Thoughts for the Serious Reader of Harry Potter
As the first flush of excitement after the publication of Ink Black Heart has passed, many serious readers are now on to our first (or more!) re-reads. We are fortunate to have some enticing revelations from J. K. Rowling delivered during both her scripted and unscripted Q&A sessions. Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post: Silkworm and Ink Black Heart.
Ink Black Heart has confirmed certain ideas about the Cormoran Strike books and introduced new mysteries about Rowling’s second series. The field of Serious Striker Studies, quite simply, is in a state of flux at the moment even about ideas we think of as sureties; Rowling-Galbraith’s longest work, though published some time ago, is a long way from being fully understood on its own or in the context of the Strike canon. Before advancing what I think are two important points about Strike’s mythological roles in Ink Black Heart, allow me to explain how I see the Strike Studies status quo.
If there had been any doubts remaining about the Parallels Series Idea (PSI), that the Strike novels are being written in parallel with the Harry Potter apposite numbers, Strike 6’s many echoes with the Hogwarts Saga’s sixth entry, Half-Blood Prince, removed them. See the discussion here at HogwartsProfessor, and articles at both The Rowling Library and even MuggleNet for the conclusive evidence on this point. There is more to add on this subject, most important in my view the liquid albedo quality of Ink Black Heart‘s pronounced drinking of alcohol as in Prince, a quality The Times of London noted in their review as “a pub crawl:”
The Ink Black Heart is essentially a pub crawl — with the emphasis on the crawl — through West End watering holes. It starts at the Ritz, continues at Annabel’s (where Strike picks up a celebrity jeweller) and goes on to the Arts Club, the Tottenham on Oxford Street, Bob Bob Ricard (with its “Push for Champagne” buttons) in Upper James Street, the Flask in Hampstead, the Ship and Shovell in Craven Passage and ends in St Stephen’s Tavern opposite the Palace of Westminster.
Strike is no stranger to drinking holes, but The Times was right to note that the imbibing goes to a different level in Heart, which is mysterious outside of alchemical symbolism and parallels with the firewhiskey friendly Half-Blood Prince.
As well-established as PSI now is, it also presents a real head-scratching mystery in addition to the question of ‘Why is she doing this?‘ There are, after all, only seven Harry Potter novels and the author insists there will be at least ten Strike novels. Strike 7 seems on course to be in parallel with Deathly Hallows, the original series’ conclusion, without being a conclusion itself. It seems, even if one assumes that Rowling is lying and the next Strike novel will indeed be the last, almost impossible, short of a three or four thousand page novel, for her to wrap up the Strike-Ellacott relationship and the mystery of Leda Strike’s death in one book. [Read more…]
J.K Rowling’s novels employ multiple types of humor. One of the more subtle is her fondness for puns. For example, Vernon Dursley, drill-maker, is described as wearing his most “boring” tie. The use of the word “serious” in the text upticks significantly in Prisoner of Azkaban, compared to earlier books, pointing to the importance of Sirius Black. The Cormoran Strike series also includes such word-play. For example, in Lethal White, the Norfolk commune is described as “still, for Strike’s money, the worst place that Leda had ever taken them.” As we learn later, this is one of several places that Leda frittered away Rokeby’s child support payments, meaning, she was literally giving them Strike’s money.
After several listens through the Ink Black Heart audiobook, I have begun working back through the rest of the series, in reverse order. I am currently finishing up Lethal White. During my last listen, I spied some puns relating to Raff, Kinvara and the Rattenbury murder, for whom the noisy young Chiswell terrior is named. If you are unaware of this connection, please read my first post on the topic, then come back here to continue after the jump.
Cormoran Strike actor Tom Burke gave a recent interview to The Guardian where he dropped a super-strong hint about his real-life mother’s role in the Troubled Blood TV adaptation. Actress Anna Calder-Marshall was announced as part of the cast last February, but her exact role has yet to be mentioned. Given the familial relationship to title star Burke, many speculated that Ms. Calder-Marshall would be Aunt Joan Nancarrow. However, Burke’s recent statement suggests otherwise:
Doesn’t your mother, Anna Calder-Marshall, appear in the new series?
She does and she’s fantastic in it. The first scene we had was also with Carol MacReady, who’s a wonderful actor. Her and my mum go way back and it was a joy to be in a scene with both of them. I haven’t acted with my parents in a long while, since doing Victoria Wood sketches and silly stuff in local theatre in Kent.
Carol MacReady plays Irene, making it almost inevitable that Ms. Calder-Marshall is Janice. Is there any other character you would expect to be in a scene with both Strike and Irene?
If true, this will be a nice bit of Strike-trivia going forward. Can anyone think of another detective-killer duo played by a real-life parent-offspring pair?
I suggest reading the full interview; it has some interesting tidbits not only about Troubled Blood, but about Burke’s late godfather, Alan Rickman.
Hat-tip to Strikefans.com!
Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post: Rowling’s Process – Insights from a 2015 Interview. Join me after the jump for the insights Prof. Groves’ found, in an interview J. K. Rowling gave seven years ago today, to publicise Career of Evil. [Read more…]
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