It’s all about Lumos and Volant charities for Rowling. She said on the ‘Today’ show last week that she realized in 2000 that she would never again write a book or series as wildly popular as Harry Potter. She has told us more than once that her legacy will be the work of the charities she supports, especially the Lumos goal of ending institutionalized child care (orphanages) by 2050. Her appearances in support of Warner Brothers films all, consequently, include at least one gala about Lumos in which she speaks at length. Every actor and actress appears throughout the years between films and the months surrounding release in Lumos gear and promotions (perhaps per their contractual obligations?).
There was a long and thoughtful piece on MuggleNet this morning that argued Rowling and Harry Potter may have ‘jumped the shark’ and fan interest will drop sufficiently to kill the Hogwarts goose laying the golden eggs.
Maybe! I believe, though, that Rowling’s principal creative energies today go to her Cormoran Strike novels and that she participates in the collaborative Wizarding World film making exercises, stage productions, and theme park building just to keep the flood of magical money rolling in for Lumos and Volant, her legacy. There is nothing in the latter that compares with the artistry of the former — and the Strike novels and teevee adaptations are not going to pay the bills for closing orphanages or finding a cure for MS.
Your thoughts? Was there anything in the Lumos interview with Whoopi Goldberg, no doubt a distant relation of Tina and Queenie, that suggests otherwise? (H/T to BG and KL for the links)
There is a word, a phrase, in my favorite 1937 dictionary, that seems appropriate to the consideration of JKR as a mystery writer and promoter of her causes:
coign, coigne, n. Vars of COIN, QUOIN, a corner, wedge, etc.; chiefly used in [the phrase] coign of advantage, a position advantageous for action or observation.
“Coign of Advantage” sounds like the title of a Golden Age mystery, as well as a description of JKR’s mainly using Harry as the POV in the HP books, and as a name for the device John has used in writing this post. (Fun, yes?)