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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.