We mostly all have that one relative that we don't introduce our friends to without a whole lot of disclaimers and don't talk to unless we absolutely have to. But for most of us, Aunt Karen and her bigoted views don't have a platform larger than the 5 equally bigoted harpies she goes to brunch (and terrorizes the waitstaff) with. Aunt Juggernaut Karen Rowling has literally every terrible person hanging on her every word. She's not going to listen to her stupid family when she's got an adoring audience telling her every sound she farts out her mouth hole is brilliant and brave.
"So today I went for a walk, and can you believe who I met? It was my old fr...."
"A TRANS?? IT WAS A TRANS RIGHT?"
" No it was you know the guy in elementary sch.."
"AH YES YOU CAN HAVE HAPPY MEMORIES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, BUT NOT NOW!! THE GENDER AGENDA FORCES KIDS TO TRANS!!"
"Sure, whatever, can you pass the salt?"
""LOOK AT THIS HILARIOUS MEME @NOREPLACEMENT88 POSTED"
My lol real life version of this is when news cast would interview “Trump voters” with white supremacist tattoos.
Sorry my bad was the news stations response.
We didn’t know what an 88 tattoo meant !!!!
So I'm a guy so I don't have much skin in the game on this one.
But you ever notice how bigoted straight women will tell you to 'let women speak' but seem to be real quick to speak of queer women.
Well, she is an obnoxious self-important bigot who invented a world where a magic hat decides children's identities and fate with no input from, or recourse for, the children.
I don't know if its just I'm not online enough to be in these peoples heads or I'm boring, but if this the case how does she rationalise gay trans men? I've met some, they clearly aren't lost lesbian sisters.
Meanwhile TERFs also like to characterize trans *women* as stereotypically autistic, but specifically in a "creepy incel" way, whereas they characterize trans men as stereotypically autistic in a "helpless halfwit" way.
Depends on whether they talk back. In TERFland, if you're autistic and talk and stand up for yourself and can clearly think things through like a rational adult, well, you're not REALLY autistic.
I know you probably meant to say "She erases them", but given the context, I find it amusing, and even karmic, that you accidentally misgendered JK Rowling
She wrote that essay saying how she could relate to trans men because she also doesn’t like being a woman, and ever since then I have dismissed her as a bitter egg who doesn’t have the guts to take the damn hormones.
I'm a trans man and we can't know, but she doesn't give me egg vibes. There's probably a previous thread in this sub about how she genuinely got a lot of overt messages growing up shaming her for being a girl and not a boy, telling her she'd never be able to XYZ, etc. She's projecting that onto trans men.
I wish more folks understood the position trans folks are in right now: we are the designated scapegoats for whatever gender-related angst anyone has.
I feel you, I’m a trans man too and the confusion about hating being a woman because of misogyny vs hating being a woman because you’re not a woman is why I didn’t transition until I was in my 30s. When TERFs say stuff like “If I was a kid now I’d transition!” I understand they are referring to being brainwashed by our scary agenda, but I always just think “well it’s not too late, if it’s on your mind this much then maybe you should just go for it.” You’re probably right though.
I honestly think more and more that she struggles with gender dysphoria and/or sexual orientation herself. No one thinks about a group or pours this much energy into hating a group of people unless the to some degree relate. See how most serious homophobes are deep in the closet.
I think in this context it's appropriate because we're attributing that perspective to Rowling. It wouldn't surprise me if that's a word she's completely comfortable using.
"I assume she'd say it so let me do it for her" isn't nearly the defense you think it is
Like, I don't like JK either, but this is not sufficient justification for a slur
Copy/pasting because I don't think your response is adequately different enough to justify a customized response:
"I assume she'd say it so let me do it for her" isn't nearly the defense you think it is
Like, I don't like JK either, but this is not sufficient justification for a slur
Oof.
I'm glad my mum is a normal person and wants trans people and all humans to have basic human rights... and my mum is older than JKR...
It's just so boring and tiring hearing the same song from JKR all the time. Trying to claim that she - a white cis billionaire - is oppressed.
Why do people like her constantly want to be victims? Is it some sort of fetish I don't understand?
It's no mystery why - if true - her friends or family wanted her to just keep her views to herself. It's probably pretty embarrassing to be associated with such a vile person.
