What if the author of HP was a man

[Nobby]

How would a man writing the books effect the story?

[Female_alien]

Depends on what type of man would it be. I mean, do you mean that man would be just like J.K. only male, or any male?
probably the first one, but I'm just checking, so I'll write my answer when I get yours

[sea-plunder]

i think it would change the charechters personalities if it was a man because they would have different...views maybe. Also i don't think the public image would be as good depending on weather the man was kind or one of them 'not smiling people' ...

[Groo]

i dont think a man would have been able to show the emotional relationships between Harry and others like Mrs Weasley, Luna oreven Sirius as well as JK. but again it depends on the kind of man he is

[Alice I]

That is kind of a touch question Nobby.

My gut tells me that Groo is right in that the interpersonal relationships between the characters would not be a well developed if written by a man.
I am not dissing (?sp) men but the fact is; that as a general rule, men do put less stock in "feeling" stuff because our society did not raise boys to worry so much about that sort of thing.
Not all men, by any stretch, are unskilled in emotional expression however. My father for example is very un-like the typical male in that respect. Heck by his own admission "He is woman trapped in a man's body!"
I am not kidding he actually said that to me when I was younger and I asked him if that ment he was gay and he thought about it and replied:
"no, I'm a lesbien."
My dad is kinda wierd, but fun

But in asnwer to your question Nobby, I think that the relationships in the book would suffer but the action seguences might be more exciting written from a male perspective!

[Reverie Revenge]

First of all, Alice I, you're lucky about your dad - must be a cool type
But I don't think JKR's style reflects her gender much - maybe just the part Hermione is explaining girls' feelings to worried & irritated Harry and to immature Ron
But this description was a model stereotype; maybe cca. 50 yrs ago it would be correct but now many girls (including me) cannot fit in such models. For example: I met 2 friends of mine in cafe and we didn't have a typical girlie talk - first about cars, computers & MP3, then neutral themes like music or travel and only later about clothes, boys, ... weird? I know!
I think emancipation is making its way, melting differentiation and letting people step out of standard models, which is good. Luna is a very not-standard girl for example and I like her eccentricy

[zledm007]

I would have to agree that inra-personal relationships would not have been written quite as strongly and I would also venture to say that most of the character's personalities would be less in depth, in exchange for the previously mentioned more in depth action sequences. From my expiriences I would have to say that Women tend to understand people better than men. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.

[Nightcrawler]

I don't know... being a woman does not necisarrily make one a better writer. Saying that a female writer = better characters, and a male writer = better action sequences is steriotyping. JKR is very good at getting inside the characters heads, but so are a lot of male writers. Conveying emotion in literature does not so much depend on the gender of the author, but the writing skills of the author.

I guess if somebody is drawing on experiences that they have personally been through, it can show quite well in their work. But I'd say that the gender does not really matter.

To answer the original question, I really don't know what it would have been like if Harry Potter were written by a man. The quality of the book would depend on which man wrote it. I would be more interested in how skilled the author is.

[Q8Hermione]

i don't know!

[Female_alien]

lol sorry I just had to laugh

now I'm leaving

[Meg Boyd]

I would have to agree that inra-personal relationships would not have been written quite as strongly and I would also venture to say that most of the character's personalities would be less in depth, in exchange for the previously mentioned more in depth action sequences. From my expiriences I would have to say that Women tend to understand people better than men. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's how I see it.

As a girl I tend to agree with that remark. Girls do have a better sense of interpersonal feelings, as it is in our nature to have a stronger maturnal instinct (and with maturnal instincts comes emotions). Emotion alone does not make JKR a better writer, but her being a woman makes the emotion more evident in her writing, therefor making the stories the way they are. The stories could still be super awesome if a man wrote them, but they just wouldn't be as emotionally strung.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

From a male point of view. While I can understand that, and it's true, if the author was a true writer I don't think it would have changed the story too much. And I don't take any offense to that, because I know you don't intend it that way, but male writers can still portray emotion just as well. Better sometimes. Also the story is written from Harry's POV. Harry is a male, and even though JKR does a brilliant job at presenting it from his side, a male may have been able to make a more detailed job.
On a stereo-typical level, begrudgingly I would have to agree with you...

[Mrs. Luca Black]

Remus would be much different. As it stands right now, and I read this somewhere a while ago, Remus J. Lupin is the only male in modern literature to understand what it's like to have a monthly curse. Remus would have been written in a way that would not evoke such a statement, because if the writer doesn't understand monthly curses, then how could any of his characters?

Yeah, goofball reply.

(I use Remus instead of calling him Lupin because my cat's name is Lupin and he gets highly upset when I use Lupin around him and I'm not referring to him.)

[Salazar Slytherin]

hehe did you name your cat lupin after the book or just like the name?

well as to this what if i think that the book would be much more violent and maybe even darker.

[Mrs. Luca Black]

My sister named my cat after the dear professor before I had read the books. I still like the name though, Remus is one of my favorites.