RANT REVIEW: I Read JK Rowling's New Book So You Don't Have To

[@PragmaticProsecutor]

So I can’t say definitively that JK knew who Robert Galbraith Heath was before she started using that name, but I can say that if I was ACTUALLY not homophobic or transphobic and I found out that I had ACCIDENTALLY named myself after the inventor of conversion therapy?? I would change that so quick you have no idea

[@AnnekeOosterink]

For a writer who claims she puts a lot of thought and research into naming characters it seems weirdly out of character if she didn't research her own pseudonym. I can't claim to know for certain but I don't really buy her protestations tbh. And yeah, why wouldn't she just ditch the name and use her own, or another pseudonym. Everyone already knows she wrote the books, other writers whose pseudonyms became common knowledge have done so, like, Stephen King no longer uses his pseudonym at all anymore. Nothing is stopping her.

[@rynbliss]

100% if i found out a name i was using had any connection to someone like that i would throw up, delete everything using that name, and immediately change it. regardless of my original ideas for the name or any emotional connection i had to it, as she states is the case. i would be so uncomfortable being associated with smth like that

[@ChristineReadss]

How do you choose a name so specific and not google it prior to publishing under it?

[@WeedgokuBonerhitler]

@@AnnekeOosterink Yeah like, when I was picking out my pseudonym - I googled the hell out of it. First to make sure it wasn't already in use by another author (because that would be embarrassing) and then to make sure it wasn't like, a name attached to a nazi or something because oh boy did I not want that to happen. So like, either she's really stupid, or lying.

[@LilyNaikiir]

as someone how writes, i even google my characters names to make sure i'm not accidentally implying something. and she couldn't do this for her author name. "press X to doubt"

[@aliceis9068]

"kea has two traits: she's hot and she's disabled" okay same lmao

[@estefaniaboujon6830]

😂

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

relatable

[@דליהכהן-כ8ש]

You realy just talk only of your hate for the writer . I tead the story ahd i love it!!!

[@realimereads2707]

Lmao

[@Gloomdrake]

@ferret non sequitur, but that's a very cute ferret in your pfp

[@MsJayteeListens]

It felt like this book separated ‘good’ ‘genuine’ disabled people, like Strike and ‘bad’ ‘fakers’ after attention, like Kea Niven (I think Kea’s absolutely genuine, but I think that I was supposed to think she’s at it). The way people with conditions like POTS, ME and CFS are portrayed is awful. Also, she couldn’t even get the acronyms correct, and used the term ‘spoonies’ without actually understanding it. The book has been released into a climate where there’s a lot of media claiming many young women are faking illness for attention. It’s poison upon poison.

[@akirasaito1551]

Plus, it seems like Strike lost his leg while serving in the army (Watson much?), while Kea was born with a chronic illness. One is characterized as more "honorable" than the other...

[@marocat4749]

@@akirasaito1551 Urg, thats so terf way abelist, not accepting hey both suck different and are valid. Oh and piting lost limb against an invisible, extra points, robert. And how does chronical pain from birth is not argumently worse, and i know amputations arent perfect, but you know chronical pain from birth, yee thats invisible so we dont have to care and gaslight. Pain meds arent perfect either and the trying, wtf robert. But both suck different and are valid.

[@marocat4749]

The number of faking , like when you have to go to a psychiatrist and no one likes that riight, that not mattering number should not make doubting someone fakes it. (And if who the hell loves unnessesary to a psychistrist, no one) Like one flys over the cokoo nest, at that point at least, yeah at least there they will stop, and its not an excuse, its harmsell, there should no doubting and if, sent them to a psychiartist and they stop. Or its confirmed. Yeah thar trend of doubting as first, is very harmful, and stigmstizing, and stopping people getting hrlp earlier more effective, there is bloody stigma enough already.

[@awetistic5295]

As someone with pretty much every condition Kea has in the book, I can tell it's absolute hell and that medical gaslighting only makes things worse with invisible disabilities. Especially when you're young and "don't look sick". Rejection sensitivity disorder is a very real issue that comes with ADHD, goes great with the mistreatment you'll get from medical professionals. Honestly, ME/CFS is the worst to me, it makes you unable to function and pretty much destroys every aspect of your life. Chronic pain that doesn't respond to meds? Also great. See, I don't miss a limb so I don't know if phantom pain is worse, but why would you even compare pain and pain? Why is it so much more serious and honorable when you've "earned it" in war vs. when it is something you had no chance of preventing in the first place? Yeah, disabled people can be villains. But it would be nice to have a representation for once that is not a horrible stereotype.

[@JovanDacic]

Definitely Cormoran Strike is treated as one of the good ones (bc his disability is visible, caused by military service) while young and AFAB sufferers of CFS and fibromyalgia are treated as tumblrinas and genderspecial snowflakes. Strike seems like he reacts to spoon theory with the same anti-SJW revulsion R*wling lavishes on Kea. Perhaps Strike's reaction even veers into a smug superiority or uncaring, despite having to ration his exertion every day or pay for it the next. He gives off a vibe like an ableist boomer Facebook post comparing a wounded veteran to a whiny lib millennial.

[@masonallen3961]

1:09:47 That doesn't surprise me. In Rowling's anti-trans essay she had a little smidge of ableism by saying that autistic people were identifying as trans in higher numbers than neurotypical people. It's not a surprising perspective but it still annoys me that neurotypicals like Rowling think they are saving us from ourselves and that they know our own bodies better than us.

[@spectrumfunction2836]

Yesyesyesyesyes louder please

[@tamarabrugara]

as someone who grew up being told that me being autistic meant I was "extra masculine" and is very much trans this shit is the worst

[@idrisa7909]

It's one of those things where even if it is true, she shouldn't be saying it because her conclusion is that we don't deserve bodily autonomy.

[@jackieade6599]

Exactly 💯!

[@kiera6326]

This is something that I’ve noticed in my friend group. I know 7 (potentially 8) trans people, and only two of them are neurotypical. I’m guessing it’s probably because neurodivergent people are less concerned with weird social norms, but it’s an interesting pattern nonetheless. Absolutely disgusting for Rowling to imply it from that angle though. Like, did she even do any research on why that was before coming to her own conclusion??

[@emexdizzy]

Also, the snippets from the book just go to show that Rowling isn't unaware of what kind of discourse goes on about queerness, disability, racism, et cetera, she isn't unaware at all, she just doesn't care about these issues. If she knows enough to pigeon hole a stereotype of a disabled trans person, she's not bigoted out of ignorance, she simply doesn't care what we go through. Maya Forstater getting fired for her transphobia is a big deal to her, but everything disabled and trans people endure is NOT. She can empathize with the trauma of a man whose leg was blown off in a war, but the trauma of witnessing your own body break down on you for no reason while people belittle you and tell you to stop being so lazy and realizing this is your life now, your youth and freedom is gone before thirty and wondering if it's even worth carrying on... none of that matters to her.

[@paranormeow]

yeah, its terrible, especially since she just has everything going 4 her. As a cishet, rich, famous white woman living in a literal castle with more money than the late queen probably, she has the reach to make a real difference 4 ppl and she chooses 2 live in an echo chamber and spread hateful values. she is making a difference, a bad difference, but she’s just too distanced from everything while living up in her billionaire clouds to NEED to care. She has the power to bring awareness to suffering of others, but since they’re not her, it is not her problem. Its even worse when you consider that her werewolves stigmatized HIV, which her own mother died from.

[@dandelion_16]

@@paranormeow Small detail, but I thought her mother died of MS not HIV?

[@paranormeow]

@@dandelion_16 oh okay thats fair, but its still bad how she treats invisible disabilities in her new book considering

[@dandelion_16]

@@paranormeow yeah ofc! Just found it important to point out.

[@maryeckel9682]

@@dandelion_16 if that's true, it adds another whole layer of hmm, because MS was considered psychosomatic for a long time.

[@ReturnToSenderz]

I have a very hard time believing that an established author would not Google her intended pen name to see if it was already well-known for anything. She’d want to make sure she wasn’t accidentally taking on another author’s name or a serial killer’s name, for example. I think she knew her pen name was close to this real guy’s name but either thought it was “different enough” to not carry the association or just didn’t mind being associated with the guy. 🤨

[@bowbooks5659]

Or thought she was so clever no one would do the research

[@joseffrhys7277]

Was thinking the exact same thing. First thing you want to check is nothing bad will come up if people google your name, especially if you want your books to come up.

[@sen_mei]

THIS. Also, if she really didn't know, she 100% could have changed her pen name after she found it if the association upset her.

[@XxMusicxKelseyxX]

@@sen_mei or dropped it all together once it came out it was her, but she keeps using it, which is ironic considering it's a "man's name"

[@Erika-co6bs]

i use a pen name and absolutely googled it (and its variations) ahead of time

[@julienotsmith7068]

She came up with Dumbledore and Snape and all the rest, but she pulls her pseudonym out of thin air? There is no way she didn't research it.

[@brianapereira2694]

Either she did her research and didn't care/actually agreed with the guy, or she lied about doing her research and when confronted went "Eh, I like the name." Either way, it's very dishonest of her.

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

yeah, or even if it was a mistake, she definitely knows now, and nobody's buying based on the pseudonym anyway, so why not change it??

[@dareisayit]

I’ve always got the impression that HP was 3rd person limited. Through the whole story we only follow Harry’s perspective only and never get the thoughts of anyone else. We learn things with Harry but more importantly Harry’s very limited perspective impacts the readers beliefs. JKR relies on this limited view for so many of her ‘twists’, especially the first 3 books. Snape, Sirius, Lupin being a werewolf, James being the actual bully, or the horcrux plot point. All of these plots only work because the only perspective we get is Harry’s.

[@brianapereira2694]

@@dareisayit For the main story, yes, it's 3rd person limited. But she loves to write "First Chapters" (which are just prologues done terribly) and then it's 3rd person omniscient.

[@meaganblack1529]

I think that your friend is right that disabled people/characters should be allowed to be villains as well as heroes. But I don't think JKR is the person to explore that, especially since she didn't even bother to spell POTS correctly. And it sounds like she didn't bother to give her disabled characters any personality beyond being disabled, either.