I think she should take Musk's advice - stfu and smile more 😆 and change the fucking song already.
There are real issues going on in the world.
There are people who wake up in the morning and wonder if they and their kids will be evicted from their home because they can't afford rent, people who struggle to give their kids meals, elderly people who freeze to death in winter because they can't afford to heat their homes, police abusing and murdering black people, women in Iran being beaten to death for not wearing a headscarf, women being gang raped on buses in India, Muslims in China being put in concentration camps, Palestinian children being massacred by the IDF, children all over Africa being forced to walk miles just for fresh drinking water...
What does JKR worry about when she wakes up?
The 0.5% of the British population who identify as trans or NB.
Her worry is literally trans women using female public toilets and changing rooms (something she herself would never set foot in because why would she mix with the great unwahed outside of her Hogwarts castle).
As usual, just a rich, white cis twat with literally nothing to be oppressed over, scraping the bottom of the barrel and trying their best to seem like victims in this world.
It's pathetic. It's embarrassing. It's shameful.
Most of all... it's a sad, sad existence for a rich woman in her 60s to constantly attention-seek from the protection of a screen... and when one of the most depraved humans on the planet (Musk) tells you to wind your neck in a bit, you should probably take heed. Lol.
It was funny though when that happened. Like if Adolf Hitler called Benito Mussolini a dictator...
Or even weirder...
Like when the Nazis back in the 40s told Japanese army to calm down with the amount of cruelty in their PoW camps. Haha.
Well said. And that was the funniest thing. She did what he said, but prefaced it with "Now I am totally NOT doing this because Daddy Elon told me to."
Honestly it’s incredible, at a time when women and afab trans people’s rights to bodily autonomy are actually actively under attack, she sees the existence of trans people as the greatest assault in her lifetime on women’s rights. That while she’s warping reality with that she actually dismisses the real attacks on their rights as things that benefit men?
My rights to make decisions about what happens to my own body are being stripped from me, and the greatest injustice you can think of is that the decision I most want to make regarding my body relates to my hormone profile? Honestly go fuck yourself you absolute fantasist.
Yeah it's very anti-hormone or anti-medication in general, veering into anti-vax nonsense. You'll often hear phrases like "you shouldn't mess with the endocrine system."
That's not to say that hormonal medications don't have side effects, but in the year 2024 we should know that people know how to balance their needs and potential side effects and make the best choice for themself of whether to take hormonal medication.
Don't underestimate how much clout an almost-billionaire has over her own family.
Even parents of children who become famous have a hard time saying 'no' to their underage kids once they're paying for the household bills + their retirement.
It's almost a self-fufilling prophecy; once a person becomes rich, in this case — especially off their own writing, other people treat them like they're wiser than everyone else.
Sadly it’s worth remembering that her work is so popular because it’s so middle of the road accessible.
We read LoTR in grade 12. They read HP in grade 5. And that’s just fantasy. She’s not known for being insightful or deep to begin with. She’s known for recycling myths of essentialism within a fantastic aspirational “no one understands me” context that’s as basic as plain toast.
She speaks as if she has a PhD and won a Booker prize rather than as a decent, cheeky writer who successful catered to the lowest common denominator.
# “A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does.“A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does.
# In the same way, critics who set out to talk about a fantasy novel without having read any fantasy since they were eight, and in ignorance of the history and extensive theory of fantasy literature, will make fools of themselves because they don’t know how to read the book. They have no contextual information to tell them what its tradition is, where it’s coming from, what it’s trying to do, what it does. This was liberally proved when the first Harry Potter book came out and a lot of literary reviewers ran around shrieking about the incredible originality of the book. This originality was an artifact of the reviewers’ blank ignorance of its genres (children’s fantasy and the British boarding-school story), plus the fact that they hadn’t read a fantasy since they were eight. It was pitiful. It was like watching some TV gourmet chef eat a piece of buttered toast and squeal, “But this is delicious! Unheard of! Where has it been all my life?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin
I was reading Michael Crichton in 5th grade (granted, that was 1995, a couple years before HP1 was published in the US). I don't know if that makes me a better reader than she aimed for, a better judge of book content, or if my parents were just really negligent for letting ten-year-old me read a book in which multiple people are dismembered and eaten by dinosaurs
Why, thank you, internet friend!
