On 10 November Rowling tweeted a note about a response written about her comment that she was “very involved” in the HBO+ Bronte Studios adaptation of the Harry Potter novels for television and that she thought that adaptation is “going to be wonderful.” The respondent, whose identifying information was erased, wrote that this was not good news to him or her. Rowling thought this reaction was beyond laughable.
Why Rowling thought this response to her comment was funny to the point of hysterical we probably will never know. All we have is her statement that “I think I’ve pulled something from laughing,” her equivalent of ‘ROFLMAO.’
Maybe it’s because this involvement wasn’t especially news? After all, in September Rowling tweeted about the audition call for the three principal roles in the Hogwarts Saga. The disappointed tweeter couldn’t have been responding from shock at a revelation.
Could it be because Rowling thinks it very funny indeed that anyone after the last five years of threats and attempted ‘cancellation thinks she cares about objections to her involvement in adapting her own work? I mean, this aside from a disgruntled fan is part of a trend of former Potter-philes wishing this whole adaptation business would just fade away.
Or maybe Rowling is especially internet-savvy and recognized the phrase “My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined” as an online topos or cliche that expresses ironic despair about a non-issue?
I rather like this last idea, as convoluted and stretching things it might seem. Rowling, from this view, is not laughing at the clever respondent’s cluelessness but laughing with him or her and his/her clever statement, a meme declaring that only drama queens and neurotics give a fig-leaf about Rowling’s involvement with the teevee adaptation.
As noted above, we’ll almost certainly never know why Rowling was laughing. I’m amused that she thinks it so obvious that it need not be explained, the spot blindness of all regents (and OBE’s).
Speak Your Mind