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

Yeah I'd agree with that overall assessment

[@akirasaito1551]

It just occurred to me that Rowling wrote three physically disabled characters (that I know of). Out of the three, Strike and Mad-Eye Moody, the respectable ones, lost their body parts (leg and eye) in the line of duty. I don't know how Strike's described (his leg thing reminds me of Watson though), but Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye is said to be creepy and unsettling. Pettigrew, the evil one, cut his hand off to resurrect his evil master, who gave his an evil prosthetic, which will evilly kill Pettigrew off for betraying Voldemort. Also, while agree that disabled people don't need to be angels in media, portraying them as whiny jealous snowflakes whose whole identity is "disabled sjw" is more than a bit ableist. Many of Kea's posts were completely valid, but since it comes from the mouth of a character meant to be hated, it sounds like the reader is supposed to roll their eyes at her points

[@sleepinbelle9627]

Yea there's a big difference between a villainous character who is disabled, and a character whose primary villainous trait is being disabled in the wrong way. Like, the Hawkeye show of all things nailed this by having a villain whose disability had nothing to do with her motivation. It still factored into the story, into the way that she existed in the world, but it wasn't her only trait.

[@Allison_Hart]

i 100% agree with this, but as someone with strabismus that gives me a lazy eye and the appearance of being cross-eyed, i think Mad-Eye Moody is probably the closest to positive rep of characters with a crossed eye that i know of

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

yeah i agree - and the whole "lost a body part in the line of duty" thing is interesting - i hadn't noticed that, but yeah it almost feels like she's trying to say there's "good disabled people" who became that way "virtuously"

[@Dianuxkasfenix]

There's also that Hogwarts professor (the one Hagrid eventually replaces) who lost multiple body parts while teaching and retires "to live with the rest of his limbs" (paraphrasing here). Also Hagrid's brother always had a really weird characterization.

[@TaShoelace]

Regardless of the origin of the name Robert Galbraith for JK, I think it's telling that she's continuing to use the name after learning about the connection. I don't see why someone who should be reasonably horrified wouldn't retire the name, especially when it's been publicly revealed that she's the person writing these books.

[@wolftitanreading5308]

Maybe because she desired to have a series thata successful that isn't under her already famous name

[@bowbooks5659]

It was revealed to be her once the first Cormoran Strike novel flopped its first week. She’s all about the attention

[@awetistic5295]

@@wolftitanreading5308 But what's the use if anybody already knows she has written those books?

[@wolftitanreading5308]

@@awetistic5295 just does it cause shes bored, i mean seriously Stephen king use to use richard Backman. We writers do weird things and she started it now might as well go with it now.

[@awetistic5295]

@@wolftitanreading5308 Yeah, but Richard Bachman has quite the elaborate backstory - and was still eventually killed off by King when he wasn't needed anymore. All the Bachman books are now published under the name of Stephen King or something like "Stephen King as Richard Bachman". It's actually more proof to me that a famous writer can end his pseudonym once his true identity is revealed and nothing bad will happen. I mean, if I chose Jeffrey Lionel as a pseudonym because I like the name Jeffrey (which I do) and then someone tells me about a certain cannibal, I'd make sure to change that name instead of doubling down on it.

[@sleepinbelle9627]

My favourite detail in the book is when the narration notes that Kea Niven's art on her Tumblr is "heavily anime-influenced". I'm envisioning JKR sat in front of a novelty typewriter laughing maniacally as she makes the evil trans-adjacent disabled person a weeb.

[@rhaeven]

I'm positive that at some point a terf would've "explained" to her that hentai is part of what makes pornsick boys want to be girls.

[@bepisthescienceman4202]

I'm thinking more of a witch cackle

[@stevendorries]

@@bepisthescienceman4202 I think more like Skeletor

[@yurisei6732]

Writers being incapable of not ranting about people they hate is pretty funny.

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

​@@stevendorriesNYEH!

[@GloomyFish]

in what universe does a book need FOUR PROLOGUES?!

[@lanaharper9798]

… four?!

[@a.arizpe3536]

Iirc correctly, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring had three. Difference is, at least those were written by an actually good author (who did not have the advantage of the internet to upload all of his lore to) and actually have a purpose of making you learn about the hobbits. They are tedious, but you can skip them if you so wish if you're there just for the story and not the entire lore. From what I'm gathering from The Ink Black Heart, by contrast... those four prologues are tedious and you can't skip them, and also apparently the book in general is Not Very Good.

[@ladychaos2412]

Faust from Goethe had three as well as LotR, so I kinda get the vibe that Rowling tried to align her books with these…

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

not this one that's for sure

[@Newfiecat]

Pretty sure The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson has three or four prologues too, lol. But it's a much better book that's setting a big stage. At least epic fantasy has somewhat of an excuse. Detective thrillers really don't.

[@alistairrosehearts9734]

While it's fine to have disabled villains and I agree that only making disabled people heroes is infantilizing, when the villain's whole character is their disability it does seem quite ableist.

[@marocat4749]

Disabled villains are fine if thats not their character. I love scorpius from farscape who is disabled and needs his regulation stuff to be fine, and an amazing layered antagonist. Becaise that does not define him(or its because he is a half breed between two opposing fractions who both suck,and that kinda ties in his motives as he hates one side, and is seen as freak,but he ismore than that)

[@AnnekeOosterink]

The thing that came to mind for me was gay-coding villains. Like, it's fine if some villains are gay, because gay people exist and to make them all good people would be unrealistic because human beings don't work that way. However. If gay people ONLY appear as villains, and never as good guys, (or the in between stage, only ever as the side kick and never the protagonist) there is definitely homophobia going on. So if disabled people only every exist as villains or villainous characters, yeah...

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

yeah i agree. i think there needed to be more to her character for her to not come across as an offensive stereotype

[@alistairrosehearts9734]

@@SAVYWRITESBOOKS Yeah, like they could have given her interests and motives and a life outside of social media and it would have been fine. But it's just "disabled and really really mean" which is like, bro what???

[@MattJDave]

Yeah, that's my approach. One of my villains is most definitely disabled, largely due to sheer age (she's lost use of her legs, arms, eyes and even mouth to some degree), and her means of overcoming this disability _is_ notable (she uses a whole bunch of daemons to act as her eyes, limbs, and mouth), the main thing that makes her villainous is... you know, running a malignant cult and generally ruining people's lives. She's a villain first, and the disabilities simply come as a side-effect of being very old.

[@hobbleit]

After having read all the Harry Potter books, no-one’s been editing Rowling’s books for years at this point so it being an unedited mess doesn’t surprise me at this point.

[@sarahgent2674]

My aunt had a friend who apparently used to work on or adjacent to the Harry Potter publishing side of things. Apparently around book 4 or 5, JK went "oh I'm sorry I won't be able to get this book out on time, I understand if you want to drop me" and they went "NO TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED DO YOU WANT MORE MONEY PLEASE STAY WITH US"

[@XxMusicxKelseyxX]

@@sarahgent2674 that explains it. When I was a kid, I stopped reading at Goblet of Fire because it just felt incredibly wordy and boring. I was a total book worm at the time.

[@Newfiecat]

@@XxMusicxKelseyxX Yeah, I found that too. For me it was the 5th book where I really stopped enjoying it since it didn't even have something like a magical tournament to push the plot along. Her books changed from clever, tightly written whimsical stories full of adventure and humor to boring, depressing, directionless slogs. I couldn't believe just how much the books changed in tone and quality.

[@JennaGetsCreative]

Agreed, her HP books contradict each other on how the world and magic work all the time. She either didn't have a consistent editor with her publisher or she doesn't listen to their concerns.

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

​@@NewfiecatAfter reading like one hundred pages about _cleaning,_ I noped the fnck out of the series.

[@phoenixhexclar9340]

Opinion: I believe the name was an accident at first, but refusing to change it after finding out becomes malicious.

[@estefaniaboujon6830]

Why would she change it?

[@tamarabrugara]

@@estefaniaboujon6830 say you didn't know Adolf had certain connotations would you keep using it if someone told you about the holocaust?

[@SpaceandGoats]

@@tamarabrugara the name adolf is only bad when you add the last name

[@tamarabrugara]

@@SpaceandGoats in fact a lot families that used to name people Adolf have switched to Rudolf IRL and it's not even allowed in some countries. Using it as a pseudonym would be **highly** dubious.

[@_CallMeRex]

@@tamarabrugara I would say it’s more in line with using the full name “Adolf Hitler” as a pen name, since she uses the full name “Robert Gailbrith.” Robert is a totally fine and normal name, but combined with the surname completes the reference.

[@gothlibrarian]

To me the worst thing about this book is how mean spirited and self centred it seems. It just feels like JKR complaining for 1000 pages about people who were mean to her online while she sits in her literal castle on her dragon's hoard of wealth lobbing shots at chronically ill people. There's no sense that JKR tried to understand her critics or represent them honestly, but instead portrays them as mean bullies who want JKR to die. It's so strange to see someone who could quite literally be doing anything else publish self insert fan fiction about how mean Twitter users are with zero self reflection. Like you said, there doesn't seem to be any exploration of any legitimate criticisms of JKR's self insert just unearned nastiness which to me reveals just how she feels about her own critics. The total inability or at least unwillingness to honestly engage with criticism feels really immature. The whole book comes across as one big pity party for JKR and her self insert because everyone is just sooo pointlessly cruel to them. In all honesty I think JKR really just needs to log off Twitter and touch grass. If she had just retired before all this TERF nonsense she could have easily remained a widely loved and well thought of author raking in royalties from book and merchandise sales until she died. It's honestly sad to see her go this route.

[@wolftitanreading5308]

I blame all the death threata these fuckers sent Rowling

[@T.E.S.S.]

she is AMAZINGLY self centered. it's actually quite remarkable.

[@sherlock3168]

Interesting. I see it as jkr showing how internet people like you just judge creators/authors if they don't agree with what majority of people. At least she is being true to herself. I see her stance like how Hermione fights for elves rights. Like people like you see her as a terf and people like me see her as just fighting for mainly girls being protected from predators. Did you read the book by the way coz if you don't then your opinion doesn't matter. Lol.