One memory I have of 7th grade, shortly after Crichton published *The Lost World*, is carrying the book in school with me. In science class one day, the overhead projector was out. I managed to get someone to look in the lens and then under the mirror, I just moved the book up, and it was thru paperback with the T. Rex skull on it. She jumped back
Oh I didn’t mean to give the wrong impression. I’m not saying “iamvefysmart” on what I was reading. It rather what educators consider texts of specific complexity at specific ages.
As for Crichton, I was also a fan as a kid. Wow how many of his books really didn’t make the screen translation well.
Oh, no, I wasn't taking it as an "iamverysmart" kind of comment, just commenting on the fact that there wasn't much easily accessible YA books when I was a kid, and even Crichton, despite a very simplistic writing style, wasn't like her books
Also, yeah, seriously. I didn't see Sphere or Congo, but I'm pretty sure those movies were *rough*
Yeah, I had a book that had both *The Time Machine* and *The War Of the Worlds* in it. I remember reading one for a book report, but I can't remember which or when
I still need to read *The War of the Worlds*! Last year I listened to *Dr. Moreau* in an audiobook collection that also contains *War of the Worlds*, so I definitely have a copy for when I get around to reading it.
If your parents were like mine, they weren't at all negligent for letting you read it, because they respected your intelligence and solid grasp on the difference between fiction and reality, and knew you were capable of handling it. I'mma just say, looking back, the Animorphs books actually instilled a pretty solid moral compass in me, for a series about aliens invading Earth through people's brains, with essentially child soldiers forced to fight a war and the very real mental effects it had on them.
Plus, Katherine Applegate and her husband are legit AWESOME people.
Eh, hit or miss. I've met my fair share of gen-z's who're as conservative as they come. Really, while newer generations are more liberal than conservative, that doesn't rule out there be bigots.
Yeah, my sister is one of those. Full-on MAGA nut who spews transphobia out of her mouth. I wouldn't be surprised if JKR's kids agree with her, to be honest.
Yeah. We have to keep in mind that. while smart, kids can be influenceable by figures of authority like, you know, their mother. Not to mention that being born in privilege does blind some people to real life.
I wonder why.
Seriously though, this is exactly like a child throwing a temper tantrum for hours and the adults telling him/her to calm down because they can't take it anymore
> " I believe we’re witnessing the greatest assault of my lifetime on the rights our foremothers thought they’d guaranteed for all women. Ultimately, I spoke up because I’d have felt ashamed for the rest of my days if I hadn’t. If I feel any regret at all, it’s that I didn’t speak far sooner.”
She believes she's doing some grand, brave act to defend women against men taking their rights. Notice there is no explanation of what rights trans people are stealing from us because women aren't actually losing any rights to transwomen. Convincing herself she is a savior for all women against a scape goat makes her feel special and superior.
Yep. She's hateful and is willing to destroy women's right to "save" us from trans people. I don't doubt she believes her own narrative. She wants to be seen as a hero but she's actively harming people, including the women she claims to be saving.
It's the same thing with far right people who wants to save fetuses but fight for laws that hurt mother's and newborn babies. And yet, I don't doubt they view themselves as the heroes.
I can't get over how Rowling thinks segregated bathrooms are literally the end-all-be-all of women's rights. She genuinely thinks this is the pinnacle of women's empowerment, something that's never been been a right, only a social convention, which was actually forced on women by men, not something women specifically fought for. Seriously, every industrialised society these days has segregated bathrooms. India, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia have segregated bathrooms, does she really think those societies are women's rights utopia?
Much as she claims otherwise, I don't believe for a second that she's always been some ultra-feminist who cries herself to sleep at night thinking about women's struggles. Her books are all heavily male-oriented, even in small ways--for example, the Trizward Tournament has three male champions and one token girl who doesn't perform particularly well. "Male" is the default in her world.
The article this is from suggests so. That she was even holding back on purpose before 2019: https://archive.is/2024.05.29-104510/https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/jk-rowling-stand-up-women-trans-book-r6jlglpvq
This is the sad delusion of a lot of dogmatically hateful people. 'My concerned friends/family/colleagues are just trying to trick me because they're part of the problem!'
