Merry Western Christmas! Hat Tip to Wayne for the music.
Shared Text: Philosopher’s Stone Ending
Leaked: Hogwarts Files Reveal Dumbledore's Point System Totally Rigged https://t.co/BzDHoEJvhS
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 20, 2022
This piece is funny on several levels, but I post it here just to note that the Babylon Bee, a satire site, assumed that everyone reading it would be that familiar with the ending of a book published twenty-five years ago.
They assumed that because, oddly enough, it happens to be true, one more demonstration that the Hogwarts Saga remains the global shared text.
Beatrice Groves – The Winter Solstice and Beira, Queen of Winter
We are today (21st December 2022) at the darkest part of the year for the Northern Hemisphere: the winter solstice. The shadows are long and the golden days of Summer seem a long time ago. Now is the perfect time to push your stool a little closer to the fire, and warm your hands on a mug of tea the colour of creosote. Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post: The Winter Solstice and Beira, Queen of Winter. [Read more…]
Rowling OKs Legacy Boycott (Sort Of)
Deeply disappointed @jessiegender doesn't realise purethink is incompatible with owning ANYTHING connected with me, in ANY form. The truly righteous wouldn't just burn their books and movies but the local library, anything with an owl on it and their own pet dogs. #DoBetter 1/2 pic.twitter.com/LqANqab8Km
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 17, 2022
And as for this, I'm appalled. This individual actually advocates reading the books because "nobody needs to know". All fine and dandy until you get drunk and accidentally quote one, sonny. "I never did it in public" won't save you when the police see your Hufflepuff socks. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/QTQOTfpjtA
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 17, 2022
Yes, it’s hypocritical of me to enjoy it when The Presence takes down with acid sarcasm people whose opinions I think are beyond satire when I recoil at her attacks on people who I think are beneath her notice, famous, nobodies, and infamous. I stand by my position that JKR would be better off if she entered another Twelve Step program or abstinence corner for her social media issues. @JessieGender really isn’t worth the time of a writer of her quality, even to earn the high five laughs and cheers from those, myself included alas, who agree with her about a Hogwarts Legacy boycott (and about the comedy of transgressive fandom activists still with attachment issues about Harry Potter books and movies).
I am, however, in light of her stands against the Iranian mullahs and for women’s safe spaces, having to reconsider my belief that the world would be a better place, too, if she just focused on writing her novels. The Beira’s Place website describes her, in language Rowling either wrote or approved, as “author, campaigner, and philanthropist.” That “campaigner” sobriquet I think is new as an aspect of her public identity, almost certainly revealing how the world’s most famous author-philanthropist now understands her legacy.
I was delighted to learn yesterday that Rowling’s new novel is nine Parts in length and that she is working on Part Seven’s chapters. While I wish that Robert Galbraith’s down time was spent playing Minesweeper as she did back in the day rather than trolling twitter, the breaks she takes seem to be fostering rather than diminishing her creative flow. [Read more…]
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