• Hugh Jacks? A Salute to Hugh Jackman and a Night at the Museum in-joke?

    ByElizabeth
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    There is no question that Hugh Jacks, the man who really does not know the difference between being ignored and being led on, is something of a joke in The Ink Black Heart. He serves the narrative purpose of sparking Strike’s curiosity and jealousy while also sparking Robin’s annoyance from their initial meeting on the New Year’s ski trip to the ugly phone conversation where she points out the obvious and gets verbal abuse in return. When she finally tells him, plainly, that she is not interested, he turns nasty, blaming her for all his problems despiteabsolutely zero encouragement or interest on Robin’s part. He also serves as an interesting contrast to the two other rivals for Robin’s affection: the ultra-physical suspect Pez Pierce and the super-nice guy police officer Ryan Murphy.

    But he also is part of another little joke that is quite charming as well as pretty obscure. Hugh Jacks sports the nickname “Axeman,” as his name sort of sounds like “Huge Axe”; Midge notes to Strike that people should say baby names aloud before deciding on them. It’s just another joke that makes pathetic Hugh even more pathetic, but it’s a joke with a delightful connection to a far more charming gentleman, the multi-talented Hugh Jackman, who just celebrated his birthday earlier this month, and to a blockbuster fantasy film set in England (no, not one of THOSE films). Read More “Hugh Jacks? A Salute to Hugh Jackman and a Night at the Museum in-joke?”

  • Beatrice Groves – Scaramouche’s Fandango in Ink Black Heart

    ByNick Jeffery
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    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: Scaramouche’s Fandango in Ink Black Heart. Join me after the jump for Prof. Groves’ look at music as metaphor, scaffold and clue in Rowling’s Ink Black Heart.

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  • The “Poisoned Skeleton” in ‘Silkworm:’ Is There an Echo in Ink Black Heart?

    ByJohn
    3 Comments

    The most mysterious passage in The Silkworm is a flash from Strike’s subconscious about a “poisoned skeleton,” an image that the Amazing Memory Man is unable to recall:

    Maybe Quine was born four hundred years too late,’ said Strike, still eating shortbread. ‘Elizabeth Tassel told me there’s a Jacobean revenge play featuring a poisoned skeleton disguised as a woman. Presumably someone shags it and dies. Not a million miles away from Phallus Impudicus getting ready to—’

    ‘Don’t,’ said Robin, with a half laugh and a shudder.

    But Strike had not broken off because of her protest, or because of any sense of repugnance. Something had flickered deep in his subconscious as he spoke. Somebody had told him… someone had said… but the memory was gone in a flash of tantalising silver, like a minnow vanishing in pondweed.

    ‘A poisoned skeleton,’ Strike muttered, trying to capture the elusive memory, but it was gone.

    I wrote on the Moderator Channel back in 2016 that this passage seemed to be the equivalent of Dumbledore’s “gleam of triumph” in the Goblet of Fire denouement, the scene where the Headmaster learned that Voldemort has reconstituted his body using Harry’s blood. Ink Black Heart, which echoes The Silkworm in many ways (which Rowling recently confirmed), would be the natural place to look for an echo of this elusive insight, even for an answer to the question it raises.

    After the jump, then, a look at the probable Jacobean Revenge Drama from which Rowling-Galbraith drew the “poisoned skeleton” image, a review of its possible place as just a marker for The Silkworm‘s murderer, and a quick list of possible correspondences in Ink Black Heart across the series-ring’s turtle-back line. Read More “The “Poisoned Skeleton” in ‘Silkworm:’ Is There an Echo in Ink Black Heart?”

  • Cormoran Strike Studies for a Degree? BA, BSc, MLitt, and PhD Programs

    ByJohn
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    HogwartsProfessor.com, if I say so myself, is the cutting edge of Serious Strike Studies. Our posts here explore the psychological, mythological, alchemical, structural, intertextual, and archetypal elements in Rowling-Galbraith’s murder mystery series. There are, however, at least three failings in our approach.

    Though the posts are as a rule much longer and more in depth than other websites devoted to the subject and our writers more expert in the field, these articles do not constitute a course of study, are a work in progress (i.e., largely speculative), and they are not interactive beyond exchanges in comment box threads. In brief, they’re not systematic or anything like a degree program at a college or university.

    If the uber Rowling Reader wanted to pursue a degree in Cormoran Theory or Strike Studies, then, where could he or she go and what would the degree involve? After the jump, I list three pathways to an undergraduate or graduate degree via programs currently on offer at major universities in the US and UK in which a Serious Striker can major in Rowling’s detective fiction. Read More “Cormoran Strike Studies for a Degree? BA, BSc, MLitt, and PhD Programs”

  • MuggleNet Reviews ‘Ink Black Heart:’ Harry Potter Fandom Reversing Course?

    ByJohn
    9 Comments

    Irvin Khaytman, author of Dumbledore: The Life and Lies of Hogwarts’s Renowned Headmaster: An Unofficial Exploration and longtime columnist at MuggleNet.com (where he writes under the pseudonym hpfanboy13), has written a review of Ink Black Heart. [The original article was taken down after I posted this piece; it can still be read at The Wayback Macine archive.] I recommend it with enthusiasm for three reasons.

    First, Khaytman is worth reading about anything Rowling writes because of his profound grasp of Potter canon, his wit, and his capacity to turn a phrase to delight and cuff the chin of his reader. An ‘hpfanboy13’ piece on Potter, Fantastic Beasts, or the Strike series is sure to challenge the reader, maybe even make her or him raise either a fist or a toast, and to re-think whatever subject Khaytman explores, to contradict or support his argument.

    Second, he knows his Cormoran Strike, though not as well as he does Harry Potter, alas, and is familiar with some of the ideas we discuss here, most importantly, the Parallel Series Theory and the Seven Book Ring. His takes on the echoes of Half-Blood Prince in Strike6 alone are worth the time invested, as you’d expect from this caliber Potter Pundit, and make his decision to write the review for MNet before reading work others have written here and elsewhere seem well-founded.

    His ignorance of how ring composition works, of the 5-6 Flip idea, of literary alchemy, of mythology, and of Strike Extended Play, however, will leave those who have been part of the Ink Black Heart conversation here scratching their heads when reading his confessed confusion about some topics and his certainty about others (he’s sure about how 100 pages could be cut from Troubled Blood without affecting the narrative, for example; only someone clueless about the clockwork structure and inner relationship of the Strike5 story parts could say this without blushing). Rowling’s intertextuality or literary allusion, too, outside of references to the apposite Potter book, seems to have totally escaped his consideration.

    Despite those failings and blind-spots, I loved Khaytman’s review and his subsequent conversation in the post’s comment thread with Beatrice Groves. I laughed, I groaned, I rubbed my chin and re-read parts that were especially thought-provoking. He is sui generis and a boon to Serious Strikers, a breath of fresh air, really, and a welcome voice. Read More “MuggleNet Reviews ‘Ink Black Heart:’ Harry Potter Fandom Reversing Course?”