MuggleNet Reviews ‘Ink Black Heart:’ Harry Potter Fandom Reversing Course?

Irvin Khaytman, author of Dumbledore: The Life and Lies of Hogwarts’s Renowned Headmaster: An Unofficial Exploration and longtime columnist at MuggleNet.com (where he writes under the pseudonym hpfanboy13), has written a review of Ink Black Heart. [The original article was taken down after I posted this piece; it can still be read at The Wayback Macine archive.] I recommend it with enthusiasm for three reasons.

First, Khaytman is worth reading about anything Rowling writes because of his profound grasp of Potter canon, his wit, and his capacity to turn a phrase to delight and cuff the chin of his reader. An ‘hpfanboy13’ piece on Potter, Fantastic Beasts, or the Strike series is sure to challenge the reader, maybe even make her or him raise either a fist or a toast, and to re-think whatever subject Khaytman explores, to contradict or support his argument.

Second, he knows his Cormoran Strike, though not as well as he does Harry Potter, alas, and is familiar with some of the ideas we discuss here, most importantly, the Parallel Series Theory and the Seven Book Ring. His takes on the echoes of Half-Blood Prince in Strike6 alone are worth the time invested, as you’d expect from this caliber Potter Pundit, and make his decision to write the review for MNet before reading work others have written here and elsewhere seem well-founded.

His ignorance of how ring composition works, of the 5-6 Flip idea, of literary alchemy, of mythology, and of Strike Extended Play, however, will leave those who have been part of the Ink Black Heart conversation here scratching their heads when reading his confessed confusion about some topics and his certainty about others (he’s sure about how 100 pages could be cut from Troubled Blood without affecting the narrative, for example; only someone clueless about the clockwork structure and inner relationship of the Strike5 story parts could say this without blushing). Rowling’s intertextuality or literary allusion, too, outside of references to the apposite Potter book, seems to have totally escaped his consideration.

Despite those failings and blind-spots, I loved Khaytman’s review and his subsequent conversation in the post’s comment thread with Beatrice Groves. I laughed, I groaned, I rubbed my chin and re-read parts that were especially thought-provoking. He is sui generis and a boon to Serious Strikers, a breath of fresh air, really, and a welcome voice.

The third reason to read hpfanboy13’s review of Ink Black Heart is that Irvin Khaytman is Potter fandom royalty. He is the only writer at MuggleNet who was given a pass (or didn’t have to ask for a pass) to write about the Strike novels, a series currently under interdict there. For a fan site that forced a popular podcast both to change its name in order to delete mention of Rowling and to stop its discussion of the Strike books, this is no small thing.

Khaytman does write, I hope ironically, about the Potter fandom being “among the healthier ones out there – whether due to its female-dominated nature, its accessibility to casual fans, or the obvious emphasis on empathy in the source material.” This near-obsequious nod to his editors and readers — who have slandered Rowling without reservation as a transphobe and bigot, turned a blind eye to online threats from their members to murder or rape the author, and covered themselves in the self-flattering mantle of Social Justice Warriors in this cowardice — may just have been the necessary note to strike in order both to duck the prohibition on Rowling’s latest work and to be able to express his obvious admiration for the author.

I think this review, coming when it does, is important because it is another marker that the Confundus Charm is lifting in parts of Potter fandom. MuggleNet’s Silencio charm forbidding the talking about She Who Must Not Be Named has slipped with this review and, one hopes, with the upcoming Bathilda’s Notebook entry due on Halloween. When Robbie Coltrane died, no one in Potter fandom ranks mentioned in their eulogies that, almost alone, he had stood up for Rowling and against those who were defaming and attacking her for her stand against Gender Theory Extremists. Tom Felton, too, has recently said he admires Rowling and her work — and the twitterati and fandom mavens have not led him to the guillotine in a cart.

And Irvin Khaytman has demonstrated that it’s more than all right to read Rowling-Galbraith’s mystery series; he’s demonstrated that serious readers of Harry Potter have a unique ability, because of the Parallel Series Idea and other Rowling signatures, to enjoy, appreciate, and elucidate the artistry and meaning of these novels. Here’s hoping that his review will act as a counter-charm to the spell that has made Harry Potter fandom much less than the “healthy” alocal space he says it is, at least for the author of the books and those who have refused to participate in her ‘cancellation.’