[@wolftitanreading5308]

@@sherlock3168 agree

[@thatonedude9744]

@@sherlock3168 hope she sees this bro

[@JulianGreystoke]

Nobody can tell JK anything. I'm pretty sure her ego has her convinced she's smarter than all of us, but especially editors.

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

yeah she's too successful to listen to any of us mortals anymore

[@Jane-oz7pp]

"I wrote books good enough for children, CHILDREN, how DARE you question me?!?!"

[@JulianGreystoke]

@@Jane-oz7pp 😂😂😂

[@stillstymied]

I'm chronically ill!! I have POTS!! I haven't read the book but I feel like whole #spoonie thing is kind of a ableist stereotype. And POTS is very very very draining, most people can't work, many have trouble even cooking or taking showers, struggling financially. I don't feel like she really understands what being chronically ill is like -- yeah it's fine to make someone the villain but honestly most of us are just trying to get by it's kinda a stretch.

[@springshowers4754]

same here! it was honestly pretty upsetting.

[@marocat4749]

At least shamayalan does cartoonish abelism. Not that mean subtiler one.

[@grimlesbians]

the spoonie analogy comes from a chronically ill person and used by/for disabled ppl to convey to abled ppl how difficult it can be to manage activities with limited energy. its not a stereotype, but jkr is not portraying spoonies in good faith. i honestly wouldnt have thought she knew the term tbh

[@stillstymied]

@@grimlesbians oh yeah some people use spoon theory as a tool. But, I feel like the "#spoonie" personality for a chronically ill person is a stereotype. I don't call myself a Spoonie, for example.

[@grimlesbians]

@@stillstymied yeah for sure, i dont rly either bc it never caught on in my circles n i would have to explain it to ppl a bunch lol, its definitely sus the way she uses it, like its correct but i dont think that this is a character jkr wrote with respect.

[@RowanTS]

If I called my pen name Graham Wigglesworth and then people were like ‘you mean the guy who invented the Euthanasia Donuts??’ I would just change the name. At least to just an initial for the forename, or if I were, say, a famous author who had already been outed as using a pseudonym and everyone knew it was me, I’d just revert to my usual penname.

[@meredithnavin1358]

Wait, there's a person called Graham Wigglesworth???

[@meredithnavin1358]

Ok. I didn't find anyone called Graham Wigglesworth selling euthanasia donuts, but yes, there are a few Graham Wigglesworths that have existed. There's also a Graham Wrigglesworth for the record too. With an r.

[@rserserserse]

@@meredithnavin1358 They just made that name up as a joke/example

[@Maddie-qu3kp]

My theory for why she used a male pseudonym is that she believes she is being crucified for her views, not because they are genuinely hurtful and full of hate, but because she is an opinionated woman. Which, sure there's probably an element of that in there, but also, this book is all the evidence you need that she thinks of herself as a victim of "woke internet anti feminist activism" and she published this as a martyr 🙄🥴

[@milkteamachine]

The reason she published as J.K. Rowling instead of Joanne Rowling in the first place was because she wanted her gender to be ambiguous. She definitely has issues being seen as a “female author”.

[@williewonka9805]

It also ties in, in the opposite way. She changed her name to avoid sexism, now she thinks that all transmen are doing the same somehow. Like, transitioning to avoid sexism? She can't really comprehend that transmen feel other things.

[@Kittsim]

@@williewonka9805 transitioning to avoid sexism is like dodging getting hit by a car by rolling on railway tracks and getting hit by a train.

[@williewonka9805]

@@Kittsim Yeah, It's how Dave Rowling thinks it works. Because of how her pseudonyms worked for her. Not how it actually works when people actually transition. She just doesn't see much outside of her own experience.

[@Kittsim]

@@williewonka9805 Yep, I agree it just blows my mind as a trans person that people think it's just an easy switch or something lmao

[@RKGold]

Dealing with KZbin support sounds like purgatory

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

IT WAS JUST LIKE PURGATORY

[@eugenetheythem1368]

I’m so sorry! I can’t believe you lost those views

[@yourmorningguru4341]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@jackieade6599]

Damn...

[@golddragonette7795]

Oh it is! Hideous

[@TI3RU]

honestly even if by some wild chance the pseudonym is a coincidence, it’s still indicative of her behaviors that instead of going “now that I know, I should change it because I don’t want my content to be associated with that man” she dug her heels in and insisted she was absolutely blameless and therefore shouldn’t have to change at all, yknow something she’s had quite the track record with 😂

[@awetistic5295]

At this point, everybody knows she has written these books, why doesn't she just give up her pseudonym?

[@Crithosceleg]

I just don't understand why she sticks with the male inclined pen names for being such a feminist that she claims to be. She went with J.K. instead of her first name so it sounded more masculine, goes for the ill intentioned male pen name for her other books... especially as mentioned everyone already knows it's her? As an obscure author trying to make your way, I can understand leaning on the 'it's a male dominated field, have to play the game to get ahead' but now that she's already well known, she couldn't come up with a feminine pen name? Out of everything else about the book and author, I know this is the stupidest nitpick from me but it's always sat oddly with me.

[@grimlesbians]

i think she also lost any good will and benefit of the doubt she couldve had on that when she willingly associates with ppl who support conversion therapy. its like, at this point if u DONT want it to be a dogwhistle, u have to take steps to make sure it isnt one. u could put many authors in her shoes and u might actually believe it was an honest mistake but for jkr, paying tribute to the guy who popularized conversion therapy isnt that much of a stretch.

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

i agree -- she's famous enough that why keep using it if it has that connection for readers?

[@RedSpade37]

@@SAVYWRITESBOOKS This is a hot take, but... I think Rowling is secretly a trans man, because all this has the same energy as those homophobic senators that were caught performing "acts" in airport bathrooms with other men.

[@sleepinbelle9627]

You ask who this book was written for, with it simultaneously being incredibly online and explaining the basics of social media. The answer is that this book is for JK Rowling. It's for an out-of-touch billionaire who at once doesn't understand social media, but also spends all of her time on Twitter. Seriously the book contains 2 separate author inserts: the murder victim and the detective's assistant Robin Ellacott (seriously, she says as a child she wanted to be called Ella Galbraith and then named the redhead who isn't like other girls Miss Ellacott). This book is pure self-indulgence, where her self-inserts do nothing wrong, everyone who's mean to her online is a disability-faking she/they hater or a nazi, and the cool detective who gets all the girls thinks you're really cool and smart.

[@Starshelle]

I laughed at your "name police" bit. My only issue with girls being given traditionally masculine names is it bothers me the reverse is almost never seen. You very rarely see boys given traditionally feminine names like Elizabeth and Mary. In my experience the very same parents who happily name their daughter a name like "George" more often than not wouldn't entertain naming a boy a name like "Sarah". Why is this? The answer I'm afraid indicates how deeply misogynistic much of society still is.

[@sannetts]

It goes further... the more girls get given traditionally masculine names, the less masculine they seem and eventually it gets to a point where you "cant" name boys names that were once male names- Kelly, Kim, Madison

[@marocat4749]

There are quate a few men , ok maybe older with mary as second one. But yeah enough names are neutral enough. And madison yeah, and i hope robin stays a male one. Boys should het more broad, like i think marian should be neutral enough. And joan should too. Its a nice name, despite rowling.

[@dinosertanejo222]

You just remembered me of Marion Cobrette, who just wanted a more masculiny name like Alice kkkk.

[@8LyJu8]

Fun fact: in LatAm is relatively common to find men named Mary, because of Virgin Mary. Usually it goes as José María (Joseph Mary), while in femenine it goes as María José (Mary Joseph).

[@baizhuwaitingroom7057]

In my country (Poland) there are some rules regarding naming your children and generally you can't name a girl a traditionally masculine name or name a boy a traditionally feminine name... with one exception being the feminine name Maria, where you can pick it as a second name for a boy. Apparently it's originally an Italian thing lol.

[@aliceis9068]

ngl tho the characterization of kea *is* rly manipulative & ableist insomuch as it *is* simply stereotyping a chronically ill woman/feminized/gender oppressed person (not CIS MAN) as "bitter", "angry", and "talks too much abt her illnesses/disabilities" which is like..... that stereotype does get gender oppressed ppl declined from healthcare. the idea that, since she is "hot" and conventionally attractive means somehow their chronic illnesses don't like.... impact her life *at all* is like.... a rly insidious way of essentially going back to the old-time stereotype, which unfortunately, many doctors adopt, particularly if a patient is young, a woman, feminized, &/or gender oppressed which is: people are lying/exaggerating abt their chronic illness. *it is all in their heads*. there *is* a certain degree of having a higher access to care the more your body reflects the desirability politic of this society--thin, white, "conventionally attractive"--i.e. no visible 'deformities', certain physical features associated w/ European ancestry, etc.--the more you can be "normal" but disabled/sick, the better treatment you may receive from outer society & potentially, sympathy from doctors--not always, but, it *does* happen. so when you're chronically ill, and say, a Black woman, you're already going to be treated *horrifically* by the medical system and you will have to try *much* harder to get wider community support, particularly online, particularly in image-based social media, than a white woman who maybe has the same conditions. or, even a light-skinned woman of color, or another Black woman who has more "European features," or a larger-bodied/fat woman, or a trans woman--all and any intersections of identity in the online disability communities can be weaponized both for AND against you. it's rly ugly, actually, the way this goes down irl, and honestly like.... there *are* ppl who behave like this character Kea, who maybe even *harm* the disability community that they ARE in, and it's generally due to the disabled person having access to more resources than other disabled people, and/or their embodied reflection of desireability politics. De'Shaun Harrison, a Black, disabled, nonbinary, fat, scholar wrote an incredible book abt this recently titled *Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness* & gave an incredible interview w/ Millennials are Killing Capitalism (podcast) close to its release i think either last year or the year before. even though it's more about body size & white supremacist institutionalized discrimination/violence towards Black fat masculine people in particular, it sorta touches on all these subjects throughout from what i understand. also, for what it's worth, i am a chronically ill/disabled neurodivergent nonbinary feminized person of color LMAO all that identity soup. however, i'm also a dialectical materialist. it's a little bit my responsibility to be able to see *thru* the bullshit when i notice it. lmao. but yeah thanks for the review u rly did spare me attempting to read this w/ what little time i actually have being a full-time uni student & full-time neurodivergent disabled person LMAO.

