As readers here know, my track record with predictions is best described as “spotty.” I’ve had some decent ‘hits’ in guessing about future Harry Potter story turns and Strike twists but the ‘misses’ have been spectacular. My two most involved theories, ‘Periscope Harry’ in Unlocking Harry Potter and ‘Heroin Dark Lord‘ on this site, were so far off from the reality of what Rowling was planning that you’d think any semblance of shame would prevent my further speculation.

I like to note, however, when one of my best guesses turns out to be spot on, which seems to be the case with respect to the recent Leaky Con 2022 gathering in Orlando, Florida.

I predicted in early May that this fan convention would be a woke festival of Rowling Reviling. It wasn’t much of a prediction really, because Mischief Management said on the back pages of their web site in the fine print that this was the mission of the post Covid, post Trans Tweets Tsunami, Leaky Con. It didn’t take a Trelawney or a gift with a Crystal Ball to forecast that a group’s mission statement, to which all players have signed on, will guide the event in question. From that post here in May: [Read more…]

It was Joanne Rowling Murray’s 57th birthday yesterday, and, if Troubled Blood is any measure, birthdays are a very serious business to the author. We expect her friends and family sent the requisite cards and presents. The Presence herself was silent on her Twitter platform with respect to those celebrations, in contrast with years past. Harry Potter fandom, which has at the major sites and conventions done everything possible to eradicate all mention and memory of the author, of course, celebrates today as the birthday of The Boy Who Lived.

In keeping with the practice of Cormoran Strike, at least until the last chapter of Strike 5, we neglected to post anything here on the subject. The faculty drew a blank about what to get the woman who already has every material thing she wants and, like the Strike of old, we didn’t remember the date in time to send her a token card. Here’s hoping she’s more forgiving than Robin is in these things; as there is exactly zero evidence that Mrs. Murray knows we exist, it’s more than a stretch to imagine her being put out by our collective neglect of her birthday.

All that being said, I was delighted yesterday to watch some archival footage of Rowling circa 2000 being interviewed on a train — yes, literally ‘Rowling rolling along’ — that our friends at TheRowlingLibrary.com found and posted. I share it with you here, albeit a day late, as a birthday present to our thousands of loyal readers, the Serious Strikers, Potter Pundits, and Scamander Savants in thanks for your sharing your time and thoughts with us. Be sure to watch the video through to the end for Rowling’s comments about being photographed with Jerry Hall; it’s worth the wait.

If The Presence has dropped in her by accident (or one of her children or paid staff has searched the internet for birthday good wishes to share with her?), a message of thanksgiving: “Happy Birthday, Mrs. Murray! Thank you for the years of challenging reading and discussion we have enjoyed within, without, and around your wonderful stories. May God grant you many, many years.”

Sky News reported yesterday that Muggle Quidditch groups have chosen ‘Quadball’ as the new name for their sport; From Quidditch changes its name to distance itself from JK Rowling: 

Real-life quidditch – which is based on the game featured in the Harry Potter books – is being renamed quadball by the sport’s governing bodies to “distance themselves from the works” of author JK Rowling.

US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch said at the end of last year they would conduct a series of surveys to find a new name for the sport.

The leagues said the reasons included the name “quidditch” being trademarked by American film company Warner Bros. – which produced the Harry Potter movies – and because JK Rowling “has increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions in recent years”.

The International Quidditch Association will also be adopting the new name worldwide, according to the announcement.

Major League Quadball, formerly Major League Quidditch, said changing the name “opens unprecedented opportunities for growth, exposure and partnerships”.

Despite the headline above (and a similar turn in The Daily Wire treatment) and as much as I believe that Harry Potter fandom has lost its collective mind about J. K. Rowling’s non-existent transphobia, I doubt very much that this change in name was made to “distance themselves from the works of J. K. Rowling.” The change from ‘Quidditch,’ a clever name with positive associations and over-the-top name recognition, is one driven by, surprise, surprise, money.

Quidditch organizations cannot receive corporate sponsorships or advertise without paying Warner Brothers. They’ve expanded as much as they can as in essence amateur organizations running on dues and tournament fees. To grow as a sport, they need to separate themselves from the copyright holder’s grip on their name.

Did fandom’s hysteria about Rowling’s resistance to transgender activist over reach and her insistence on the rights of women to safe spaces factor in to this decision? Almost certainly, but primarily as a catalyst, I’m guessing, to a separation that would have happened eventually — and as a virtue-signaling cover for what is really an economic and mercantile move.

The change may also reflect that Muggle Quidditch has been dying a natural death as a fad sport that really has little interest outside college communities. Their forced integration of sexes, though magical Quidditch features men and women on teams based on both sexes being equally able to fly brooms at great speeds, rather gives away the game that this isn’t a real sport. I expect this a last gasp effort to generate news stories about the Muggle version of the Wizarding World game and that ‘Quadball’ will soon be a trivia question about fads of the early 21st century.

If you really think this is about Woke fandom sticking “two fingers up” at The Presence, you can read a full write-up of that perspective at Expecto Vomitum! Wokesters Change the Name of Quidditch. I’m not a big fan of Occam or his razor, but the simpler explanation of the change here is almost certainly the right one: follow the money. Warner Brothers or the Quidditch leagues’ own lawyers told them there were copyright issues with the continued use of the game’s name and they have elected to go with ‘Quadball’ to duck litigation, create some publicity, and to foster sponsorships and contracts. Best wishes to them in what I have to think is a venture doomed to failure in the long or short terms.

Rowling has this week disavowed any sort of alliance with critics of transgender activism who do not also believe feminism is necessary, good, or even in alignment with established facts about the differences between the sexes. The Presence went so far as to tweet that conservative journalist Matt Walsh, who has been fighting transgender over reach since at least 2017, is “no more on my side than the ‘shut up or we’ll bomb you’ charmers who cloak their misogyny in a pretty pink and blue flag.”

Walsh responded with characteristic humor:

I remain open to working with anyone who wants to stand against the trans militants and their war on women, children, and reality. Rowling and many other feminists have declined. So be it. Though it's a sad day when two best selling children's authors can't work together. https://t.co/FtOV8E5mMr

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 12, 2022

He went on to say, though, that Rowling’s blind spot, one he suggests “might be worth thinking about,” is her inability to see how the defining premise of feminism, the supposed absence of differences between the sexes, leads inevitably to transgenderism. Inez Stepman explains this connection in several tweets and via a talk she gave at the Claremont Institute: [Read more…]