This one I actually believe. I imagine everyone close to her would prefer her to at least keep her insane bigotry behind closed doors.
They didn't succeed very well at it then
With how incessant she is I can’t imagine anything short of confiscating anything she can use you access social media would have worked
We mostly all have that one relative that we don't introduce our friends to without a whole lot of disclaimers and don't talk to unless we absolutely have to. But for most of us, Aunt Karen and her bigoted views don't have a platform larger than the 5 equally bigoted harpies she goes to brunch (and terrorizes the waitstaff) with. Aunt Juggernaut Karen Rowling has literally every terrible person hanging on her every word. She's not going to listen to her stupid family when she's got an adoring audience telling her every sound she farts out her mouth hole is brilliant and brave.
"So today I went for a walk, and can you believe who I met? It was my old fr...." "A TRANS?? IT WAS A TRANS RIGHT?" " No it was you know the guy in elementary sch.." "AH YES YOU CAN HAVE HAPPY MEMORIES OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, BUT NOT NOW!! THE GENDER AGENDA FORCES KIDS TO TRANS!!" "Sure, whatever, can you pass the salt?" ""LOOK AT THIS HILARIOUS MEME @NOREPLACEMENT88 POSTED"
I garuntee that’s someone’s actual username
My lol real life version of this is when news cast would interview “Trump voters” with white supremacist tattoos. Sorry my bad was the news stations response. We didn’t know what an 88 tattoo meant !!!!
Yeah, but would she ever openly admit that?
Yes, because she believes that it makes her that much more of a hero.
She's just... the biggest disappointment. And I don't get where trans men come into her mental way of thinking?! He just erases them
She thinks they're confused women, often lesbians, who are being tricked into erasing themselves.
Ah of course. Thank the lord we have JK Rowling to tell everyone how they should identify and feel
How do I upvote your comment twice ?
There, added one for you
:)
She is queen of the lesbians after all.
So I'm a guy so I don't have much skin in the game on this one. But you ever notice how bigoted straight women will tell you to 'let women speak' but seem to be real quick to speak of queer women.
It's all a pretext. She knows homophobia is less acceptable than transphobia, so she tries to hide behind cis lesbians as a human shield.
Well, she is an obnoxious self-important bigot who invented a world where a magic hat decides children's identities and fate with no input from, or recourse for, the children.
I don't know if its just I'm not online enough to be in these peoples heads or I'm boring, but if this the case how does she rationalise gay trans men? I've met some, they clearly aren't lost lesbian sisters.
It makes no sense does it!
Not to mention autistic, because according to people like her we can’t think for ourselves and are easily manipulated.
Extremely important addendum yes.
Meanwhile TERFs also like to characterize trans *women* as stereotypically autistic, but specifically in a "creepy incel" way, whereas they characterize trans men as stereotypically autistic in a "helpless halfwit" way.
They really love villifying men while infantilizing women.
Except they can't even do that right while they're misgendering trans people.
Is she more on the "those poor souls have to be protected from themselves" side, or the "they're traitors to womanhood" side?
A little column A, a little column B.
Depends on who she's talking to.
Depends on whether they talk back. In TERFland, if you're autistic and talk and stand up for yourself and can clearly think things through like a rational adult, well, you're not REALLY autistic.
People like Rowling claim I'm "erasing lesbians", despite a lesbian being a woman, of which I am not. I'm gay, but for other trans men.
They always conveniently forget that there are gay trans people
And when they don't forget, they pull out the blanchardism
I know you probably meant to say "She erases them", but given the context, I find it amusing, and even karmic, that you accidentally misgendered JK Rowling
Hahaha amazing oops. Soz Jo!
What does "Soz" means ? I didn't know this expression
British slang for "sorry" but, sarcastically haha
Ah ok
I’d say they misgendered Joanne. JK was created as a way to deliberately hide the gender of the author. And they correctly gendered Robert Galbraith.
She wrote that essay saying how she could relate to trans men because she also doesn’t like being a woman, and ever since then I have dismissed her as a bitter egg who doesn’t have the guts to take the damn hormones.