[@helen.faunway]

Your section on superfluous descriptions / character details reminds me of a really great piece of advice one of my creative writing MFA professors gave me awhile back: "If everything is important, than nothing is." It really helped me be able to streamline without cutting scenes / details entirely. I think Rowling would benefit from this perspective, as I imagine she has a hard time "killing" her darlings so to speak

[@AnnekeOosterink]

Yeah, like, you don't need to describe EVERY second of every day, or every thought a character has. Even stream of consciousness books don't do that, or at least not in the way jk did it. Plus actual stream of consciousness are typically interesting.

[@hannahbanana3165]

Ok, so here's my issue with the whole Robert Galbraith name thing: Maybe it's because I'm not british, but is GALBRAITH really that common a name that she could have just stumbled unto the combination of ROBERT + GALBRAITH accidentally? And even then, let's for a second assume she's being honest about not knowing who Robert Galbraith was... Can't she just change it? Why does she keep using the name after knowing that if she's such an amazing ally? Sounds like a huge dog whistle to me

[@T.E.S.S.]

Bingo. It's absurd to pass it off as coincidence.

[@kariissmol9172]

A dog wistle so loud even we hear it.

[@aerithcolfer3623]

Galbraith isn't a British name -- Its Scottish. I live in Scotland and while I've never met anyone with the name 'Galbraith' its not super unusual. She could've met someone in Scotland called Galbraith and added it to 'Robert' for her pen name so it 'sounds Scottish'. There is a small chance it is just an accident that she chose the name of the father of conversion therapy -- however I doubt this. But you're right. If she genuinely didn't know? Then why not change it or even apologise. Or hell, even acknowledge it! Her lack of action is what shows her for who she is

[@gokuxsephiroth4505]

Live in Scotland, where the name is from, and it's one of those old timey names which most people don't use. Very sus she used it to begin with, but the fact this was revealed to her and she didn't change it makes all whimpering about "not knowing" kinda pointless.

[@AncestralDestructionPot]

One thing that is quite bothering is how Kea is implied to be trans because they are made out to be someone who spends a lot of time on the internet suggesting that trans people are all chronically online and It doesn't help her that she is chronically-ill and has a temper to imply that they're trans because of being online so much, and because of their disabilities not only making them out to be an evil person but also stereotyping them.

[@guy_arsonist]

I really hate how every woman mentioned in this review of the book is like... gone over in terms of how hot they are, only really mentioned in their relationship with the main character, and a lot of them are characterized as, like, jealous vixens? I know it's a trope of detective novels to be misogynistic, but they could put more effort into subverting that

[@morbidsearch]

JK Rowling having the same capacity for female characters as The Inbetweeners (which is a great show but literally every female is characterised by their appearance)

[@Celepom]

I'm really Suss on her not knowing the history of "Robert Galbraithe," mostly because when choosing a pseudonym these days wouldn't you google it to see if it's viable? Also, she admits to googling names being part of her writing toolkit. Whenever she's making something up, she googles it to see if it exists already of if it's truly "new." So. Yeah. Don't buy her not knowing. She probably googled it and didn't care/didn't see a problem.

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

Also, I'm still a bit baffled why the publisher hasn't come out to say anything about this whole thing. There's no way not only JKR did not research anything in relation to the name, but also the publishing house not double-checking. Messed up situation all around. Or maybe they still believe bad PR is better than no PR?

[@justrachel4496]

I honestly have zero problems with self inserts. They can be cathartic and fun for the writer. What I have a problem with is making a clear self insert and lying about it. Don't lie to your readers, they deserve better than that.

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

true. self inserts can be fun. but for the reader's sake, you've got to make sure a self insert character has enough complexity and doesn't just put the author's likeness as a flawless person

[@kramermariav]

The Divine Comedy is a self insert

[@bettyunicorn6132]

@@kramermariav they even have the same name!

[@kazza6078]

There is NO WAY that the person who gave every one of their HP characters a Super Symbolic Extensive Backstory Name picked that pen name by accident. NO. WAY. Even if she tells herself that every day to feel better I absolutely do not believe it.

[@anna-flora999]

I mean... Did she, though? How much research do you have to do to name the Werewolf Wolf wolf, the guy turning into a black dog Dog Black, and the Black guy Kingsley Shacklebolt?

[@mad-hq4cz]

@@anna-flora999 and never forget her magnum opus, cho chang. which is literally just two surnames.

[@Arkaaito]

You should devote your next novel to the story of a brilliant, brave, strong and *very* stylish KZbin creator who is only truly appreciated after a video displays mysterious mobile glitches and her desperate attempts to interest KZbin tech support in her case are rebuffed, leaving the failed upload free to viciously accost her and her co-creator KR. Did I mention she has no discernible flaws that might make her into an interesting character? Also it should be **1,200** pages. No, but seriously, words can't express how thrilled I am that you took time to review this -- and then more, unplanned time to mess with the KZbin equivalent of turning it off and back on again. You're the only KZbinr I follow who actually talks about books in depth with an eye to the writing, and the fact that you wrote a not-totally-thematically-unrelated novel yourself and have interesting opinions about the premise is the icing on the cake. Please never stop doing book rants!

[@gracedays7443]

While I’m not a disabled person and cannot say what is and isn’t ableist, I have noticed that, increasingly, disability is being used to signify “SJW”. I distinctly remember seeing a right wing political cartoon which showed a “normal” able bodied child suddenly start using a wheelchair (in addition to things like dying their hair/cutting it short) after using twitter. Can’t say what JKR meant by adding disabled characters into her story but I do think disability is being added to the list of things right wingers use to signify “crazy sjws”, and terfism is just half a step removed from right wing ideology.

[@robokill387]

IKR? because how dare a group that is one of the most victimized and vulnerable in our society to the point that they were basically left to die in the pandemic for the convenience of non-disabled people fight for social justice.

[@gokuxsephiroth4505]

Ah, I believe I remember the exact cartoon you're talking about, and yes, Antoons was an awful person who believed disabilities were intrinsically linked with the left.

[@Fairygoblet]

I watched a video the other day where some guy was digging up some articles about JK Rowling and stuff and apparently the reason that the Hogwarts theme park is so cramped and inaccessible is because that's the way she wanted it. She refused to compromise with the builders and planners who knew that the public would require more space, as would people in wheelchairs. There was a person in the comment section of that video saying that her sister got a trip there as her wish from the Make-A-Wish foundation, but since she used a wheelchair, she couldn't go anywhere! She couldn't get inside easily and a lot of the time it was dangerous for her. JK Rowling is so far up her own bottom that I think she's forgotten what it's like to live in poverty, to struggle and be judged by society. She can't even use her Fame as an excuse, because even though the fame may have been a factor there are plenty of famous people who still remember where they came from. The problem with JK Rowling isn't her values, which are terrible of course, but her inflated opinion of herself. Values can change, but not if somebody has as much of an ego as JK Rowling. As a disabled person myself, I have been increasingly disgusted by JK Rowling's treatment of disabled people both in and outside of her personal Canon of books. Whether or not you can consume JK Rowling's content ethically is up for debate, I'm simply going to stop purchasing any official merchandise and support fan works made by people who are aware of how problematic JK rowling is. Why do this, you may ask? Why not just abandon Harry Potter all together. Are you taking the easy way out? Well, no. You see, I've already have enough things ruined for me because of how the people involved felt about disabled people or treated disabled people within their work. I'm not going to let another thing be ruined for me. If I cut myself out of my personal place in the Harry Potter story, I'm letting JK Rowling's dismissive attitudes win. I'm telling her that I will go quietly. So I'm not going to do that. I'm not as interested in it as I used to be, but I'm not going to completely boycott it. It feels too much like giving JK Rowling what she wants. I know that this doesn't have much to do with the video, and I'm sorry for that. But I figured that you all would let me have a space to vent about this, and I figured that you all would want to know that she is literally keeping specific people out of her parks now. Edit: I have watched the rest of the video and I have since discovered that this had way more to do with the video than I thought it would. Go figure.

[@WallebyDamned]

I will never give JoKaren Ralphing the benefit of the doubt on names. She named a werewolf Remus Lupin before he was bitten.

[@AnnekeOosterink]

Wolfy McWolf the werewolf. It never fails to make me laugh it's so obvious.

[@universal_stupidity]

so excited to actually get to listen to this! seriously tho, I don't know if JK was ever the amazing writer she's made out to be (haven't read HP), but she's definitely gone downhill

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

i hope you enjoy!

[@zlcoad1]

Harry Potter is great. Definitely best the first time though.

[@IxiaRayne]

I’d recommend Shaun’s Video named “Harry Potter” … he goes into the text in a deep dive of all the seven books. It’s super interesting 🙂

[@aug1014]

It’s fine for kids ig, but too many plot holes. Plus like no good character arcs. Also the worldbuilding is charming but makes absolutely no sense

[@akirasaito1551]

@Jesse Schoedel It because the house elves just LOVE being enslaved :)))) Woohoo, I cannot see any horrible racist parallels this creates. Status quo for the win, fellas

[@draconity]

Regarding JK's pen name, this is the woman who spent many many years writing an entire book series packed with names that had to do with exactly what the people were, who they were, what they did. She's HUGE on names of that kind. The idea that she'd never met anyone named Galbraith and had never heard the name and she thought she had just come up with that WHOLE @SS NAME herself? Come on. That's her excuse, that she thought she'd made up the name when she was a kid. I don't buy it for a second. Considering the company she's been keeping--fascist politicians--I don't doubt for one moment that it was a dog whistle.

[@robokill387]

She never said she came up with the name "galbraith" by herself, she said that it was a name she really liked and that she had heard it in Scotland.

