Rowling at Work on Strike9 while BBC Ink Black Heart Adaptation Released

December 16, 2024 by 1 Comment

Rowling has started “working on the plan of Strike #9” according to her tweet tonight, which, one can only hope, means she has at last finished writing Hallmarked Man.

She is watching the Bronte Studios adaptation of Ink Black Heart which was released today on the BBC. The Rowling Library tweeted that “All episodes of Strike’s Ink Black Heart are already available on BBC iPlayer website.” Follow that link for a binge viewing!

Nick Jeffery, our man in Wales and the WEst Country, will be reporting here on the Ink Black Heart episodes as they appear. Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Rowling Library, Twitter

Rowling’s Funniest Post of the Month?

December 16, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Rowling has been active on Twixter this month, perhaps “hyperactive” is fair, but I think this brief post may be the best.

First, it’s funny. Rowling turns an insult from an angry Gender Theory Extremist into a clever title of a teevee series (think ‘A-Team’) or film (‘Inglorious Basterds‘) that celebrates exactly what the presumed AWFL wanted to condemn.

Second, it’s clever. Rowling writes an elevator pitch or trailer copy for the new series or film, “Insufferable Terfs.” That’s not only funny, it requires a certain sophistication and playfulness with genre writing. Rowling has this down pat.

Third, it’s brief. There’s a set-up and punchline that take less ten seconds of reading to play out with the ‘Gotcha.’

Fourth, it’s serious but not heavy. Rowling decided in late 2w019 to take the point in the battle against one of the most egregious movements of postmodernity, namely, Gender Theory Extremists and their incredible over reach. She also tweets and retweets about Iranian government attacks on women and other light subjects. This tweet skewers the ‘enemy’ in a way that highlights the importance of the subject without causing a brain cramp about global injustice and a hospital stay for depression.

Thanks for the pointed laugh, Mrs, Murray!

 

Filed Under: Twitter

Rowling Library #96: Three Great Articles

December 14, 2024 by Leave a Comment

December’s Rowling Library magazine is available now! Read it via this link or download it here.

My favorite pieces in this issue: the discussion of how rare a year it is when Rowling readers do not get a new book, play, or film (2024 was the first year of this type since 2011!), the cover story about the effect of global Potter Mania on the publishing industry, and, the Boldness and Daring Award Prize winner, an argument with quite a few merits to take adaptations of the Wizarding World stories from real actors and actresses to animation. It’s another great issue — enjoy!

Here is what the editor, Patricio Tarantino, wrote about TRL 96:

Filed Under: Rowling Library

Hero’s Journey vs Heroine’s Journey: A Sex Based Distinction in Literature

December 13, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Much of postmodern storytelling is predicated on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey ideas and its being applied to women protagonists.

Joshua Lisec argues in this extended twixter thread that this is a mistake, that a woman’s journey differs from a man’s inherently because of the sex-based differences that are innate and immutable.

Read the whole thing.

It is a fascinating read for those who study the work of J. K. Rowling both because of her public defense of “sex-based” reality contra the “transgender” extremists and because of how much of the Strike-Ellacott series turns on sex roles and how much they are biologically inherent and how much they can be bent in light of vocation.

Hat tip to Kelly for the find!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Rowling’s Pregnancy Traps: Fantastic Beasts, The Ickabog, The Christmas Pig

December 12, 2024 by 2 Comments

This is the last of seven ‘Pregnancy Trap’ posts that explore one of the more curious Golden Threads that run through everything Rowling has written.  The first six can be found at the link above and include deep dives into the Big Four traps that define in some sense the Harry Potter series, Cursed Child, the Cormoran Strike mysteries, and Casual Vacancy. The last two entries in the series have been loving looks at the individual books of the Strike-Ellacott stories, which in addition to being grounded in the Leda Strike-Jonny Rokeby Pregnancy Trap feature novel-specific characters whose lives included some kind of “coercive love;” the first post covered the first four books in the series and the most recent the last three.

Today I close out the survey with a relatively quick look at the Fantastic Beasts screenplays, The Ickabog tale, and The Christmas Pig.  I’ll wrap up this Pregnancy Trap Golden Thread in an article on the Substack page and a ‘Rowling Studies’ podcast for subscribers before moving on to the next Golden Thread ‘common denominator’ in her work.

Book-by-book, then, the Pregnancy Traps or “Coercive Love” to be found in Fantastic Beasts, The Ickabog, and The Christmas Pig!

Fantastic Beasts

I’m not a fan of the Fantastic Beasts films because, as a serious reader of J. K. Rowling, there’s very little certainty about what parts are hers in this collaborative exercise. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a collection of links to articles about the elusive shooting script written by Rowling for a clue about what I’m saying.) That being said, a complete survey of Rowling’s works to list all the Pregnancy Traps wouldn’t be complete without a look at the three Beasts screenplays.

There aren’t any Pregnancy Traps! But there is a lot of “coercive love” of different sorts, all critically important to the ensemble cast’s lives and plot points. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Pregnancy Trap