Jeremy Peters wrote an Op-Ed piece for The New York Times late last month. The title suggests that Peters ‘gets’ just how out of line the Gender Theory Extremists have been in the ongoing Trans War about “transgender” rights versus the rights of biological women and of children.

‘Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach‘ points to some kind of reflection on just how bad the threats and cancellations were during the darkest days of the madness, when every influencer and twitter celebrity proclaimed “Transgender women are women” in Orwellian surety. The sub-title of Peters’ piece, though, points to it being a story focused on the ‘news’ that the activists are realizing that their attacks on the sane percentage of the population isn’t working: ‘Facing diminishing public support, some activists say all-or-nothing tactics are not working. “We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds”.’

J. K. Rowling, however, is having none of this “rewriting of history.” Over a screen shot of Peters’ lede paragraphs in which she is mentioned, she wrote a long form response on her twitter account to stop the “mealy mouthed retconning” and minimization of the crimes committed by “trans activists” against those unwilling to chant in obedient conformity that “Men can be Women — and have to be allowed access to their safe spaces and sporting events (and children must be allowed to be surgically mutilated or chemically castrated).” She wrote: [Read more…]

Like every other Serious Striker, when I see a new Rowling twixter header, I think ‘Nick Jeffery’ but he was not online on a Sunday, so I searched for what the @CormStrikeFan twixter feed had to offer. Bingo!

The link at this tweet takes the reader leads to a fascinating page about the Wild Court alley and its history through the centuries. Well worth the visit — thank you, @CormStrikeFan!

I’ve spoken to Nick Jeffery since starting this post and he’s pledged an update to his massive index of Rowling’s twitter page headers to include the Hallmarked Man materials as early as Wednesday. Stay tuned!

Last week Nick Jeffery and I were talking about suicide/sacrificial death as a Rowling ‘Golden Thread’ we need to explore, those ‘Threads’ being a plot point, theme, or literary device that runs through everything she has written. He told me that the UK was currently in the throes of a debate about an Assisted Dying or Euthanasia Bill. I confessed to him that I was very surprised that Rowling hadn’t checked in on this point given that it checks almost all her boxes for causes about the rights, even the lives of the vulnerable and unprotected.

It turns out her husband has been all over the issue. Check out @Slowfinger45 for Dr Neil Murray’s tweets this month on the bill in question:

Two weeks later Rowling checked in on the subject:

She reposted Rosie Duffield, MP’s, statement about why she will be voting against the bill: [Read more…]

Three quick thoughts about Rowling’s birthday message to Cormoran Strike, a character in books she is writing, i.e., a person not real in any of the conventional understanding of that word (though very much in keeping with Rowling’s discussion of “real” in Deathly Hallows, Troubled Blood, and Christmas Pig):

(1) Hallmarked Man is not yet finished. Which means it won’t be published until this time next year? Nick Jeffery said as much in a recent post, but it’s still dreadful to type out and see written on a page. I wrote a year ago that the structural evidence of the first seven books suggests strongly that it was originally conceived as a septology a la Potter. The longer it takes her to finish Hallmarked Man, longer than it did, say, for her to write and prepare for publication the epics of Troubled Blood and Ink Black Heart (?), the more than thesis takes on tangential credibility, I think.

(2) One Thing Revealed about the Series Ending: The joking conversation with one of her characters, “try not to be a grumpy sod about turning fifty,” means that Cormoran Strike survives the seven book series’ many dangers and his enemies, and, more surprisingly, perhaps he survives Covid and the shots. Rowling has said previously that the series will end before the lockdowns and masking mania of Covid appear and today, it seems, we have been told, he lives on to celebrate his fiftieth birthday I doubt this sort of jest is a binding commitment not to kill her champion, But I’m hopeful.

(3) Strike’s Birthday: For a longish discussion of what we know and can figure out about Strike’s actual birthday in 1974, see ‘Troubled Blood: Strike’s Natal Chart.’

As I wrote yesterday, the organ of the entertainment industry, Variety, featured an article earlier this week by Adam Vary titled HBO Says ‘Harry Potter’ Series Will ‘Benefit’ From J.K. Rowling’s Involvement: She ‘Has the Right to Express Her Personal Views.’ Rowling appears to have responded to it without mentioning it by name in at least one tweet, perhaps two.

In the article, Vary quotes from interviews he had with Kat Miller, the “Creative Director” at MuggleNet, and Melissa Anelli, the long-time leader of the Leaky Cauldron website, best-selling author, and fandom convention entrepreneur. Each spoke about how difficult it is to be a Potter fan today because of Rowling’s supposed “transphobia” and “bigotry.” Vary ended his piece with a quotation from Miller:

Ironically, while Rowling’s actions have undermined many Potter fans’ dedication to her, they also appear to have strengthened those fans’ solidarity with each other. “Abandoning the fandom and shutting it down is not the place we wanted to be,” Miller says. “We see the value in the community that the fans created. We can love and enjoy that without the author.”

This has been something of a mantra among the Genderistas who are Potter-philes for the last five years: “We can enjoy the books and each other’s company while ignoring the poisonous opinions of the author.” Rowling’s tweet yesterday let her feelings be known about this sort of reader:

The timing of this post, in the wake of the Variety piece, leads me to think it possible, even likely, that it is Miller and Anelli specifically that Rowling is calling “dickheads.” [Read more…]