[@Grounded_Gravity]

Yeahhh I'm with you on the ableism, Savy. As someone with multiple chronic illnesses, I'm personally tired of the only representation of chronically ill people being that they are annoying and only talk about their health problems. This puts a lot of pressure on us to simultaneously A) avoid talking about our health so we aren't "annoying" and "hysterical," and B) talk about our condition enough that we are taken seriously and people believe us. And we need people to believe us in order to get our needs met and receive appropriate accommodations (such as sick time, medical leave, even medical care). Otherwise, people might assume we are just lazy or needy and won't take us seriously. So every time I see this kind of character, I know it's just feeding the stereotype machine. I guess a villain is at least an interesting spin on the stereotype, but it's still a harmful stereotype. I don't think there are enough humanizing depictions of disabled people with chronic illness. There are either perfect angels with cancer or annoying like Allison from Grace and Frankie, where she's the butt of every joke. I'd prefer a combination of likeable AND difficult traits that don't solely revolve around the character's health as well as an actual character arc.

[@Molly-ml1wn]

_Cormorant Strike_ is the EXACT kind of main character name that _Ebony Darkness Raven Dementia Way_ was penned to satirize. Full offense

[@feistygheisty]

To me it seems like the Kaya character is not just a stereotype of a disability activist but also pulling inspiration from the anti FtM stuff like "Irreversible Damage" and Rowling's own description of how she might have been "convinced" to transition if she was a young person today. That's why she makes a point of saying Kaya is pretty because she wants to emphasize that they are not masculine. If I'm trying to get in JKs head I would say that, to her, the trans questioning is to make Kaya sympathetic because they are a self diagnosing hypochondriac who is influenced by the other "SJW" people in their online community. The way I see it JK is trying to put herself in the perspective of the left wing who criticize her but through the lens of her younger self who, to her current self, is either misguided and annoying or a victim.

[@atanvardecunambiel8917]

could transitioning have saved him (jkr)

[@cityman2312]

Savy, I remember every detail of the Potter series very well indeed, so I can add a couple of thoughts. The evil Hogwarts founder - Salazar Slytherin - is the one who is depicted as a man with feminine qualities. He owned a locket, built a symbolic chamber etc. The best of the four founders - Gryffindor - was a virile man, and the two other good founders who were of lesser importance (Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff) were womanly women. I have discussed with other self-appointed experts on the series as to whether JKR might have far right sympathies. Keep in mind that the far right in the UK are not religious, but they do include reactionaries and even ethno-centric nationalists. I think that JKR is not a nationalist, but she does show that she has some reactionary views. Like with how the UK is the centre of the magical world and even giants hiding in remote mountain ranges abroad know about Dumbledore. This is a syndrome that idealises Britain's time as the global power - call it nineteenth century nostalgia. ** Edit - Then there is JKR's clumsy retconning with Dumbledore and Grindelwald's homosexuality that is utterly unsupported by the text. Carefully consider JKR's interview when she came up with it. She said that Dumbledore's homosexual feelings towards Grindelwald were inherently corrupting and made him lose his moral compass. Contrast with how Snape's heterosexual love for Lily in the main series brought out the best in Snape and was inherently redeeming. JKR also says that Dumbledore becomes virtuous by remaining celibate for the rest of his life. What was JKR trying to say? Also, the books are all from third person limited POV except for the very first chapter of the first one.** Everyone, did you notice Savy's razor sharp wit regarding JKR's Robert pseudonym? JKR kind of invited it by chucking aspersions of auto-gynephilia and voyeurism at trans women. I wonder if JKR thinks that trans men have auto-androphilia.

[@flicnerdy4385]

Also Snape wouldn't leave Lily alone, I don't condone James's bullying of snape but he also was following lily around??? Like it's not that hard to make a cute love story. On top of that, she tried to say that Dumbledore became Asexual, which isnt how that works, it would make sense to say Dumbledore and Grindlewald's duel was traumatic for Dumbledore and one of his trauma reactions was a lower liabdo/sex drive, WHICH WOULD WORK AND MAKE SENSE!! But she didn't take that option!

[@naluzoniro]

she doesn't think trans men have auto-androphilia, she thinks we're confused little girls 🤮 Good points you make there... "It's okay to be gay, but only in a way that's comfortable to ME."

[@morbidsearch]

I love how the UK has its own wizarding school, but Bulgarian wizards have to go all the way to Sweden to get educated

[@northstarjakobs]

@@morbidsearch Or how there is one wizarding school in Japan and it's the smallest one in the world.

[@NeloBladeOfRanni]

Late reply I know but I think there very well might be another reason for why the UK is the central of the magical world Harry Potter. To put it simply until Gerald Gardner a white British man created the Wicca religion in the 1940s/50s witch craft magic and paganism were all very much illegal and considered to be evil etc. While other practices may have been around in other parts of the world it wasn't until the rise of Wicca when stuff like witch craft the occult etc started to become more acceptable in society and in the main stream. Just pointing it out as a possible reason why the UK is the centre of the magical world.

[@Powdergem]

Can we just call a bad character a bad character? The term Mary-Sue has just been used to beat shame into teenage girls who are just trying to have fun with media franchises they enjoy. I'm 110% for criticising bad fiction and JKR's entire existence, but just call it what it is - shitty writing.

[@paranormeow]

THIS

[@Powdergem]

@@The_Distractinator In my experience of witnessing the usage of the term, it was just used to bully people. The definition didn't seem to matter because people would use it regardless to harass what was primarily teenage girls trying to have fun on the internet - in my time I witnessed hate campaigns through mary-sue 'rant' videos, calllout posts and unwanted character 'corrections. People were hurt and embarrased just because they dared to give their character a particular trait. I don't think teenage girls need to be harassed because they made a shitty character. Not to mention the inherent sexism to the term - the male equivalent saw hardly any usage compared to 'mary sue' and again was often used against young girls because their characters cried too much or had huge tits... Sorry, I think it being 'critical to literary development' is kind of hilarious. Just go take a writing class?? I'm all for criticising published work, criticising billionaires, criticising transphobes, criticising someone in a writing class, but people having fun on the internet making Sasuke's forgotten sister or whatever? Sure it's bad, but they're just having fun and its not for anyone to come in and start handing out unwanted criticisms.

[@violettbellerose1173]

@@The_Distractinator I think the term is useful for pointing to a specific trope, but there's also writing a bad character and another thing being bullied for it, and it also can't be ignored how most of this criticism is pointed towards girls. I also don't think Mary Sue=bad character 100% all the time, there are plenty of well written overpowered characters, but the ones that receive the term are almost always female characters, when I'm sure male examples are more common, but less talked about. I don't think creating a Mary Sue is the worst thing and it can be helpful for the young writer to make one because they are attached to that character so they will get to shape them better as the authors improve their writing skills. Others just do it for fun and that's fine too, maybe along the way of making terrible fanfiction they discover something they enjoy. But I do think is rather sad being 50+ and still creating Mary Sues unintentionally.

[@33melonpaws77]

Oh! Izzzyzzz's video on The Weird World of Mary Sues briefly touched on this! I found it really interesting. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jn6ldn5jhbWCqas

[@melodye14]

That's fair but when teen girls include Mary Sue type protagonists in their own writing, it's often indicative of the fact that they're very new to writing. You shouldn't expect this from a published author who has been in the industry for decades

[@amaiodayaka8926]

I am a writer who has a bad habit of writing way too much at times, and o m g, JK Rowling wrote just like my very old writing and then increased the size by 10 times! Like that's just insane

[@Fairygoblet]

Same lol

[@caraxkins]

when I come back to Agatha Christie, the queen of crime fiction, I'm always amazed at how tight her books are while also being full of red herrings etc. So snappy and satisfying. TAKE NOTES JOANNE.

[@universal_stupidity]

your mini rant about point of views and which ones are good when just reminded me, I really think onmiscient first person should be used more, it creates a feeling in books that's super underused

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

Two Boys Kissing by David Leviathan did a great job with omniscient first person, with a chorus of people who died of AIDS in the 80s and 90s telling the stories of a new generation of LGBTQ teens

[@universal_stupidity]

@@SAVYWRITESBOOKS oo I'll have to look it up! sounds like a really good book in general

[@thor30013]

So, if nothing else, here's a few things to take away from this novel: 1) Rowling is terminally online and needs someone to cut off her internet access, if only for her own mental health. 2) Rowling *desperately* needs an editor (admittedly, this was somewhat apparent in the Harry Potter books as well) 3) Her "this isn't a self-insert, I was writing this two years ago" excuse doesn't work, since that was when her "the villain is a man who dresses up as a woman" book came out, so she was already getting backlash for her TERF-ness.

[@tysondennis1016]

I now consider The Owl House a superior version of Harry Potter. Not only its creator isn't problematic, but also it points out how Rowling doesn't know a thing about sports, and the diversity's there from the start, instead of being shoved up the asshole like a bad fanfic. The representation is great, the portrayal of POC and LGBTQ+ characters (both of which the MC Luz Noceda falls into) is done in an inoffensive manner where the characters don't feel like minstrel show escapees, and it handles its themes with nuance. And the characters aren't ridiculed for their appearance, with both major overweight characters, Willow Park and Camila Noceda, not being portrayed in an offensive manner, and getting body positivity, and even Emperor Belos, who's a superior version of Voldemort, is quite handsome for a 400-year old man with half of his face rotting off from snorting wood. It actually goes under the surface with serious topics, instead of giving a shallow, surface-level look, and that is coming from an ex-Potterhead that used to look at Rowling and her works with rose-tinted glasses. But, guess when you look at something or someone with rose-tinted glasses, the red flags just look like flags, and hindsight is 20/20.

[@somik-i3x]

The second episode of the Owl house is a ditch to chosen one narrative (so in part of Harry Potter. ) And the magical school made sense (not giving house based on tracking)

[@paigestubbs9718]

I just finished season 2 of Owl House today and my goddamn heart!!!

