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第6巻題名いたずら張本人、真相を語る (Harry Potter)


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 先日、世界中のハリー・ポッター・ファンを信じ込ませたウソの第6巻タイトルの仕掛け人が顛末を HPANA で語っています。

 この人は匿名の米フロリダ大学の男子学生(19)で、「証拠」となったビデオ・ファイル(写真)はグラフィック処理ソフトでわずか2時間で作り上げたものだそう。それも凄いけど、みんなが信じたのは 彼が「発見した」という「J. K. ローリングの文章」がほんとにそっくりだったからだと思う。これだけの文体模倣ができるというのは、それ自体大した文章力だよね。

 HPANA が行ったインタヴューの中で、彼はまずお詫びをしています。

Firstly I would like to offer two apologies. I owe an apology to all of the Harry Potter fans that I lied to; I never thought my hoax would go so far and I felt awful when some of you got so excited about knowing the title. I am sorry. I also would like to apologize to J.K. Rowling, as I did an awful thing by impersonating her. I consider her a literary genius.

In the end, the hoax was all in good fun. I thought the title was rather funny and had hoped that at least some people would get a good chuckle out of it.

 HPANA (太字)との一問一答は次の通り。

Do you have any official connection to JKR, Warner Bros., or the book publishers?


No, I have no connection to them whatsoever.


What made you think of doing this, and specifically, the timing of it?


I had recently finished a re-reading of Order of the Phoenix and it got me excited about the Harry Potter series again. As a result of that excitement, I stumbled upon JKR's website for the first time and was fascinated by the unopenable door. I also thought it was great that she was dispelling some of the rumors about the series. Somehow I put two and two together and the hoax clicked in my mind.

The timing of the event was never planned; it was simple dumb luck on my part that I released the hoax at the start of a weekend so that it [became] more effective.


How did you do it?


A hobby of mine is computer graphics/video editing, so I knew I could produce a realistic video. I realized that this was exactly what I needed to make the hoax believable.


I used two programs: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects. In Photoshop I edited and manipulated pictures from JKR's site, and in After Effects I animated them into the finished video. I did not use [Macromedia] Flash at all. The blue bars (see image) at the bottom and top are a result of me changing the aspect ratio of the video without distorting it so that I could compress it into an MPEG file. I whipped the video up in about two hours.


As far as the "message" was concerned, I just tried to mimic JKR's style as much as possible. I came up with the title Pillar of Storge, trying to formulate something with a hidden meaning that people would be able to figure out. It's an ugly title, but I'm quite fond of it.


What did you expect as a result of the hoax? Did you think it would receive the worldwide press it garnered?


I NEVER expected this much attention. I even wondered if anyone would believe it at all. My original goal of the hoax was that a rumor about the title would slowly creep through the Harry Potter community (much like the Green Flame Torch rumor), and that JKR would eventually dispel it as a myth (perhaps releasing some real information while doing so) on her site.


I never wanted the attention of all the Harry Potter fans; there was a clear and specific reason for the hoax and it involved the attention of only one woman. I was highly amused by the fervent guessing of the meaning of the title by eager fans and by the international press that it received.

 えーと、この最後の部分の Green Flame Torch というのは、以前にもこういう噂があったということでしょうか。ここはちょっとわかりません。

 最後に、この仕掛け人は、いいことを言ってます。確かに、今回のいたずらがなければ、ぼくたちはいまだに第6巻のタイトルを知らなかったかもしれません。

If I had not started the hoax, would we all know the real title to book 6 right now?