Shared Text (Not Safe For Work)

July 9, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Andrew Schulz clearly knows next to nothing about Harry Potter. Note that in the above routine that he mentions “Harry Potter the Musical” in reference to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which for all its glories (failings?), is not a musical.

Having said that, it’s interesting to observe that he does understand, as in “know for certain,” that his audience will get  a Harry Potter joke and especially enjoy an equal parts playful and tasteless spell in Latin. Because everybody knows Harry Potter.

Filed Under: Shared Text

Tweeted Death Threats to J. K. Rowling

July 4, 2022 by

The good news? The Daily Mail reports that this death threat and incitement to lethal violence by a trangender activist has a happy ending (sort of):

Last night, a Police Scotland spokeswoman said: ‘Officers are carrying out enquiries.’

Fiona McAnena of campaign group Fair Play For Women told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The fact that people can make death threats publicly without worry is a telling indictment.’

Yesterday, the abusive profile was finally deleted for violating Twitter rules….

#IStandWith JKRowling was trending on Twitter last night. Ms Rowling’s representatives declined to comment.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Twitter

Have We Covered ‘Troubled Blood’? No.

July 3, 2022 by 6 Comments

Due to the release of the Ink Black Heart cover and fly-leaf synopsis last week, we have been discussing that full time at HogwartsProfessor. Beatrice Groves, Louise Freeman, and I have all checked in with what we individually found intriguing about the new material (scroll down for those three discussions!). We’re definitely getting excited about the new Strike series installment and I’m guessing that will be reflected in July and August posts on this site as we hasten to respond to the marketing crumbs sure to be dropped in the next eight weeks to generate more interest in the new novel.

There is a hint in this enthusiasm that Troubled Blood and all its complexity, its artistry and meaning, has been covered, that is, Strike 5 is stale news.

Which, of course, is not only wrong but crazy wrong. There are a lot of questions about what was really going on in Troubled Blood that haven’t even been raised on this forum or any other that I know of (true confessions: I don’t get out much).

After the jump, I offer two such ideas, one from a reader in a comment thread on this site and one that occurred to me only on my >30th listen to the Glenister audiobook. See you there! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Ink Black Heart Synopsis Pointers: Mythological and Ring Suggestions

July 2, 2022 by 4 Comments

Two days ago, the cover of Ink Black Heart and its fly-leaf synopsis were revealed — and already two of the world’s most insightful Rowling Readers have checked in here with in-depth explorations of ideas about what might be coming in Strike 6. Beatrice Groves, author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, led the charge with The Ink Black Heart: Uncovering the synopsis clues and Louise Freeman, professor of psychology at Mary Baldwin University, followed up yesterday with The Social Science Guide to “Anomie” and What It Could Mean for The Ink Black Heart.

As you’d expect (and want), each addressed possibilities in those subjects in which Serious Strikers know these pundits are expert. Prof Groves gave us a fascinating exploration of the Cratylic name ‘Anomie,’ more on Highgate Cemetery with a focus on its disused Underground Station, and a prediction that Sidney’s The Arcadia will be the epigraph source in  the penultimate Strike mystery, first septology. Prof Freeman explored the social science meaning of anomie a la Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton, repercussions with respect to the 5-6 Flip Idea, what ‘lawlessness’ might tell us about Leda Strike’s supposed suicide, and wealth as the magic of the Strike series in parallel with the Wizarding World seven books.

I confess to being almost overwhelmed by these idea avalanches and left to wonder what else there is left to say about Ink Black Heart’s flyleaf copy and the new cover. After the jump, though, I will share two thoughts which, like Professors Groves and Freeman’s posts, you’d expect I would have, that is, what the synopsis suggests to me about the ring structure of the first seven books, the Parallel Series Idea, and the mythological templates of the Strike-Ellacott relationship. See you there! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Ring Composition

Ink Black Heart Cover Release Tomorrow

June 29, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Any guesses about the image behind the placeholder cover behind the leaf screen?

And the wall of leaves that open like a beaded screen between rooms?

We will discuss here tomorrow, of course; see you then!

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Hog Pro Notes