Not fair, J.K. Rowling. Not only did you taunt us with only seven handmade copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, so that (thankyouverymuch) we can’t even read them, but now you have to write a prequel to Harry Potter too? Before that sounds like a good thing, it’s only 800 words, and it’s a one-of-a-kind produced for an auction. What a tease!

The artifacts turned real are produced for charity, which is a good thing. And Rowling’s universe is her own to do with as she pleases. But I disapprove of this whole business of authors revisiting a spectacular work and burdening it with so much extra clarification that there isn’t any room left for readers to fill in their own meaning and shape their own experience. I’m all for authorial control. I’m firmly on Rowling’s side in her case against the hack trying to make money off of her franchise. She’s been a generous supporter of fan fiction and fan sites that provide free information to visitors, but publishing is taking it too far.

On the other hand, I think some of her decisions in her post-Potter life have been rather barmy. It’s noble to handmake a few precious copies of Beedle the Bard and make millions for charity, but it’s cruel not to have a plebeian version made for us lowly muggles who don’t have four million bucks to dish out for a copy.

Even more odd was her decision to bring Dumbledore out of the closet. Why did she have to foist that on readers? If she had done a good enough job over the seven-book series, then readers would naturally come to that conclusion on their own. Or, if they chose to read Dumbledore’s sexuality as heterosexual or inconsequential to his character, shouldn’t they have that option? By outing the venerable headmaster, Rowling also destroyed an excellent opportunity for legitimate scholarship on her work. Entire PhD dissertations have been written on less consequential issues in literature. By leaving no room between the lines, she’s now given us no reason to look any deeper into her work than a few superficial lines of html on a gossip site.

Once again, I don’t dispute Rowling’s right to do this, only her judgment to do so. Other authors have been guilty of overburdening a perfectly good franchise; George Lucas is the worst offender. Others do it with less nasty outcomes; J.R.R. Tolkien so carefully crafted the expansions of his world that they weave together seamlessly, without clumsy patches slapped like a smiley-faced band-aid over the scars of Frankenstein’s plot. (Midichlorians, George? Midichlorians???)

It’s usually not the errors in a text itself, but the mistakes made after success that end up making an author’s work stale and uninteresting. The mystery and secrets of the Harry Potter universe are what make it so delicious. I hope Rowling remembers that when making future decisions about what extras she’ll add to an already complete opus.