Cormoran Strike Archives – Page 33 of 112

Ink Black Heart and Deathly Hallows: The Heart is Not About Emotions and Affection but the Human Spiritual Center
ByJohn October 6, 2022March 4, 2024
5 Comments

I have two quick points to make tonight about Rowling’s use of the word “heart.”

First, she revealed in Deathly Hallows that the heart is not about emotions and relationships per se but the human spiritual center. In Hallows, the critical moments in the transformation of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter are described with repeated references to their hearts and the light and darkness within and around them. More than Half-Blood Prince or the ‘Hairy Heart’ in Beedle the Bard, this is where we find the clearest references to what it means to have an ‘Ink Black Heart’ and how to overcome it.

Second, this use of the heart as the home of the noetic faculty or ‘Spirit’ is in keeping with traditional teaching across the great revelations, especially Christianity, though a great departure from prevalent Valentine’s Day sentiments about the heart as the metaphorical home for affection and emotion. Harry and Ron’s illumined hearts after their time in inky blackness in Deathly Hallows are signs of their enlightenment and self-transcendence, not emotional or affectionate accomplishment.

More after the jump! Read More “Ink Black Heart and Deathly Hallows: The Heart is Not About Emotions and Affection but the Human Spiritual Center”
Point-Counterpoint: Conceivability — Thoughts on the Strike Daddy Theory — Is Madeline a Spurgler-Burglar?
ByJohn October 4, 2022
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Four weeks ago J. S. Malekson laid out the evidence from her first readings of Rowling-Galbraith’s Ink Black Heart that Madeline Courson-Miles was pregnant with Strike’s child when he broke off their relationship. See Ink Black Heart: Has Strike Conceived a Child? for that. This exciting possibility, one sure to shake up the relationship of the detective agency partners if true, was met with both support and skepticism from readers. Those who dismissed the idea argued that Strike was much too careful a fornicator to have let this happen.

There is a way, though, that Madeline Finch-Fletchley, I mean ‘Courson-Miles,’ could have become pregnant without alerting Strike to what she was doing. It’s fairly outlandish and has a relatively high ick factor so I wrote the HogwartsProfessor scientist-in-residence, Louise Freeman, to see if this idea was, well, conceivable. I post our discussion after the jump for proof of, if nothing else, that we will consider outrageous possibilities here and we’re not writing for the Nutter File, not yet at least. Read More “Point-Counterpoint: Conceivability — Thoughts on the Strike Daddy Theory — Is Madeline a Spurgler-Burglar?”
Sad, So Very Sad: The Ink-Black Heart’s Connections to Victorian Cemetery Art and Mourning Customs
ByElizabeth October 2, 2022March 4, 2024
9 Comments

Happy October! Although some of us are pretty spooky all year ‘round, and the Hobby Lobby has had pumpkins out on shelves since July 5, there is just something about the beginning of October that puts us in the mood for all things Halloween, from stocking up on Frankenberry cereal to watching Linus rolling in the pumpkin for Lucy to kill it once again.

So it seems quite appropriate that we take a few moments today to look at the way in which our latest Strike installment draws upon traditional Victorian mourning customs and cemetery art in this appropriately Gothic tale of a murder that takes place in a cemetery because of a cartoon set in a cemetery. It’s a topic with plenty of motifs that are currently adorning the yards and homes of otherwise respectable people during the traditional season of spooky, so grab your walking shoes and mourning armband, and let’s take a stroll through the cemetery to uncover some Victorian traditions and motifs that wander through The Ink Black Heart.

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Beatrice Groves – The Warlock’s Ink Black Heart
ByNick Jeffery October 1, 2022March 4, 2024
14 Comments

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: The Warlock’s Ink Black Heart. Join me after the jump for Prof. Groves’ for a look at the heart as metaphor in Rowling’s writings – past, present and, enticingly, works yet to come.

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Updated Sporcle Quiz for Strike: Now with ‘The Ink Black Heart’ Characters
ByLouise Freeman September 30, 2022April 1, 2026
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OK, Trivia Buff(ypaws), the Sporcle quiz on the top 100 most-mentioned Strike characters has been expanded and updated, and now has 130 names, including characters from The Ink Black Heart. I must admit, I don’t fully understand how they counted, given that Gus Upcott, Anomie and Paperwhite all have separate entries. I also don’t know if things like Twitter handles are included. Does every mention of anomie@anomiegamemaster count as two? Does @RealPaperwhite also go into Paperwhite’s tally?

In any case, it’s fun. My first run through I got 85%, and would have gotten a few others, except that I’ve been listening to the audiobook and was therefore off on a few spellings. My record is 127/130, with apologies to Evan Duffield, Seb Montgomery and Madeline’s son Henry for forgetting them.

Check it out!