Collection site: How we can know if the Strike Cast Twitterers have the inside scoop.

August 21, 2022 by 1 Comment

Speculation abounds on whether the assorted Cormoran Strike characters  who opened Twitter accounts in July and August (E.g. @AlabastorFair, @AnomieInkBlack, @IlsaHerbertOS, @Spellacott) are insiders with a sneak peak at the manuscript (which is, as of this writing, a couple of weeks away) or just uber-fans with too much time on their hands throwing the online equivalent of a midnight release party. There is a spectrum of possibilities:

  1. JKR/RG herself is behind all the tweets. Highly unlikely. But, personally, if managing all these accounts left her less time to tweet about trans issues, this would suit me fine.
  2. An editor or some other employee of the publisher is tweeting, in order to drum up excitement about the book prepublication.
  3. Some fan group has been given a sneak peak at the manuscript, and is tweeting with the knowledge and blessing of the publishers, likely with their content vetted closely.
  4. Some fan group has illicitly gotten hold of a copy, and is having some fun, while at the same time being decent enough not to drop any spoilers.
  5. Some fan group is just having fun, with no more knowledge than the rest of us.

Can we do a little detective work of our own to determine which of those possibilities is true? Join me after the jump to see.

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Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Louise Freeman

Ink Black Heart: Rowling Interactive Q&A

August 20, 2022 by Leave a Comment

The Robert Galbraith Twitter account has announced an upcoming interactive fan question and answer event. Scheduled for the 8th and 9th September this is likely to be right in the middle of most fans first reading of the new book. Some video has already been posted, and saved for posterity by our friends at The Rowling Library:

What does The Ink Black Heart explore?

I see this as a novel about disconnection. And people feeling disconnected in real life. And exploring what they find online as a way of connecting. But – it – I don’t want to give too much away. But the central theme of the book is anomie, which is a state of lacking normal social or moral norms. And – so, yeah, it’s really an exploration of that. It is a very sort of modern malaise. Although the term anomie has been around for a long, long time and it really – the term arose through industrialisation. People losing meaning in their daily lives and – and feeling that they themselves were not really part of society. Not really part of a whole. So, yeah. So, it’s a big theme. But it is explored in a very sort of contemporary way.

How much of the novel is drawn from your own experience?

I have never created a book – and this book certainly isn’t created from my own experience – you know, with a view to talking about my own life. That doesn’t mean, of course, that your own life experience isn’t in the book.

With this book – I had been planning this book for so long and then a couple of the things that happen in this book have since happened to me. And so, I would like to be very clear that I haven’t written this book as an answer to anything that happened to me. Although I have to say when it did happen to me, those who had already read the book in manuscript form were – are you clairvoyant? I wasn’t clairvoyant, I just – yeah, it was just one of those weird twists. Sometimes life imitates art more than one would like.

But, no, it’s not – this isn’t about my experience of – as being a creator. My experience – if I wrote about my experience as a creator, it would look very different. And I have to say, for example – which I think will be a question readers would ask: the Potter fandom, by and
large, has been amazing to me. Incredibly supportive and I still receive tonnes of love from the Potter fandom. So, the fandom in this book is very much not a portrait of the fandom. It is of a very – I think a very different kind of fandom.

What is it that makes Strike and Robin such a good team?

The reason I love writing those two characters so much is I love them both as characters. And I love the friendship. I love writing – and of course I love writing the sexual tension, which I know is – is a big deal for certain readers. But my feeling was always that each of them had quite a lot of changing and growing to do. Even Strike who is 10 years older than Robin.

You know, his – his past is an unusual one. And it has left him with issues that I don’t think he has ever really fully explored. And I feel that in books five and six, this being book six, you start to see him recognising some of this. He has still got a way to go. Equally, Robin, who’s had, you know, not a particularly typical romantic history because of – she has trauma in her past – in this book really does get to show a quite – what I think readers might find quite an unexpected side of her.

So, I love – I love the fact – to me it is a real friendship, they do – they rub – they can occasionally infuriate each other. But they are very complementary personalities, I think.

And they – their shared endeavour is really – is at the absolute root of what they value in each other and what they – I think now in this book, particularly at the end when something quite symbolic happens, you see that they recognise that they couldn’t have done it without
each other. And that’s – you know, that’s a wonderful feeling when you – when you have a shared endeavour with someone, and I empathise with that a lot.

It is not yet clear how the event will be conducted, but fans have been promised the opportunity for voting for the questions the want answered. It seems likely that all the answers have already been recorded, and I for one hope that in the fullness of time we will get to see all the footage.