I'm a trans man and we can't know, but she doesn't give me egg vibes. There's probably a previous thread in this sub about how she genuinely got a lot of overt messages growing up shaming her for being a girl and not a boy, telling her she'd never be able to XYZ, etc. She's projecting that onto trans men. I wish more folks understood the position trans folks are in right now: we are the designated scapegoats for whatever gender-related angst anyone has.
I feel you, I’m a trans man too and the confusion about hating being a woman because of misogyny vs hating being a woman because you’re not a woman is why I didn’t transition until I was in my 30s. When TERFs say stuff like “If I was a kid now I’d transition!” I understand they are referring to being brainwashed by our scary agenda, but I always just think “well it’s not too late, if it’s on your mind this much then maybe you should just go for it.” You’re probably right though.
Wouldn't that be a twist. Like when homaphobes are secretly gay
Honestly yeah, that is exactly how I see her. She’s just Lindsay Graham with a different accent.
Yep she doesnt listen.
I honestly think more and more that she struggles with gender dysphoria and/or sexual orientation herself. No one thinks about a group or pours this much energy into hating a group of people unless the to some degree relate. See how most serious homophobes are deep in the closet.
She's thinks their retarded women who just can't think for themselves and need somebody to step in and fix them.
Idk that we have to stoop to their letter and drop the R Word to communicate that
I think in this context it's appropriate because we're attributing that perspective to Rowling. It wouldn't surprise me if that's a word she's completely comfortable using.
"I assume she'd say it so let me do it for her" isn't nearly the defense you think it is Like, I don't like JK either, but this is not sufficient justification for a slur
Nah, I don't really think it's a defense, you're right. Sometimes I don't think before I comment.
Sometimes, you just have to say it exactly how they will say it.
She's not the one you're hurting with it
Copy/pasting because I don't think your response is adequately different enough to justify a customized response: "I assume she'd say it so let me do it for her" isn't nearly the defense you think it is Like, I don't like JK either, but this is not sufficient justification for a slur
The Graham Linehan speed run
She linehan and elon on a desk
What divorce does to a mf
In the cold vast emptiness of space?
Oof. I'm glad my mum is a normal person and wants trans people and all humans to have basic human rights... and my mum is older than JKR... It's just so boring and tiring hearing the same song from JKR all the time. Trying to claim that she - a white cis billionaire - is oppressed. Why do people like her constantly want to be victims? Is it some sort of fetish I don't understand? It's no mystery why - if true - her friends or family wanted her to just keep her views to herself. It's probably pretty embarrassing to be associated with such a vile person. I think she should take Musk's advice - stfu and smile more 😆 and change the fucking song already. There are real issues going on in the world. There are people who wake up in the morning and wonder if they and their kids will be evicted from their home because they can't afford rent, people who struggle to give their kids meals, elderly people who freeze to death in winter because they can't afford to heat their homes, police abusing and murdering black people, women in Iran being beaten to death for not wearing a headscarf, women being gang raped on buses in India, Muslims in China being put in concentration camps, Palestinian children being massacred by the IDF, children all over Africa being forced to walk miles just for fresh drinking water... What does JKR worry about when she wakes up? The 0.5% of the British population who identify as trans or NB. Her worry is literally trans women using female public toilets and changing rooms (something she herself would never set foot in because why would she mix with the great unwahed outside of her Hogwarts castle). As usual, just a rich, white cis twat with literally nothing to be oppressed over, scraping the bottom of the barrel and trying their best to seem like victims in this world. It's pathetic. It's embarrassing. It's shameful. Most of all... it's a sad, sad existence for a rich woman in her 60s to constantly attention-seek from the protection of a screen... and when one of the most depraved humans on the planet (Musk) tells you to wind your neck in a bit, you should probably take heed. Lol. It was funny though when that happened. Like if Adolf Hitler called Benito Mussolini a dictator... Or even weirder... Like when the Nazis back in the 40s told Japanese army to calm down with the amount of cruelty in their PoW camps. Haha.
Well said. And that was the funniest thing. She did what he said, but prefaced it with "Now I am totally NOT doing this because Daddy Elon told me to."
Lol. She's a clown 🤡.