[@DrawciaGleam02]

@@somik-i3x Yep, I don't think that many shows give the finger to the chosen one trope as well as Owl House. (I could be wrong, though....maybe anime has done it?)

[@somik-i3x]

@@DrawciaGleam02 She-Ra did it, but later in his show.

[@AnnekeOosterink]

@@DrawciaGleam02 imo Madoka magica did it in a subversive way, like, Madoka seems to be the chosen one in some ways, there's a whole bit about her potential if she would become a magical girl, which would make her super powerful. But that power is a direct result of the actions of another character, and it's not a good thing. But the whole show is basically a deconstruction of the magical girl genre.

[@Aalisrocklist]

...but an honorary Dave, "because she wasn't assign a Dave at birth" ☠☠☠☠☠

[@eugenetheythem1368]

I can’t believe you read this in a week for us

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

it was a lot lol - i hope you enjoy :)

[@wyrmoffastring]

Gonna add a bit to why I think the whole disability thing in this case is very ableist. I agree, disabled characters should not just be heroes, but as many people mentioned already in the comments, the fact that the character's whole personality is just her disability is absolutely an issue in this case. Many of us talk about our disabilities a lot online as it is the only form of advocacy and the only way we can find support that is available to us. But it seems like JKR noticed people with invisible disabilities talk about them, discuss systemic issues they face and then just decided that's it, that's the research. Well that and she decided people discussing disability online are "rude" which yeah, we often are, because we're fucking exhausted of dealing with bullshit all the time. Moreover, the character is described as physically attractive, which in JKR's prose is correlated usually with physical fitness. This reads, to me at least, as a form of condemnation of the character, in a sort of "what do you even have to complain about?" way. Fibromyalgia is also an illness with a lot of stigma, being often dismissed as made up, especially in AFAB people. There are many, MANY invisible disabilities JKR could have picked from that do not carry that same stigma, yet she chose this, because it's associated with hysterical women complaining online about how they're disabled when look at them! They seem fine! They just need to get over themselves! Paired with the character being clearly a villain in the novel, I fail to read any actual support for people with chronic invisible illnesses into this.

[@robertmccallen1902]

When the Goblet of Fire was released, the first review I read accused David K. of suffering from "Mitchner Syndrome" (after James Mitchner) which they described as the result of an author becoming too popular for an editor to do their jobs correctly.

[@zlcoad1]

Thanks for reuploading, couldn’t see the other one at all. I used to love Jk and love Harry Potter passionately but cannot stand for anything she has done or said recently. I actually enjoyed the first cormoran strike book too until I found out that it was written by her. By the sounds of it she has definitely gone downhill.

[@deulalune]

The way she chose her pen name is like if I chose my pen name to be “Adolf Hitler” because I think Adolf is a cool name and Hitler because I was abused as a child.

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

My exact thoughts lol. I mean, she might still want to keep that pen name but at some point, the publishing house should definitely step in. This is not a look good for either side!

[@robokill387]

Just to say, the positive portrayal of Strike having a missing leg is not proof of lack of ableism, it actually fits well with ableist attitudes, because he is the "good disabled person" - i.e, his disability is visible, it doesn't disable him that much and he doesn't really complain or challenge ableist societal narratives at all, he doesn't really need that much accommodation plus his disability was a result of being injured during military duty, which in our society gets more sympathy. He is an example of the "supercrip" trope. The seperation of "good disabled"- i.e, not needing accommodations or social change, being "inspiring" and not expressing anger or negative responses to their situation, and in many cases being "innocent" "blameless" and childlike - from the "bad disabled"- i.e, the chronically ill, those with invisible disabilities and neuro-developmental disabilities that effect thinking, feelings and behaviour- I'd argue is a big part of how ableism works. Most people who are ableist don't hate disabled people as a group, they hate "scroungers, fakers, the lazy and malingerers", meaning invisible disabilities and the chronically ill, and see obviously disabled people as either pitiable charity cases or "inspirational".

[@Rikrobat]

Sooooooo…… something my editing course professor in college told us was that JKR refused to have an editor after Prisoner of Azkaban-presumably there were still mechanical edits done, but I digress. There is a reason the length of her HP books expanded dramatically between 3 and 4. As someone who has worked with authors who think their work is perfect and beyond criticism, I have no doubt in my mind that if a dev editor is involved at all, they operate mostly as a yes person to fuel Rowling’s ego.

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

Which is the worst thing you can do to a book! Good editors know exactly which parts to shorten or cut completely in order to make the reading experience more enjoyable. I feel like way too many authors think of editors as enemies; like they want to impede their vision or sth, when the majority of people working behind the scenes are highly passionate and idealistic and simply want the best for the story. In JKR's case, the lack of an editor became super apparent around book 5 which was annoyingly long for far too long. Not that long books don't have their merits or are inherently not as entertaining, don't get me wrong, but if it's 80% needless filler you won't lose anything of value.

[@Rikrobat]

@@D0MiN0ChAn - There are definitely very controlling editors out there, or editors who repeatedly don’t understand what the author is attempting to do with a story, making the experience a string of unpleasant interactions. I try to make my edits into suggestions so that the author still feels like they have the final say, and we can discuss anything they’re not sure about, but that’s not every editor’s approach. There are many who do come at the author with “I’m the authority and you will take my changes” or like the story needs fixing rather than editor and author working together to make it shine. However, in the case of JKR, especially with all of the other examples and displays of “don’t question me,” I do suspect this is a situation where the author fights against all attempts to polish the story because she thinks it’s untouchable.

[@mookmonstrr]

I always felt like HP was (and probably still is) overrated and JK felt like she was the best author in exitence which is probab;y this book is half-baked in a way.

[@IxiaRayne]

This. She was pretty much untouchable before she exposed her views. The fandom would riot if someone even came close to criticise the books. I remember Merphy Napier having to put multiple disclaimers on her Series on Harry Potter saying that you can enjoy something and still think that it is a flawed piece of work, essentially. These videos were ran over by fans basically IIRC.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

@@IxiaRayne It reminds me of the backlash towards the Dear Evan Hansen movie!! Before it came out you would be a pariah if you criticized anything about the original play!

[@belladonna5904]

JK has said this was her fifth or however many time (i forget her exact words) being canceled, but that she chose to speak out her views because she realized others were too afraid to do so. She said she initially refrained because others asked her not to, but then she saw medical professionals and others being let go from jobs for their medical opinions on Trans issues and felt she had to step up.

[@samuelalexandermarkovnikov891]

The main character of the cartoon is named "Harty." The 'T' key is right next to the 'R' key. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume Rowling misspelt Harry and just went with it for plausible deniability.

[@pegasos1986]

My mother (who was a HP fan for a while - until the ending pissed her off to no end) was gifted the first book that Rowling wrote in that series. She couldn't finish it. And she is a happy consumer of detective novels of most kinds. Rowling is just not good at it. IMO she was decent with the books aimed at children (HP 1 to 4 - 4 was the breaking point novel for me) but she is not good with adult stuff and should have left this to others. But by the time she switched, she was already so far that nobody would stop her. And nobody in the publishing world has done this so far...

[@marocat4749]

Agree, her over the top imaginative if, in hindsight yikesy , and very not consistent worldbuilding is really , it does not to be good in childrens and maybe young adult books. Imo, her biggest mistake was trying to be "serious"and "grown up" instead making a decent probably harder to write childrens/young adult book. Without improving that.

[@4Mr.Crowley2]

JK writes horribly about weight, and bodies she doesn’t find acceptable b/c of weight. Savy as a former English professor (retired) I adore your analyses of literary matters (you and Rachel Oates are just goddesses and Contrapoints’ video on “Joanne” is brilliant and beautiful) such as the use of third person limited omniscient (another popular example of t.p.l. is the Game of Thrones series as each chapter is third person limited to a particular character like “Bran” or “Sansa” etc). You are thoughtful, generous, and insightful. I wanted to add that Rowling’s writing about weight makes me shake with rage - her descriptions of Cormoran “pulling” girls despite his GASP overweight body and his eating habits such as quickly consuming”a Big Mac and fries” immediately before dinner with his girlfriend b/c he’s a fat guy just make me want to vomit. Her portrayal of people who are heavier than her level of “acceptable” is FILLED with offensive and outdated stereotypes such as the idea that Cormoran stuffs himself with fast food before/between “proper meals” because “fancy” places don’t allow him to consume large quantities of food. And of course his glam girlfriend only chooses expensive trendy restaurants - yet there is zero attention or commentary concerning the fact that she is not considering Cormoran *as a fellow human being* when choosing places to go that he will find physically uncomfortable and shame his eating habits. It makes me angry as Rowling is at best clueless and at worst…actively promoting *extremely negative* propaganda.. Argh.

[@awetistic5295]

Maybe it's just me, but the name Cormoran Strike does sound like someone from a mid-2000s self-insert fanfiction.

[@bearlyplayinggames5252]

I love that she says she didn't know the historical connotations of Robert Galbraith, which implies she doesn't Google ANY of her name ideas, which as an writer myself, is INSANE to me

[@inaribell]

I don’t think the Galbraith pen name is coincidental personally. I’m a Brit and have lived in a few different places around the UK and have never met a Galbraith and I don’t think it’s very common- JK herself said she doesn’t believe she knew anyone called “Galbraith” and it’s a very specific name to just randomly come up with one day. JK tends to do research into the names she chooses and no name she uses is chosen by accident. In Harry Potter for example, “Salazar Slytherin” is confirmed to be named after António Salazar, who was once a real life Prime Minister in Portugal, who was known to abuse his political power and was quite unpopular. This also relates to the role of Salazar in the books- he was in a position of power, but often used it to discriminate and oppress others. Given the amount of emphasis she puts into choosing names that are perfectly tailored to the characters they are given to and the historical/ cultural/ mythological relevance of the names she uses, I find it really hard to believe she chose that combination of first name and last name, seemingly at random, with no prior research. She’s also now aware of the history behind the name, but is happy to carry on using it, so that’s quite weird too.

