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J.K. Rowling tackles antisemitism in new novel

Started by Petey Pate, September 24, 2018, 12:18:11 AM

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Petey Pate

Quote from: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/in-j-k-rowling-s-new-novel-a-villain-is-an-israel-hating-anti-semite-1.6494240For months author J.K. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred.

Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into anti-Semitism.

"Lethal White," the fourth series in Rowling's Cormoran Strike mystery series, written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, features a pair of hard-left political activists who believe "Zionists" are evil and have a stranglehold on Western governments.

Is this her making amends for writing a series of books featuring a race of evil, hook nosed goblin bankers or jumping on a bandwagon to make her writing topical and 'politically relevant'? Either way, I hope this new novel also features an elderly socialist character called Mr Borbyn who is NOT DUMBLEDORE.

magval

Sorry as this is only tangentially related but why do people write under pseudonyms that are no longer a secret? It looks very silly that Waterstone's is promoting "JK Rowling's latest novel as Robert Galbraith".

It's really, reallllly silly looking.

Howj Begg

'kin ell, she really is worthless isn't she? I'd love to see her shitty wealthy middle-class writing and opinions become outdated in a swift general election's time. What a lucky hack she has been.

popcorn

Quote from: magval on September 24, 2018, 01:51:48 PM
Sorry as this is only tangentially related but why do people write under pseudonyms that are no longer a secret? It looks very silly that Waterstone's is promoting "JK Rowling's latest novel as Robert Galbraith".

It's really, reallllly silly looking.

Because Galbraith is itself a brand at this point. It means "detective novel by JK Rowling".

bgmnts

I think she should have just cut and run really, accept she got lucky with a shit series of books and became mega rich.

Doing shit like this will only be bad for her.

It's also going to be bad for critics of Israel as surely Rowling still has a stranglehold on the majority of under 30s, who will probably now think everyone hates Jews, especially the Labour party. I hope people have outgrown her but HP is still mega mega popular so who knows.

There's been a lot of criticism of Rowling from the under 30s on Twitter because of the Johnny Depp stuff. I think there's been a move towards not trusting her in recent times.

Mister Six

Quote from: Howj Begg on September 24, 2018, 02:07:20 PM
'kin ell, she really is worthless isn't she? I'd love to see her shitty wealthy middle-class writing and opinions become outdated in a swift general election's time. What a lucky hack she has been.

Her Blairite bullshit is awful, but she's quite a good writer.

Will never take anything she says seriously until she ADMITS that she stole all of her ideas from Troll.

Pdine

Well in my new novel there's a famous children's author who loves Centrism and eats poo.

Jerzy Bondov

Poor cow's taking a pasting now for adding a second Asian character to the 'Wizarding World' by making an existing evil snake character into a Korean woman. Terrible shame.

BritishHobo

I picked this up yesterday because, to be fair, I have really enjoyed this series so far. Funny to think that the last time a Strike book came out, I still liked Rowling, was quite willing to defend her with fanboy anger. Bloody hell she's done a lot to piss away that goodwill since.

Still though, a book is itself, and I should give it a chance. Unfortunately, this one opens with an interminable twenty-five page prologue about the female lead being sad at her wedding to a boring man. FUCK OFF with this tedious airport lit-fic-lite bullshit, I want to read about a brick-shithouse of a man solving crimes, not the ten-millionth variation on a boring middle-class woman silently resenting her marriage to a boring fucking middle-class boring fucking arsehole. Fucking yawn.

Dog Botherer

Quote from: bgmnts on September 24, 2018, 04:08:49 PM
I think she should have just cut and run really, accept she got lucky with a shit series of books and became mega rich.

Doing shit like this will only be bad for her.

It's also going to be bad for critics of Israel as surely Rowling still has a stranglehold on the majority of under 30s, who will probably now think everyone hates Jews, especially the Labour party. I hope people have outgrown her but HP is still mega mega popular so who knows.

I take some solace in the fact that whenever she tweets about Labour or Corbyn or anti-semitism there's always a couple of hundred people mercilessly giving her shit in the replies. There's always a few fucking idiot Lib-Dems, but they're invariably well outnumbered.

Anyway, this book is gonna be shit, innit?

BritishHobo

There we go. Only 100 pages in, and Dr Strike is on the trail of a couple of hard-left activists who, on top of being smelly, unkempt, drug-addled conspiracy loons, are very mean to Tories on Twitter, and whose distaste for the military is presented as the kind of stereotype of a sheltered, clueless leftie student that you'd expect from the Daily Mail. Critical military action abroad? Why, they must be sixth-form commies who think all soldiers eat babies! Already an eye-roll mention of the main suspect's blog posts about Zionism, and a cringeworthy scene where Strike attends a meeting for people worried about gentrification during the 2012 Olympics, only for the activists to say the olympic logo is like a swastika!!!! Much to the resigned weariness of all the sensible people in the room.

Crikey.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: bgmnts on September 24, 2018, 04:08:49 PM
It's also going to be bad for critics of Israel as surely Rowling still has a stranglehold on the majority of under 30s, who will probably now think everyone hates Jews, especially the Labour party. I hope people have outgrown her but HP is still mega mega popular so who knows.

Probably intentional, she's Queen of the Centrists.

Shaky

I was never won over by the Potter books but Strike 1 - 3 were really rather good, even excellent at times. Shame to hear the new one might be shit.

BritishHobo

Professor Strike is talking to a pal about a suspect he's ingratiated himself with in a pub. "He was talkin' a load o' pish about Scottish independence. The grea' thing about English lefties is they love hearin' how shit England is. You shoulda heard them when I told them I've seen the error of the army's imperialist ways. Fuck me they're gullible.'

I mean, fucking hell.

Cuellar


BritishHobo

Chucked it in the bin. Quite apart from any political stuff, it's a bloated, self-indulgent piss. If this series was ever an experiment for Rowling to test her ability to get something published on merit alone, that's long over. This reeks of later Harry Potter, or Stephen King, the point where editors just allow authors to fatten out from tight two-or-three-hundred-page novels into doorstoppers nearing a thousand because their brand recognition trumps any desire to actually edit. I'm under halfway through and the case is barely underway, there's unforgivable waffle and tedium to the point that any suspense, or any urgency I felt to race to the bottom of the crime, has slipped away. Every other chapter details Robin moping about, arguing tersely with her husband, wishing she hadn't married him, but not doing anything to leave. It's unforgivably shit for a female lead character who's spent three books finding purpose and independence in detective work. Meanwhile Strike is endlessly mooning over her. The only edge in the novel comes from constant references to left-wingers being unfair in their descriptions of Tories. One cringeworthy line, from the woman who started as a single mother on benefits, monstered David Cameron for his plan to give rewards to married couples, and wrote the furious Casual Vacancy about a hateful middle-class conservatism that demonises poor people, sneers at left-wingers for thinking that cutting benefits is baby-killing, the hysterical middle-class loonies.

She really has become fucking toothless.

Sebastian Cobb

In several decades people will look at her like they do Blighton, a miserable old bigot.

alan nagsworth

i know fuck all about this but i cannot believe anyone would think "cormoran strike" is a good name for a character

Twed