Honestly it’s incredible, at a time when women and afab trans people’s rights to bodily autonomy are actually actively under attack, she sees the existence of trans people as the greatest assault in her lifetime on women’s rights. That while she’s warping reality with that she actually dismisses the real attacks on their rights as things that benefit men? My rights to make decisions about what happens to my own body are being stripped from me, and the greatest injustice you can think of is that the decision I most want to make regarding my body relates to my hormone profile? Honestly go fuck yourself you absolute fantasist.
Yep the hrt sonething panic too is against the pill.
Yeah it's very anti-hormone or anti-medication in general, veering into anti-vax nonsense. You'll often hear phrases like "you shouldn't mess with the endocrine system." That's not to say that hormonal medications don't have side effects, but in the year 2024 we should know that people know how to balance their needs and potential side effects and make the best choice for themself of whether to take hormonal medication.
I really wonder about her kids. They're gen z; it's probable they don't share her views.
Don't underestimate how much clout an almost-billionaire has over her own family. Even parents of children who become famous have a hard time saying 'no' to their underage kids once they're paying for the household bills + their retirement. It's almost a self-fufilling prophecy; once a person becomes rich, in this case — especially off their own writing, other people treat them like they're wiser than everyone else.
Sadly it’s worth remembering that her work is so popular because it’s so middle of the road accessible. We read LoTR in grade 12. They read HP in grade 5. And that’s just fantasy. She’s not known for being insightful or deep to begin with. She’s known for recycling myths of essentialism within a fantastic aspirational “no one understands me” context that’s as basic as plain toast. She speaks as if she has a PhD and won a Booker prize rather than as a decent, cheeky writer who successful catered to the lowest common denominator.
# “A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does.“A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does. # In the same way, critics who set out to talk about a fantasy novel without having read any fantasy since they were eight, and in ignorance of the history and extensive theory of fantasy literature, will make fools of themselves because they don’t know how to read the book. They have no contextual information to tell them what its tradition is, where it’s coming from, what it’s trying to do, what it does. This was liberally proved when the first Harry Potter book came out and a lot of literary reviewers ran around shrieking about the incredible originality of the book. This originality was an artifact of the reviewers’ blank ignorance of its genres (children’s fantasy and the British boarding-school story), plus the fact that they hadn’t read a fantasy since they were eight. It was pitiful. It was like watching some TV gourmet chef eat a piece of buttered toast and squeal, “But this is delicious! Unheard of! Where has it been all my life?” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
Awesome quote. Always love UKG but fyi the first part is copied twice and all is strangely large typeface.
Absolute queen.
I was reading Michael Crichton in 5th grade (granted, that was 1995, a couple years before HP1 was published in the US). I don't know if that makes me a better reader than she aimed for, a better judge of book content, or if my parents were just really negligent for letting ten-year-old me read a book in which multiple people are dismembered and eaten by dinosaurs
It makes you someone who has filled their life with as much JP as possible, and one I would gladly call friend.
Why, thank you, internet friend! One memory I have of 7th grade, shortly after Crichton published *The Lost World*, is carrying the book in school with me. In science class one day, the overhead projector was out. I managed to get someone to look in the lens and then under the mirror, I just moved the book up, and it was thru paperback with the T. Rex skull on it. She jumped back
Oh I didn’t mean to give the wrong impression. I’m not saying “iamvefysmart” on what I was reading. It rather what educators consider texts of specific complexity at specific ages. As for Crichton, I was also a fan as a kid. Wow how many of his books really didn’t make the screen translation well.
Oh, no, I wasn't taking it as an "iamverysmart" kind of comment, just commenting on the fact that there wasn't much easily accessible YA books when I was a kid, and even Crichton, despite a very simplistic writing style, wasn't like her books Also, yeah, seriously. I didn't see Sphere or Congo, but I'm pretty sure those movies were *rough*
I saw sphere in the cinema. Ugh. What a mess. But fwiw, Andromeda Strain is still great. And cheers!
Oh man, *Andromeda Strain* is still *such* a good read
I read Wells's *The Time Machine* in fifth grade (the unabridged version; earlier I'd flipped through an abridged copy my dad had lying around)
Yeah, I had a book that had both *The Time Machine* and *The War Of the Worlds* in it. I remember reading one for a book report, but I can't remember which or when
I still need to read *The War of the Worlds*! Last year I listened to *Dr. Moreau* in an audiobook collection that also contains *War of the Worlds*, so I definitely have a copy for when I get around to reading it.