[@alanam6539]

Glad for the re-upload to listen to your criticisms of Dave K. Rowling again, but goodness me, such a Dave book

[@bowbooks5659]

This was a great review, thank you! If you had read Harry Potter, you would have seen that the superfluous lines and lack of relevance are in there too. I went to read Sorcerer’s Stone to my kid and there was no flow from one paragraph to the next. It gets better when the books start growing in length, so maybe she thought length=really good? Also I have chronic fatigue so my weigh in on the ableism: yes and no it’s ableist. It’s not ableist in that this character is acting in a way that undermines the struggles that people with hidden chronic illness do have. Nothing wrong with someone with an illness being the antagonist (Samuel L Jackson in Glass, for instance. So brilliantly done!) HOWEVER making it the only personality trait we learn pretty much is ableist rhetoric. So the character not so much, but the authors intent? Very much. Once again, the concept is there, the execution is lacking. Also fun fact! She wrote Harry Potter as J K Rowling because using her initials would make her seem male and therefore encourage readership. One rule for me etc

[@marocat4749]

I suspect thats pretty much samuels jacksons influence, the making it work. The character, because shamalamadingdongs track record being abelist is rough. Not even the brilliant james mcavoiy could save the last. But yeah, mr glass is a cool character shown as nuanced person, if crazy . The korra villain the lady without arms, even if she does in universe magic replacing them. In general like avatar, maybe the roots of kung fu Ok a really cool villain with a strong disability due a rough genetic mix, is scorpius from farscape. Like he needs the regulating thing and is an amazing antagonist, with motivation So disabled somehow antagonists is fine. Just they should ve a bit moreas character somehow.

[@bowbooks5659]

Oh definitely, the credit belongs to Samuel L Jackson. M Night Shamalamalama just had to call action and let him and Bruce do the heavy lifting

[@thefirstface4575]

Video disappeared on me, thought I’d gone mad (gone hehe) . Thanks for this one, so much work went into it!

[@SAVYWRITESBOOKS]

thank you! i hope you enjoy it now that it's watchable! haha

[@js66613]

There were always hints that, if unrestrained, J.K Rowling's writing would either bore or irritate the world into an early grave. I mean, reading just the prologue of the first Harry Potter book actually made me pretty annoyed at Dumbledore who took a detour from the plot to offer characters candy shortly after a war where people have died while on a mission to bring a wizard child into a household of muggles who hate/envy wizards and said child is a horocrux and Dumbledore is aware of this. Despite all this, Dumbledore is clearly VERY tone deaf and that alone made me quit right at the beginning and made me glad that the movies and HP wiki exists so I don't have to read through all those fairly average (but hyped up to me more than that) books. And like, average is good. Average is fine. But HP was definitely overhyped at its peak and I wish that was obvious to more people previously than now, looking at it with hindsight. So it's no surprised that same author is behind a book like "The Ink Black Heart" (which sounds cool, but it reminds me too much of Inkheart for me to be as impressed by it as some of y'all and it also makes me think of a teenager responding very sassily to someone calling them a black hearted bitch with "you really drove a dagger into my cold, black heart with that one, Karen... not".). Why she didn't actually write that stoner comedy fantasy stuff instead of what she ended up stretching for like 1000+ pages is beyond me.... clearly she's good(ish) with fantasy.

[@brianapereira2694]

I reread the prologue earlier this year. It's ATROCIOUS! There was absolutely no editor on board, and the "prologue" is actually just the first chapter but done poorly.

[@lilithnorth7181]

I think the Harry Potter universe and popularity sorely survived on fanfiction writers. They expanded JK's world in so many ways, wrote redemption arcs, developments, far more compelling than she could ever dream about. The HP community exists above her now, fanfic Authors gave way to the books being expanded. That's why fans these days remember the main characters way more complex than they were written in her books.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

Yes! Someone else who knows of Inkheart!!!

[@AnnekeOosterink]

I mean, that take on the prologue is assuming she actually had plotted the whole horcrux stuff FAR in advance. That prologue was not written with the final few books in mind at all. So if that's tonally off, eh, fine. But yeah, inkheart was the first thing on my mind too.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

@@brianapereira2694 People reading the prolouge: "What the H3LL am I reading?!?"😂

[@SuperSara924]

As a writer I get they like to give characters some of their own traits or interests- I certainly do it- but this is pushing it . Like ma’am you’re middle aged and writing self insert fanfic lol

[@sandpiperr]

The part that left me just speechless was where she actually wrote that, upon seeing a character who is obese, that everyone immediately thinks of his penis! Like...wtf? Does Joanne think that this is a normal thing that people do? Just think of someone's penis immediately upon first meeting them?

[@hayleyruth710]

I think the explanation of how siblings work was meant to imply that they're half-siblings - that they share a mother but not a father. Either way, it's not relevant to story and didn't need to be in there. When literary works have this much detail it's supposed to relate to the overall themes or story, or set up something important for later. This is just throwing a bunch of spaghetti at a wall. Which, I think is J.K.'s preferred writing method. The first few HP books had a lot of spaghetti details that she made important later and then acted like she'd always meant for so and so to be important. Bullshit.

[@Tobelia]

I think it’s another example of JKR feeling like she needs to get new readers up to speed with literally every piece of backstory in the previous books, even if it makes no impact on this one.

[@FaithMcCaffrey]

As a person living with chronic hip pain i can say from personal experience that it's so easy to become bitter about life and that chronic pain can actually change the structure of your brain, heightened levels of stress and lack of sleep can lead to depression and anxiety, modified movements to accommodate the pain, then you end up using those modified movements when you're not in pain, you don't do activities that can cause a flare up and for me it's hard to find a balance because I've got 4 young kids and I have to make sure the house is clean, they are fed, their nappies are changed, bath time, school run, it's a hard life to live.

[@caelum_ry]

there's part of me that thinks JKR is writing this with the TV adaptation in mind rather than the novel itself. the plot threads and the extra details all sound like the things you'd be able to show very quickly on TV but would have to explain in detail in a book.

[@StCrimson667]

I'm so glad this video happened, I literally subscribed yesterday so I'm just in time! :D And that's for going through all the effort of reading a book longer than the Bible for the internet's sake! XD I think perhaps the reason why Edie isn't totally a self-insert is that both Robin and Comoran are also kind of self-inserts. Robin is very clearly based off of Rowling herself appearance-wise while Comoran believes a lot of the things that Rowling obviously believes. For those who don't know, the ableism has been in these books almost from the beginning. I believe it's Career of Evil where there's an entire subplot of Comoran investigating a group of people with BID, Body Integrity Dysphoria, people who wish to be disabled. Comoran becomes so OFFENDED by the idea that some people would DARE actually DESIRE to be disabled, the whole "They haven't suffered the way I've suffered! They don't know how horrible it is! Why would anyone wish for such a cursed life!", and the people with BID are portrayed in a why that's obviously unsympathetic, fetishizing Comoran's disability and asking inappropriate questions about it, trying to get on disability and take up resources from disabled people, and basically just being general a-holes, making Comoran pay for their food while they pig out on lobster, etc., with the entire scene culminating in Comoran yanking the wheelchair out from someone and proclaiming himself vindicated when they stand up. There are MULTIPLE issues with this subplot and I think it's emblematic of how Rowling sees herself, her gender, and trans people. 1) It's obvious that she didn't consult any disabled people when writing the book because, if she actually had, she would know that you NEVER touch another person's wheelchair without permission! Those things are often very expensive and people have literally DIED because their wheelchairs got mishandled and broken, this is a HUGE problem on airlines right now! 2) Again, if she had actually consulted disabled people, she would have known that most people in wheelchairs can actually stand up and even walk a little! Someone being able to stand up after you take away their wheelchair does not mean that they are not disabled. 3) There's this assumption in the story that is similar to how Kea is portrayed in this book where Rowling obviously expects you to see the people with BID as "fakers" and that obviously disabled people like Strike would obviously hate them, but, as someone who has spent some time in disability activism, uh, no, we don't. Most disabled people do not care how someone became disabled, it doesn't matter how, all that matters is that the material conditions of our lives are the same. People get disabled by their own actions all the time, people get into preventable car accidents, people mess around with farm tools, it happens and it doesn't mean that they're any less disabled or any less deserving of support or accomodation. And, honestly, I kind of think about that and go "Wouldn't it be great if this is how we looked at gender!" Doesn't matter how you became your gender, whether being born or being made that way later in life, what matters is the material conditions of our lives are similar and thus we have the same interests and the same struggles. 4) Rowling really has this very ableist idea of physical disabilities like Comoran's below-the-knee amputation being true disabled people and invisible disabilities like chronic pain or depression being "fake" disabilities that people just use to get sympathy. This, of course, mirrors a lot of TERF and transmedicalist talking points about how its only real if a doctor has diagnosed you, etc. and is still a HUGE problem that stops a lot of people, especially women, from getting the help and accommodation they need, both trans and disabled. 5) Comoran, the "real" disabled person, talks about his disability as a burden, about how he feels broken, etc. and this is yet another very ableist idea that disabled person are miserable and that everything would be better if they were abled and that there's no joy that could possibly be found in being disabled, etc. which again mirrors how a lot of TERFs view womanhood as a burden, a life sentence, and something horrible and why they're so skeptical of anyone actually desiring to be a woman genuinely. 6) There is a very, very common idea that, if given the chance, abled people will take all the resources meant for disabled people as a way to justify the gatekeeping of disability and the withholding of disabilities resources, but the thing is that there actually isn't that much concern because the real people is that there already isn't enough resources to go around already! The problem is not that abled people are stealing, the problem is that disabled people already aren't getting enough! And, in fact, many disabled activists actually ENCOURAGE abled people who use aids like wheelchairs if they want them. Often times those resources that are there are often unused due to the gatekeeping of said resources, resulting in those unused resources being cutback due to unuse, and seeing abled people use those resources makes them more normalized and also shows that there is a demand for those resources and an increase in their availability. We actually WANT abled people using wheelchairs! Not pulling them out from under them! Rowling's assumptions about disabled people mirror her assumptions about trans people, but she's been noticably silent on the criticism of her ableism, either because she knows she's in the wrong and can't admit it or because she doesn't believe its worth acknowledging. It's really sad, especially considering her mother went through this exact process and died because of it. I can only imagine how disappointed she would be of her daughter, if she was still here. I know I would be if I was her.

