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!
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.
From @TottenhamStrike on Instagram: Robert Glenister reading the dedication from #TheInkBlackHeart! https://t.co/15rfhXBl1S
— The Strike & Ellacott Files (@TheSEFilesPod) August 14, 2022
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:
Thanks for the fortified dedication & mention. You are most welcome @jk_rowling @RGalbraith. @TottenhamStrike 🖤 https://t.co/fxVSn4UcX5
— Anomie (@AnomieInkBlack) August 14, 2022
Strike on Twitter – Sixteen Characters in Search of a Story
August 10, 2022 by 16 Comments
Last week, while idly scrolling through Twitter, I came upon a fun bunch of accounts created after characters from the Strike novels. Two in particular caught my eye: Anomie was apparently created very quickly after the new plot synopsis was released, and Roddy Fforbes, who we never meet and is mentioned only twice in Troubled Blood.
I have collected below the new accounts, while we are waiting for The Ink Black Heart why not follow? They are all acted in good humour, and not above poking fun at the ‘official’ accounts. I predict lots of shenanigans, as these accounts discover how their new story unfolds.
Highgate is New Rowling Twitter Header
June 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Rowling switched out her Twitter page ‘header’ this morning with a shot from Highgate Cemetery. For a history of her Twitter headers and the relationship with the work we learned later she was writing, see Nick Jeffery’s comprehensive posts on those subjects, All J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Headers and The Rowling Headers – in Context. For thoughts about the April header just replaced, read about it at New Rowling Forest Twitter Header: Beasts 4, Strike 7, or Project X?
Oxford’s Beatrice Groves, author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, wrote about Highgate Cemetery most recently in her post, The King of Beasts: Fantastic Beasts and the Beast Within, and will share her thoughts here tomorrow on this new picture, to include ideas about what it suggests about Rowling’s current project. Stay tuned!
Inside No 26 Denmark Street
June 7, 2022 by 3 Comments
In May, Strike sleuth @LudicrousMonica posted a London Borough of Camden planning application for 26 Denmark Street, allowing fans a first look at the plans and history of the London Office.
Interesting! Planning application for 26 Denmark Street. Documents attached include plans of the layouts of the second and third floors – the office and Strike's flat! #cormoranstrike https://t.co/VX1gmwnkno
— LudicrousMoniker (@LudicrousMonica) May 12, 2022
No 26 Denmark Street has had two quite major planning applications submitted since Robert Galbraith first started to publish the Strike novels. The first in 2014 to convert the three separate dwellings on the first, second and attic floors (second, third and fourth in US parlance) into one triplex dwelling. And now the application is to extend the ground floor into 22 and 23 Denmark Place to increase the size of the venue. Join me after the jump to take a look at the history of the building and a look at the plans from 2014 using the documents from the council website.
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