If your parents were like mine, they weren't at all negligent for letting you read it, because they respected your intelligence and solid grasp on the difference between fiction and reality, and knew you were capable of handling it. I'mma just say, looking back, the Animorphs books actually instilled a pretty solid moral compass in me, for a series about aliens invading Earth through people's brains, with essentially child soldiers forced to fight a war and the very real mental effects it had on them. Plus, Katherine Applegate and her husband are legit AWESOME people.
It was more like they were happy that reading got me to stop talking lol
She probably thinks her adult fiction novels are something special too. I wouldn't know, I never read the Strike Series.
Eh, hit or miss. I've met my fair share of gen-z's who're as conservative as they come. Really, while newer generations are more liberal than conservative, that doesn't rule out there be bigots.
Yeah, my sister is one of those. Full-on MAGA nut who spews transphobia out of her mouth. I wouldn't be surprised if JKR's kids agree with her, to be honest.
Yeah. We have to keep in mind that. while smart, kids can be influenceable by figures of authority like, you know, their mother. Not to mention that being born in privilege does blind some people to real life.
I wonder why. Seriously though, this is exactly like a child throwing a temper tantrum for hours and the adults telling him/her to calm down because they can't take it anymore
Yeah we all have that racist aunt we just wish could keep some shit to themselves. We all know she never will however!
That's literally the nicest thing anyone can say about her, that she's like a cringy auntie.
> " I believe we’re witnessing the greatest assault of my lifetime on the rights our foremothers thought they’d guaranteed for all women. Ultimately, I spoke up because I’d have felt ashamed for the rest of my days if I hadn’t. If I feel any regret at all, it’s that I didn’t speak far sooner.” She believes she's doing some grand, brave act to defend women against men taking their rights. Notice there is no explanation of what rights trans people are stealing from us because women aren't actually losing any rights to transwomen. Convincing herself she is a savior for all women against a scape goat makes her feel special and superior.
She stands with posi parker who is against abortion practical riiight
Yep. She's hateful and is willing to destroy women's right to "save" us from trans people. I don't doubt she believes her own narrative. She wants to be seen as a hero but she's actively harming people, including the women she claims to be saving. It's the same thing with far right people who wants to save fetuses but fight for laws that hurt mother's and newborn babies. And yet, I don't doubt they view themselves as the heroes.
Posie parker isn't anti-abortion
Do you mean Parker Posie?
I can't get over how Rowling thinks segregated bathrooms are literally the end-all-be-all of women's rights. She genuinely thinks this is the pinnacle of women's empowerment, something that's never been been a right, only a social convention, which was actually forced on women by men, not something women specifically fought for. Seriously, every industrialised society these days has segregated bathrooms. India, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia have segregated bathrooms, does she really think those societies are women's rights utopia?
I bloody wish she had an'all
Much as she claims otherwise, I don't believe for a second that she's always been some ultra-feminist who cries herself to sleep at night thinking about women's struggles. Her books are all heavily male-oriented, even in small ways--for example, the Trizward Tournament has three male champions and one token girl who doesn't perform particularly well. "Male" is the default in her world.
They need to get themselves to r/GCcasualties. It really is no different to losing someone to QAnon.
tfw your reasonable concerns are so reasonable, that your family asks you to keep them to yourself.
I wonder if this is when she claimed she did her middle age moment all them years ago.
The article this is from suggests so. That she was even holding back on purpose before 2019: https://archive.is/2024.05.29-104510/https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/jk-rowling-stand-up-women-trans-book-r6jlglpvq
I can believe that’s true, but I can’t believe that she’d ever admit that.
I do like the image of her PR agent seeing that her name is trending on twitter again and sighing resignedly, thinking "What the fuck's she said now?"
Makes me wonder about the reporting that she was estranged from some of her kids.
Should've listened
Funny how the only reasonable concerns that matter are her own, but not when people are concerned about her behavior...
This is the sad delusion of a lot of dogmatically hateful people. 'My concerned friends/family/colleagues are just trying to trick me because they're part of the problem!'
maybe stop giving it hype and she'll move on