomes popular due to the nature of the derivation, to skirt the law to sell it, would be fairly evil.
I don’t feel like you have to do this? Like, 50 shades of gray doesn’t feel like it’s skirting the law in regards to Twilight, it’s a story in it’s own right that has thematic elements and characters derived as inspiration. I feel like blocking an edit on the case that it was originally using Harry Potter as inspiration would be fairly evil in itself.
I don’t actually know much specifics about 50SoG—I tried to read it at the height of it’s popularity, and gave up a few chapters in. I did read the first Twilight book, and didn’t see that much similarity in the parts of 50SoG I got through. I never looked at the fanfic version of 50SoG. As such, I don’t know how clearly derivative the fanfic was, nor how much changed to the published novel. My guesses about these factors are that they point to 50SoG being vaguely inspired by Twilight where HPMoR is clearly derived from HP books and films.
Note that my moral view is not binding—I think it’d be wrong to use someone’s permission to make noncommercial derivations, then change the minimal amount to make money. That’s based on the suggestion of fairly minimal rewriting to change names and replace too-obvious references, and my interpretation of J.K.R.’s wishes.
If it’s a much deeper rewrite, including changing the basic plot to something other than a dark lord returning based on prophecies about a connection to a young boy hero, who turns out to be possessing a teacher at a school that’s silly and amusing in some very specific ways, it’s not problematic at all. And it’s not HPMoR at that point either—it’s some other possibly-magical story that uses some of the non-Rowling concepts from HPMoR.
Couldn’t Eliezer just remove every reference to Harry Potter and publish it separately? It worked for E.L James.
A lot of what makes it neat is the deliberate contrast. Maybe not more than 50% of what made it neat but it’s be a nontrivial hit. Some story beats I think were sort of dependent on the deliberate contrast for their narrative heft, so you need to redo them, which would require some craftmanship.
So, like, sure, it’s doable. But the whole point of HPMOR was also to be something he could do for fun in is off hours with no willpower (which it eventually failed at anyhow).
A few years ago I remember him talking about how he was thinking about writing a thriller to get money but couldn’t muster the motivation. It feels like if that’s still a possibility it at least makes sense to try to hire an editor to do this for a few key chapters and see how it turns out.
Is this question based on some intent or plan that Eliezer has?
It’s perhaps possible to make it technically compliant with US and UK copyright law. Change the names, acknowledge the thematic (non-protected) inspiration, rewrite maybe 1⁄10 of scenes that are based too closely on HP books and films.
It’s almost certainly impossible to do so without violating the wishes and goodwill of J.K. Rowling, who gives her blessing to create non-commercial derivative works. Making such a derivative work, then when it becomes popular due to the nature of the derivation, to skirt the law to sell it, would be fairly evil.
Context for “How does this relate to Eliezer’s plans?” is basically he was at one point talking on Facebook about writing a thriller similar to The Davinci code to make a ton of money and get connections(my memory about his post, don’t quote it) but had trouble motivating himself to write a thriller.
I don’t feel like you have to do this? Like, 50 shades of gray doesn’t feel like it’s skirting the law in regards to Twilight, it’s a story in it’s own right that has thematic elements and characters derived as inspiration. I feel like blocking an edit on the case that it was originally using Harry Potter as inspiration would be fairly evil in itself.
I don’t actually know much specifics about 50SoG—I tried to read it at the height of it’s popularity, and gave up a few chapters in. I did read the first Twilight book, and didn’t see that much similarity in the parts of 50SoG I got through. I never looked at the fanfic version of 50SoG. As such, I don’t know how clearly derivative the fanfic was, nor how much changed to the published novel. My guesses about these factors are that they point to 50SoG being vaguely inspired by Twilight where HPMoR is clearly derived from HP books and films.
Note that my moral view is not binding—I think it’d be wrong to use someone’s permission to make noncommercial derivations, then change the minimal amount to make money. That’s based on the suggestion of fairly minimal rewriting to change names and replace too-obvious references, and my interpretation of J.K.R.’s wishes.
If it’s a much deeper rewrite, including changing the basic plot to something other than a dark lord returning based on prophecies about a connection to a young boy hero, who turns out to be possessing a teacher at a school that’s silly and amusing in some very specific ways, it’s not problematic at all. And it’s not HPMoR at that point either—it’s some other possibly-magical story that uses some of the non-Rowling concepts from HPMoR.