J. K. Rowling and other TERFs

BTW, here's how she came up with her pen name:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/24/jk-rowling-robert-galbraith-harry-potter

JK Rowling chose her alter ego of Robert Galbraith by conflating the name of her political hero Robert F Kennedy and her childhood fantasy name "Ella Galbraith", the Harry Potter writer has explained...
Click to expand...

b8edcfd6dd79720249b61853c178e8dca5-surejan.rhorizontal.w700.jpg
 
I had expected her new book to be anti trans and apparently she didn’t disappoint. I’m glad I hated the last one so much even before knowing how much of an awful person she is.
 
Imagine doubling down on your bullshit so hard that you write a whole book based on a trope with absolutely no basis in reality. What an coward, using her alias as well - stick yr own name on, ya jessie.
 
She's being accused of racism over a passage in one of her books too - I assume it's this new one, otherwise we'd have heard about it before now.
 
Love that Jowling Kowling Rowling thinks halal food is like, a thing you could conceivably test for, and not just food that someone played a recording of a prayer over at some point in the industrial farming process, or VEG.
 
So basically she has confused real life with HER OWN FICTION. Yes, time for a mental health assessment.
 
I was just wondering who on earth is agreeing to publish this hateful trash. Hachette. She commits to the concept if nothing else.
 
I mean, disgusting as she is, she's clearly not going to change. So maybe we should just take solace in the fact that this is going to eat her up for the rest of her existence.
 
bypass said:
So maybe we should just take solace in the fact that this is going to eat her up for the rest of her existence.
Click to expand...

I said when she started all this that it was going to have a Glinneresque outcome. She's now the TERF Queen Bee and it's the most affirmation she's had since she stopped writing for children.

By the way: I knew about the racist and antisemitic tropes in HP but was there really an Irish wizard who liked blowing things up or is that Twitter mischief?
 
octophone said:
I said when she started all this that it was going to have a Glinneresque outcome. She's now the TERF Queen Bee and it's the most affirmation she's had since she stopped writing for children.

By the way: I knew about the racist and antisemitic tropes in HP but was there really an Irish wizard who liked blowing things up or is that Twitter mischief?
Click to expand...
Just the film adaptations.

See also the stuff early in this thread about Cho Chang being presented as a weak snitch.
 
Chlammy said:
Just the film adaptations.

See also the stuff early in this thread about Cho Chang being presented as a weak snitch.
Click to expand...

Yes, I knew about Cho Chang - that was the racism to which I was referring. Is there more?

Did she write the film adaptions?
 
I'm coming from the perspective of a fan (of the books) but also as someone who has read them cover to cover ad nauseam and I do think that the claims that the books are discriminatory are overblown to be honest. They're very white and 1950s English CS Lewis at times, and yes, you can pick them apart and cringe at certain parts, but you can do the same with 99 percent of (particularly) children's and YA fiction from prior to a few years ago.

EDIT: Obviously this isn't a Rowling endorsement. Obviously her recent stances are vile.
 
Last edited:
octophone said:
Yes, I knew about Cho Chang - that was the racism to which I was referring. Is there more?

Did she write the film adaptions?
Click to expand...
Cho Chang in the books is never really presented negatively. Her friend is the character who betrays them.
 
Chlammy said:
I'm coming from the perspective of a fan (of the books) but also as someone who has read them cover to cover ad nauseam and I do think that the claims that the books are discriminatory are overblown to be honest. They're very white and 1950s English CS Lewis at times, and yes, you can pick apart them and cringe at certain parts, but you can do the same with 99 percent of (particularly) children's and YA fiction from prior to a few years ago.
Click to expand...

It does feel like retconning; looking for evidence that her terfism was somehow hidden in plain sight.
 
I also would like to say that it feels like a lot of it will be down to ignorance. Up until last year I'd never realised that the typical portrayal of high fantasy goblins is often anti-Semitic, and that's in everything. I think fantasy as a genre has some deeply problematic elements that continue not through active deliberate racism, but just ignorance of how the tropes were first formed.

However that is as close as I'll get to defend Rowling these days. She is an unforgivable mess of a human otherwise.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
I also would like to say that it feels like a lot of it will be down to ignorance. Up until last year I'd never realised that the typical portrayal of high fantasy goblins is often anti-Semitic, and that's in everything. I think fantasy as a genre has some deeply problematic elements that continue not through active deliberate racism, but just ignorance of how the tropes were first formed.

However that is as close as I'll get to defend Rowling these days. She is an unforgivable mess of a human otherwise.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The goblin trope was the one I was going to mention as having some potential as an argument, but fantasy writing (particularly hers) tends to rely on mythologies and fictional characters already deeply rooted and while it would be great if more writers took a minute to alter their interpretation accordingly, most don't.
 
If anything all those tropes highlight what a poor fiction writer is. Her prose is really unoriginal and as mentioned half her ideas are remixes of a hundred other previous children's books.
 
  • Like
Reactions: COB
I don't think she's a poor fiction writer. I think she's a very good character writer (for that genre and target market), and I think that Harry Potter in part took off despite not being a terribly original concept because she was a lot better at it than most of her contemporaries (that being connecting with a readership and immersing them in her world).

I think the books are flawed in terms of plot particularly on reread as an adult, but certainly get progressively better. The biggest 'failing' is that she clearly never set out to have her world be a hugely fleshed out and intricate fantasy universe in the way that LOTR and the like are. The problem is that about half way through they kind of half became an attempt at that, which strayed from the original novels and meant that a ton of plot holes and inconsistencies were created.
 
I mean I can't really judge as I've only read passages but being a good character writer isn't necessarily a strong requisite for a fiction writer - I would say original ideas and plot execution, the two things you say she's not that great at, are a lot more important!
 
When I say 'fiction', I should qualify it as 'fantasy fiction' which is what I'm referring to. Reading a book by Urusula Le Guin, even as an adult, is a joy because she weaves highly original stories in very well fleshed out universes. Which is what I think Harry Potter really doesn't do, featuring two of the most common places in children's literature (magic and boarding schools).
 
Peekaboo said:
I mean I can't really judge as I've only read passages but being a good character writer isn't necessarily a strong requisite for a fiction writer - I would say original ideas and plot execution, the two things you say she's not that great at, are a lot more important!
Click to expand...
I do think she's good at original ideas with regards to the entirety of the series. Just not as far creating her own mythologies. She's not a grade A fantasy writer but I don't think the books were intended to turn out that way.

And I would certainly say being a good character writer is a big prerequisite when you're writing for young people. And in general really.

EDIT: originality maybe isn't what I mean. I think it's more that in some ways she is very good at plotting - just not if you're reading the books as an seven part fantasy saga in line with the classics of the genre.
 
Peekaboo said:
When I say 'fiction', I should qualify it as 'fantasy fiction' which is what I'm referring to. Reading a book by Urusula Le Guin, even as an adult, is a joy because she weaves highly original stories in very well fleshed out universes. Which is what I think Harry Potter really doesn't do, featuring two of the most common places in children's literature (magic and boarding schools).
Click to expand...
I agree that reading them purely as fantasy fiction alters how they come across.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top Bottom