# What's the literary world's view of JK Rowling?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-literary-worlds-view-of-jk-rowling/739738>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 7, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-literary-worlds-view-of-jk-rowling/739738 "2015-12-07T21:13:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-literary-worlds-view-of-jk-rowling/739738/41 "2015-12-12T02:00:07Z")

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> [@Melbourne](#):
>
> She didn’t win any literary prizes. And my personal view is, that’s fair: popularity is orthogonal to “literary” quality, or there wouldn’t be any point in having literary prizes.

Depending on what you mean by orthogonal I disagree. Popularity is by no means a guarantee of quality, nor does it indicate inferiority.

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**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-literary-worlds-view-of-jk-rowling/739738/42 "2015-12-12T02:19:13Z")

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> [@Deeg](#):
>
> Depending on what you mean by orthogonal I disagree. Popularity is by no means a guarantee of quality, nor does it indicate inferiority.

Given that “orthogonal” means “statistically independent,” I’m pretty sure you don’t disagree :).

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-literary-worlds-view-of-jk-rowling/739738/43 "2015-12-12T02:39:52Z")

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> [@Deeg](#):
>
> Depending on what you mean by orthogonal I disagree. Popularity is by no means a guarantee of quality, nor does it indicate inferiority.

Orthogonal: At right angles to. Independent of. Irrelevant to.

A wall is orthogonal to the floor, unless your walls slope. What shirt you wear is orthogonal to the wind speed on Venus.

So, yes, popularity is orthogonal to quality.

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