 

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery

Winning a Fictional Prize in a Fictional Contest: Chatting with Strike Characters

August 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment

We here at Hogpro have been enjoying following the Twitter accounts of all the Cormoran Strike characters that have popped up recently, and speculating who might be the mastermind and whether the tweets are providing clues to The Ink Black Heart. Being a bit of a competitor, when I lucked into this post a mere hour after it went up, I couldn’t resist responding.

All it took was a quick google and I had the answer.

Now, this is clearly a potentially mixed blessing.  Given the very real possibility that Peter Gillespie killed Leda, I certainly hope all contact remains distant. However, if I do hear from him, I could try to clear up a major mystery by making some discreet inquiries about how much money is in Strike’s child support account.

And, if a Deadbeats 50th anniversary souvenir travel mug does indeed arrive in the mail, I can display it with my prize Ravenclaw water bottle.

Another arrival in the Twitter fest was the account of Robin’s furry roommate, one Wolfgang Priestwood. So far, he hasn’t said much other than, “Woof!” but he had an interesting response to Peter.

This does not bode well for Gillespie, Esquire’s innocence.

My final thought: If you look at the entire poem, it certainly seems fitting for a spooky cemetery.  Reminds me a bit of The Hunger Games’ “Hanging Tree” song.

I WAS milking in the meadow when I heard the Banshee Keening:
Little birds were in the nest, lambs were on the lea,
Upon the brow o’ the Fairy-hill a round gold moon was leaning—
She parted from the esker as the Banshee keened for me.
I was weaving by the door-post, when I heard the Death-watch beating:         5
And I signed the Cross upon me, and I spoke the Name of Three.
High and fair, through cloud and air, a silver moon was fleeting—
But the night began to darken as the Death-watch beat for me.
I was sleepless on my pillow when I heard the Dead man calling,
The Dead man that lies drowned at the bottom of the sea.         10
Down in the West, in wind and mist, a dim white moon was falling—
Now must I rise and go to him, the Dead who calls on me.

 

The author, Alice Furlong is a Irish poet and activist in an ultra-nationalist group.  She and Polworth ought to get along.

Happy Tweeting, everyone.

Update:

 

 

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Louise Freeman, Twitter

Strike on Twitter – Poetry Please

August 16, 2022 by 6 Comments

Since J. K. Rowling tweeted the epigraph to chapter 1 on Friday, our curious cast of twitter accounts have been busy posting their own verses. Friends and Faculty here at Hogwarts Professor are divided on what these accounts are. Could they be directed by Rowling? Are they a marketing campaign guided by advance copies of the book? Are they super-fans teasing knowledge they don’t have? Either way they are incredible fun. After the jump, review the tweets yourself, and let me know what you think!

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Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery, Twitter

Ink Black Heart – the Dedications

August 15, 2022 by 1 Comment

Sunday morning the super fans at The Tottenham posted on their Instagram account a clip of Robert Glenister reading the dedication page from The Ink Black Heart.

It is a short clip, but allows us to begin our investigations.

To Steve and Lorna, my family, my friends, and to [two]  bulwarks against Anomie, with love.

Steve and Lorna are almost certainly the same as Steve and Lorna Barnes from the acknowledgements in Silkworm.

Lorna and Steve Barnes, who enabled me to drink in The Bay Horse, examine the tomb of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill and find out that Robin’s hometown is pronounced ‘Mass-um’ not ‘Mash-em’, saving me much future embarrassment.

The Bay Horse and the tomb of Sir Marmaduke are all located in Mashem, so it’s reasonable to assume the Barnes’s are local to this area. It’s also reasonable to assume this Lorna is the sister to Neil Murray, who acted as bridesmaid at the Rowling-Murray wedding and teased her about meeting Morrisey.

There to more than one way read the dedication:

To Lorna and Steve, [they are] my family, [and they are also] my friends, and [they are also] two bulwarks against anomie.

To Lorna and Steve, [and to:] my family, [and also to:] my friends, and [also] to[:] bulwarks against Anomie.

The first credits Lorna and Steve as being more than family and friends, it credits them with being her moral centre, despite the opportunities that money and influence might present. See Prof Freeman’s excellent primer to anomie. The second gives a broader dedication to all who help against anonymous trolls and internet ne’er-do-wells. Which it is will finally be revealed on publication.

Speaking of internet ne’er-do-wells the twitter account for Anomie has found this dedication, and thanked the author for the mention:

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery