Rowling Wades Into Mormon History

October 5, 2022 by 3 Comments

 

Late last month, Rowling made an allusion to Joseph Smith, Jr.,’s claim to have translated The Book of Mormon from actual gold plates given to him by an angel. Her point was about the credulity of those accusing her of being a transphobe and bigot without evidence from her actual statements.

What Rowling couldn’t have known, assuming that she knows no Latter-Day Saints and hasn’t studied the subject or interacted with LDS apologists online, is that this off-hand remark would cause an avalanche of correction from Salt Lake City and the army of internet mavens sworn to protect and defend Smith’s revelation. To her credit, she corrected herself without caving to the Mormon church’s strict messaging on the subject. More after the jump. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Twilight, Twitter

Ink Black Heart: The Strike Characters with Twitter Accounts

September 19, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Our last update to the Cormoran Strike characters that became active this summer, a pre-publication blitz of posts in 2022 time from ‘people’ as diverse as Pat Chauncey and Ciara Porter (not to mention Wolfgang the pet and the Office Sofa), was August 22nd. See Twitter Character Update for that, Nick Jeffery’s introduction to the phenomenon, Strike on Twitter – Sixteen Characters in Search of a Story, and Rowling’s engagement with the fun being had online before Ink Black Heart  was officially on sale.

https://twitter.com/TheRealCCRoss/status/1562066862275497986

Has anyone been following these accounts after the fact? Do we have evidence that they were given copies of Ink Black Heart before the public at large? Do you think it was a Rowling, Inc., publicity stunt for Serious Strikers to enjoy or a fandom effort by Zealot Tweeters who love the Rowling-Galbraith murder-romance-mysteries?

This post is a Placeholder for discussion to which we will add information as it becomes available. To find this conversation quickly in future, click on ‘Ink Black Heart Discussion’ in the Pillar Post column at the upper left of the home page and scroll down to the ‘Twitter Characters’ link. Cheers!

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Twitter

Rowling Contrasts Trans Activists in Head-Coverings with Iranian Feminists

September 18, 2022 by Leave a Comment

Rowling tweeted a condemnation of Radical Gender Extremists, the ironically named ‘Be Kind Brigade,’ who marched in protest of a scheduled talk in Brighton by Kellie-Jay Keen, founder of ‘Standing For Women.’ On the thread of that post, a ‘Bogey the Bossey’ wrote, “They’re so different from these Iranian women who show real courage and don’t hide behind black masks.” This comment included a tweet-video from Masih Alinejad, an “Iranian journalist and activist,” which Rowling then re-tweeted herself:

If you’re interested in the details, there’s much more on this tweet and the event in Brighton in the online Daily Mail:  ‘JK Rowling condemns masked pro trans mob after violent clashes in Brighton at ‘Let Women Speak’ event.’ My thoughts are mostly about Rowling’s use of her twitter social media platform post-publication of Ink Black Heart and its relationship with the implicit messages of her books. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Twitter

Rowling Asked About Parallel Series Idea

September 17, 2022 by 3 Comments

The Rowling Library earlier this week published an article by Oxford Research Fellow Beatrice Groves called ‘Harry Potter and the Ink Black Prince.’ In it she discussed Rowling’s latest novel, The Ink Black Heart, in light of the Parallel Series Idea (PSI), a theory discussed here beginning in 2014 that argues Rowling-Galbraith is writing the Strike series as deliberate echoes of her Harry Potter novels. You can read about these playful parallels and echoing between each of the first six Strike mysteries at the HogwartsProfessor Pillar Post on the subject and the page on the Heart-Prince touches.

More after the jump about PSI and the question posed to Rowling about whether it is a valid theory.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Ring Composition, Twitter

Ink Black Heart – Twitter Character Update

August 22, 2022 by 6 Comments

Pat Chauncey has posted an update that suggests both she and Strike are still smoking, which poses an interesting if slightly meta question. In what time frame are the characters speaking from? The existence of Anomie would suggest they are operating from a frame at or about the time of Ink Black Heart. This would also explain the existence of the now ancient Wolfgang. 

Roddy Fforbes has disappointed. While we could infer that he was British and upper or upper-middle class from his brief mentions in the book, he has now become a full pastiche of Bertie Wooster. If the creators of this account have access to The Ink Black Heart, then I cannot believe that Roddy is written like this:

 

Anomie remains as mysterious as ever, posting four pictures. Firstly images of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and the Yorkshire Dales from early British Rail advertising. Then an image of the underground from the Ladybird book The Story of the Railways (1961) and the cover of a humorous modern Ladybird book for adults The Rock Star using original period illustrations.

Brian Mathers is continuing his sickly sweet posts followed by blood curdling threats, sure to end up swiftly in the “nutter drawer”.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery, Twitter