[@pranafox_]

I tried to reach out to her only to be met by the TERFs that look up her name on Twitter along with her 24/7 barraging me with fake statistics, studies they misunderstood and took out of context, and general transphobic nonsense. It's really bizarre and saddening to me that a woman who shaped so much of my childhood turned out to be someone who wants me to disappear. Her books helped create me, and that hurts a lot. It's even worse to see her go down this awful vortex of hatred and bigotry and delusion and self-centrism, wherein she writes an entire book using the pen name of the guy who invented conversion therapy for gay men, in Twitter format no less, cry bullying throughout the whole thing.

[@noreehix5714]

I love the hype man puppet in the background just cheering you on through this terrible read.

[@mjjoe76]

Hype man puppet sounds like an underrated ally…or a fun band from the 90s. Either way, I’m on board.

[@finnilyenough]

I've watched Shaun's Harry Potter essay three times! I though it was so good

[@nergregga]

The Kea character is deeply ableist IMO, which doesn't surprise me at all coming from JKR. At best she's a spoiled tone-deaf boomer, at the worst she is a grifter exploiting outrage for her own gain.

[@The_Skrongler]

JKR is notorious for using lazy word-association to come up with her character names. This is the mind behind a black character named "Kingsly Shacklebolt," and an east-asian character named "Cho Chang." There's no way to say for sure, but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that JKR simply asked herself "what is a respectable man's name?" and barfed up something half-remembered from one of her anti-trans propaganda binges. She doesn't think hard enough to know where her ideas comes from.

[@Alyssa_M513]

I know you said that you're not trying to police reviews on goodreads but I think we SHOULD police those reviews. Reviews that don't comment on the actual book should be able to be reported and deleted.

[@cam4636]

I think that'd make it too easy for a bad faith actor to delete reviews by claiming they don't focus on the right parts. An author could punish negative reviewers by getting them reported; a troll could shut down all discussion of a book by reporting every comment; someone who had opinions on what should and shouldn't be important could report people discussing other aspects of the work--I don't want to see review sites limited by ship wars like fandom twitter and tumblr already are. That being said, isn't there already a way to report spam on most sites?

[@AnnekeOosterink]

I mean, if you're of the school of thought that works are always linked to the author and you can't separate the two, then it makes zero sense to not mention the author or their views in a review, since that's relevant. Like, cool if you think "the author is dead" and the author and their work have nothing to do with each other, but lots of people disagree on that.

[@Alyssa_M513]

@@cam4636 I agree that this method could backfire. There will always be bad actors one way or another.

[@BinturongGirl]

59:30 JKR wouldn't include any valid criticism of her victim, because that would mean she would have to admit that there was some. She imagines all twitter pile-ons are pure harassment and death treats, because that way she can close her ears to all the valid criticism being aimed at her.

[@DestinyKiller]

Most detective stories where I've jumped into the middle of a series (I try not to but it happens sometimes) they always say up the murder (or whatever) and main plot first, then go to the detectives. They want to give you the sizzle before the steak. She's giving you the parsley before the dinner

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

Same for me. Most detective/crime novels are very in media res in order to get the reader hooked -- even (or especially) if it's an on-going series a new reader doesn't potentially know all about yet.

[@TheWordN3rd]

I think knowing an author has certain views IRL can lead to seeing certain patterns in their work (i.e. I remember someone who pointed out that many evil or ugly women in the HP series had very "mannish" traits) and it's worth exploring in reviews, but mostly I keep that sort of commentary to my KZbin channel.

[@hofaria]

The Maya things gives "(a/n: raven dis is u!)" vibes

[@akisatsuki8444]

This comment is so underrated

[@mtri3341]

Thank you for your sacrifice! I loved HP growing up, but even as a child I knew she wasn't a great writer. This, however, is an absolute slog! Such superfluous scenes, too many extraneous characters. Couldn't even get through a quarter of this book.

[@MorriganAtwood]

8:01 "a creator getting harassment, seeing fans turn on them seeing detectives have to immerse themselves" you're right it does sound interesting when presented like that because bringing the internet into it makes it sound like a modern revisit of Misery, and THEN...

[@stilted]

Yay, I can hear this one!!!! 🥳🥳🥳

[@makenzileg]

So weird how the audio disappeared after the premiere?

[@RKGold]

Thank goodness

[@RKGold]

@@makenzileg bizarre

[@eugenetheythem1368]

What happened to the other

[@jasonhill8506]

So glad I'm not the only one who couldn't hear the video.

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

Something I found hard to believe was that none of the fans of The Ink Black Heart who came up in the story were from outside the UK, unless every line was full of cultural in-jokes there's no way that people from other countries didn't become some of the biggest fans online too.

[@tintinaus]

While it is nice to conjecture about Rowling using the Galbraith moniker, it does fall short in few ways. The first use of it was back in 2013 before she really came out as a transphobe(2019), publishers will recommend writers get a nom de plume when they write in an alternate genre, and, unfortunately, publishers also recommend females use male or ambiguous names(ie. J K Rowling instead of Joanne Rowling) since male writers still are assumed to be better/more "serious" than women. I have felt for years that Rowling needed massive editing. Even back in Potter years I felt that when the choice was between getting a tome out, or spending an extra 3-6 months doing a proper edit of a book that was already past its due date, the choice tended to getting the book out ASAP.

[@mjjoe76]

For the HP books, the choice to skip the edit was no doubt based on the anticipation of huge sales. I don’t know the reason now though.

[@marocat4749]

You said it, she came out as transphobe, not that she wasnt already lets be nice extremely conservative leaning before.

[@T.E.S.S.]

You're assuming she wasn't a transphobe in 2013

[@thatonedude9744]

Was it also first used before Joanne or her handlers had Google? They did it on purpose. Come on now.

[@rhaeven]

@@T.E.S.S. in 2013 she was the standard liberal ally. I'm sure if you asked her she would've said she supported trans rights, but had never actually thought about it or listened to any trans people about their experiences. With rich white liberals it's a matter of time until they say something incredibly stupid out of ignorance, get criticism, and then go absolutely nuts about being criticised and burrow into their new position. "They said I was bad, but I'm good and I love everyone! They can't be right because they were mean and made me feel sad, so now I need to lean into their opposite." Same thing with Graham Linehan. Galbraith is not an uncommon surname in Scotland, and Robert is a VERY common first name. I can believe it was coincidence. Of course she's a terf icon now so she can't change it or all of her new rabid supporters would call her a handmaid.

[@froggyringu]

I have never read her "adult" books.....but it sounds like she has read Swedish crime novels and tried to replicate it without knowing how they work at all.

[@Tobelia]

Thank you so much for this Savy! I really appreciate your taking so much time and effort to do a real in depth book review and even questioning a few of of the criticisms from an informed perspective. I had read previous Strike books but definitely did not want to give her any more support, so it’s great to have an objective overview from someone with expertise in the craft. The way she gives overlong details about all the characters for pages and pages reeeeally reminds me of the Harry Potter series. When I was reading the HP books with my brother, the worst bit was always the early scenes where we had to have a recap of all the previous books and be told about the rules of Quidditch YET AGAIN. I get that it’s to allow new readers to jump in but it obviously doesn’t help here!

[@Tobelia]

Oh, and all the excess drama and narrative about Madeleine and Charlotte is definitely there specifically for those readers who are here primarily for the will-they-won’t-they drama that’s been going on between Strike and Robin since book 1, and will read all of that as a threat to the OTP. Sounds like the book is trying to be an epic saga of star-crossed romance as well as a detective novel and is spending far too much time on the former.

[@Butrnife15]

Thanks for reuploading! I can hear the audio now! 🎉

[@warrendriscoll350]

This is a very well presented and informative review. I especially like the visual jokes, and the Savy teacher time. But, why does your audio keep switching between ears? It doesn't even happen at cut points.

[@thebosshouse]

I thought something was wrong with my earpiece. The audio quality seems to change and get more tinny or something. 🤔

[@AnnekeOosterink]

Yeah, on speakers the quality of the audio changes too, like, close to the mic or farther away.

[@ashvander7864]

been looking for this comment cause i couldn't tell if my ears were popping or if my speakers were messed up! lol

[@laurenrarcher]

No editor has had adequate influence over JKR since Prisoner of Azkaban and it shows. I still haven't finished the HP series, and I was a dedicated HP fandom-dweller as a teen.

[@lilianevanfrankrijk7490]

Scrolling through the comments about the choice of Rowling's pseudonym: I wonder how many outraged people have referenced the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness landline registries? Galbraith appears as a common surname and William, Robert, James, Callum and Liam are sprinkled all over. Robert Galbraith is generic, neutral and perfectly random to someone with Scottish roots.

[@ulfk5667]

To be honest, seeing that track record JKR has there is no reason to give her the benefit of the doubt. But even if we do that, there is no way that one of the most influencal authors of the last century didn´t take 3 minutes of her time to google a potential pseudonym. And if she didn´t it herself, her editor or publisher did that. There is no way she didn´t know the backround of that name.

[@CavishBeka]

I really enjoy the video, the only thing that really fucks me up are the constant changes in audio quality/sound, especially when they happen mid sentence. :(

[@lissyr8117]

Sorry but I'm calling bs on JK reasoning for the name. That name is way too on the nose to be an accident. She probably just thought she was being sneaky and clever and assumed nobody would notice.

[@soljoez]

1:44 in and I already want to thank you for making this video. I’m a library assistant and I checked this book in from our book drop and just immediately felt disgusted to even see it, I’m excited to watch this and see what some of our patrons are exposing themselves to 😅

[@kyliedroid]

The Maya part, oh my god. There's no way I'll believe that was a coincidence. 😮‍💨

[@Axolotls677]

I was one of those for whom the video didn't have any audio - excited to watch it now :)

[@kahlilbt]

I feel like she wanted to write a novel... And the video essay about it. So much of the extraneous prose is just sparknotes about what's already happened and how we should be interpreting the action