There are two re-tweets this morning and a pinned note that links to Rowling’s website and her answers on the linked to page to frequently asked questions about writing. This is the first activity since 12 January, a silence of just over two months. The page header and cameo remain the same pictures that went up on 7 January.
Three notes:
(1) Is she still alive? Maybe. Maybe Not. The pinned link from 7 January is generic though written in her voice and is not new. The two re-tweets tell us nothing except that someone has the password and access to her Twitter account. I’ll feel confident she is among the visibly living when we have a confirmed sighting or post in her inimitable voice. Or just some explanation of where she has been? 14.6 million followers want to know.
(2) Ironic Re-tweet. Rowling re-tweets a comment from Oz Katerji who calls out YouTube for not sufficiently purifying its platform in the name of combatting “f-ing Nazis.” Americans differ from Brits, of course, in our conviction that silencing free speech even of deplorables and terrorists is one of the telling symptoms of fascism. Still, not a proof that Rowling is back and well. Everyone is reeling from the Christchurch murders.
(3) Signature Re-tweet. The other re-tweet is a call for the Daily Mail to pull a murder video off its website because it represents “a new low in clickbait.” Now that sounds like a particularly Rowling-esque concern, i.e., disdain for the insensitivities of the news media in the name of profit and gaining readers. Of course, throwing the f-bomb and calling people whom she despises “Nazis” is something she has done, too. Maybe she really is back!
If true, so much for the idea that she had decided in the New Year not to be a Progressive Firebrand and Lightning Rod on her twitter feed. We’ll know for sure she’s back, though, and given up on this resolution only when or if she returns to the Brexit Follies currently running on the UK political stage without intermissions or restroom breaks. Today’s reappearance may be only an understandable outburst from her hermitage consequent to the tragedy in New Zealand.
I always believed that she was laying low until March 29th–the crucial day in the Brexit saga since it seems she “disappeared” right after the newspapers ran with the talk of the new party backed by Blairites. The problem is that if the Blairites are successful in derailing Brexit–the real war between the sides will actually erupt after March 29th–when being pro-EU will definitely attract trouble on Twitter.
So time will tell. I just hope that somewhere amidst this on going political high drama, that there was some actual good literary drama being written and that we will all be receiving an update on that progress (Strike 5) in these next few days.
Just my thought on this…..Jo is not only eagerly awaiting the outcome of the Brexit Follies but I think she has been (probably finished by now) has been re-writing the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts 3 to give the fans a much better film than the last one that was full of holes and hard for even the strictest fans to follow.