Now is not the time to criticise the quality of JK Rowling's prose.

[andrewducker]

I've seen multiple posts in the last week or so saying "Well her worldbuilding wasn't great, and I wasn't impressed by her prose style, and she didn't credit her inspirations very well, so it's not like she was a huge loss as a writer."

And I think these posts are massively lacking in empathy. I mean, hurray, you don't have a huge attachment to a writer that's doing a lot of damage to a maligned minority, but please have a thought for the people who *do* care.

Because she wrote books that enlivened people's childhoods, which led to people meeting new friends, which gave great joy, led to endless fun conversations, and were generally a phenomenon that hundreds of millions of people were very attached to.

Many of those people (and I count myself amongst them) are now going through a situation where whenever they think about a thing that gave them joy it triggers much more difficult feelings. This is a grieving process, and if you feel the need to stand up in the middle of it and say "Well, I'm not grieving, because I never cared about it in the first place" then you should probably take a long look in the mirror and ask why you need to make a public declaration about it.

(I'm not trying to shut down discussions of actual issues with Rowling's works. Or people who are enjoying them.They have value. (Although this post probably isn't the pledge to discuss those things.) I'm just boggled at the self-described "non carers" who somehow need to have their lack of caring broadcast to the wider world.)

Comments

[nancylebov]

And Rowling was what got a *lot* of children started on reading.

[dewline]

That is indeed part of the tragedy of this. I was never a fan in the first place, but I recognize what she did for those who were/are.

[lilysea]

I've also heard that the books

with their themes of Harry is misunderstood/unvalued at home and gets to go somewhere he is valued/understood

resonated deeply with a lot of younger LGBT readers

who then felt particularly betrayed by Rowling's transphobia.

I've seen complicated grief - people writing "I'm trans, these books helped save my life as a child/teen/20 something, but now the author has betrayed me"

[aldabra]

Maybe they see it as a way to objectify the work and distance from it? The more you pick away at the bodged pseudo-Latin the less compelling the story-telling seems, and so the less significant the story-teller. It's criticism as self-defence. Perhaps.

[calimac]

Some of us have been through this grieving before. I was once a great fan of Bill Cosby.

[andrewducker]

My sympathy, that sounds awful.

(I suspect a fair number of people felt similarly about Rolf Harris,a beloved Australian/UK children's entertainer who was convicted of indecent assault a few years ago.)

[yalovetz]

Indeed. I don't feel this way about J.K. Rowling, whose works never moved me. But I did grieve over William Mayne, whose books meant a lot to me as a child.

[coughingbear]

Oh yes, so much on the William Mayne grieving.

I do like the Harry Potter books & also enjoyed the detective novels and I am sad.

[andrewducker]

*hug*

[dewline]

Rowling, Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi here in Canada...

[theandrewhickey]

I think *some* of this has been in response to a TERF meme, where people have basically been saying "You all loved Rowling until she stood up for women, now you're pretending to have problems with her work", to which other people have been responding "No, we always thought she was shit, and have been on the record for twenty years saying so".
But of course that doesn't make it any easier for those people who actually *did* love the books before all this happened.

[cmcmck]

I'm trans as you know, but I have no objection to Rowling as a writer at all.

I DO object to her gross betrayal of some members of the 'Harry Potter' generation however. I know some of the young people who are in the midst of the grieving process you mention.

And I deeply object to her whining when some of us use our right to reply to her hatred and bigotry. You have freedom of speech but we don't?

Oh per-lease............

[xenophanean]

It's called "intellectual dishonesty" and it's not a good look.

A person behaving badly doesn't necessarily make them bad at what they do. Trying to say that it does shows that you're a person who doesn't care if the things you say are true or not.

[xenophanean]

I suppose you *could* argue that Rowling's guilty of a corresponding fallacy: I wrote good books, thus I am morally good, and people should listen to my words on all issues.

[anna_wing]

Oh, so that's why William Mayne has been unpersoned? I was looking for his books some years ago as gifts for friends' children, and was vaguely surprised that none were available.

[andrewducker]

I was a bit surprised that I'd never heard of him - but it can't be because of this, because it only happened long after I was a child. I've checked his bibliography on Wikipedia and none of the titles are familiar. Must just have not made it to my part of UK childhood!

[anna_wing]

I read them from the library as a child. THey were baffling, in that they depicted an utterly alien world, but fascinating precisely because of that, in much the same way that SF and fantasy was.

[nancylebov]

Claiming that Rowling's books weren't any good after the scandal hit could be a variation of sour grapes.

The one that gets to me is Nina Paley-- she's an absolutely brilliant animator and a TERF. And a misandrist, which seems to be the gateway to being a TERF.

[andrewducker]

That's such a shame!

I can see that if you hate men then you'll be against the people you view as men claiming to be women.

[nancylebov]

See also Mary Daley for misandry and transphobia.

You know Nina Paley's work?

[andrewducker]

Yup. I remember liking her comics. I downloaded Sita Sings The Blues but haven't gotten around to watching it yet.

[nancylebov]

Sita Sings the Blues is spectacular.