Author Antics

[JaneDigby]

 The "Authors You Used to Read" topic reminded me of the always entertaining, occasionally frightening phenomenon of Authors Behaving Badly. Hoaxes, plagiarism, and publicly freaking out over bad reviews all apply. My "favorites are:

 

James Frey might own this category. First he wrote a novel but called it a memoir. Epic Oprah shit storm ensued. Then he started Full Fathom Five to bring his special brand of magic to the Young Adult category.

 

John Stock, in his own words: 'Without wishing to sound like a serial killer, I track down all my hostile reviewers, sooner or later, particularly the anonymous ones,' says Jon Stock. Nope, nothing creepy there.

 

John Grisham and his now infamous after-a-few-drinks-child-porn-can-happen interview with The Guardian.

 

Ayelet Waldman for her Twitter rampage when her book didn't make the New York Times Notable Books of 2014 list. 

 

Anne Rice, generally.

 

Ted Bell, taking to the comments section of a one-star Amazon review to let his displeasure be known to all.

 

Alice Hoffman freaked out over a bad review the Boston Globe and published the reviewers private email and phone number on Twitter urging her followers to complain to the reviewer. And got the phone number wrong. 

 

Kathleen Hale stalked a reviewer who gave her book one star, then wrote an article about it. Because she was the victim. And she's quirky!

 

 

[GreekGeek]

There was the famous (back in 1972) fake biography of Howard Hughes by Clifford Irving. It got really complicated and farcical, with Irving's wife Edith going to Switzerland in a wig disguised as "Helga R. Hughes." to deposit the publisher's checks to "Howard."

Edited January 15, 2016 by GreekGeek

[Archery]

Anne Rice wrote 2 books of what was supposed to be a trilogy of the life of Christ.  The first, Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt, was a little dry. She really didn't put too much imagination into what it would have been like for a little boy to be fully God, growing up human.   The second, CTL: Road To Cana, deals with Christ's growing realization of his mission and giving up all his human dreams.  It's terrific.  Then, at some point, Rice decides she's too through with the Catholic Church and turns away from it (again).  And never writes the third book.  Grrr. 

[JaneDigby]

They're at it again.

 

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/hachette-responds-to-cyber-bullying-accusations-319945

 

http://www.mhpbooks.com/authors-behaving-badly-british-thriller-writers-embroiled-in-internet-feud/

 

Short version: one author is accused of creating defamatory websites about other authors because of a “sockpuppetry” scandal at the 2012 Harrogate Crime Festival, when the offending author said Leathers had created fake social media identities to endorse his own books. 

[psychoticstate]

I will never read anything by Emily Giffen after I learned she was such an a**hole.   http://coreyann.me/2012/08/authors-behaving-badly-how-i-pissed-off-legions-of-emily-giffin-fans/

[DearEvette]

Has anyone been following the Sarah Dessen debacle on twitter?  Yikes!

Sarah Dessen is a NYT bestselling author who writes YA teen romance novels.

Apparently, Dessen was alerted to a 3-year old quote in an interview done by a then college junior of a small college (enrollment of 1500) in South Dakota in a local SD paper.  Like a lot of colleges they have something called a common read for their incoming freshman class.  A book that the entire class reads and then discusses critically across their freshmen seminars and even sometimes the author is invited to the school.

At the time the young woman volunteered for the committee because apparently the list of books under consideration included a recent Dessen novel and she felt the Dessen's work was not appropriate for a common read, but instead advocated at the time for Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (the book eventually chosen), Edwidge Danticat’s  Breath, Eyes, Memory, and’ When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.  "All three, she believed, addressed “relevant social issues” more pointedly than Dessen’s work." She went on to say that Dessen's books were written for teenaged girls.

Well Dessen cropped everything but the 'written for teens' part and made a very passive aggressive tweet about "ingrained misogyny"  and "authors have feelings too". etc. etc. 

And you can guess what happened.  Yes her followers went to town on the poor girl, doxxing her and she was forced to delete all her social media.

But the followers weren't the worst of it.  Other really famous writers, like Jennifer Weiner, Roxanne Gay, Angie Thomas, Celest Ng, NK Jemisin and Jodi Picoult also chimed in and piled on.  I think Weiner at one point made some really terrible comparison to Larry Nassar.  JFC!  One YA author called the poor girl a 'A fucking bitch' and another one chimed in calling her a 'raggedy ass bitch' both tweets Dessen liked and responded with a heart eyes emoji.  The girl's school, egged on by Angie Thomas, tweeted an apology to Dessen.

But then people actually went and read the original article without Dessen's out-of-context woe-is-me quote and the reaction to that was swift.  Jezebel, Slate and the Washington Post picked up the story and their reporting of it clearly was not complimentary toward Dessen nor her author friends.  A slew of mea culpas and super apologies began to come in.

I don't read YA fiction, not my wheelhouse.  I have read Jimison and Gaye and Angie Thomas  so their involvement was a huge disappointment to me.  But overall I loved seeing so many people coming to that poor girl's defense after she was dog piled like that. 

Edited November 18, 2019 by DearEvette

[Starleigh]

Wow! Just caught up on this thread, and some of these I had never heard of before. Ayelet Waldman doesn't surprise me, because I've read some of her articles (not her books though) and she comes across as very smug and arrogant.

To add to the list, I don't remember all the details because it was so complicated but did anyone else see that New Yorker piece ( I think that's where I read it) last year about the best selling author A.J. Finn and how he's basically a pathological liar, plaigarist, and possibly a psychopath??

[Black Knight]

24 minutes ago, Starleigh said:

To add to the list, I don't remember all the details because it was so complicated but did anyone else see that New Yorker piece ( I think that's where I read it) last year about the best selling author A.J. Finn and how he's basically a pathological liar, plaigarist, and possibly a psychopath??

I remember that article. It was a wild story!

Earlier this year, Jenny Trout was posting about some drama that had gone down between romance authors, but first she got distracted by recaps for the latest E.L. James book and then she didn't want to cause the drama to flare up again, so she only posted a couple of times. But they're here and here.

[GaT]

I just saw this thread for the first time & immediately thought of Rob Thurman. After she got dumped by her publisher, she went on Twitter & blamed her readers.

Quote

If the fans had bought all my work instead of many only buying Cal saying buying others is a betrayal,it might have gone better

Quote

I am sorry, but I warned you guys for 6 years now how if fans didn't buy my other work, I couldn't live on 1 series. I begged & I don't beg.

Quote

Where will your Cal novellas,stories,all my work will be coming from in the future? Better read or you'll never know http://

LOL, you can imagine how much the rant endeared her to her fans.

And if we ever start a "Publisher Antics" thread, this will be the first thing I post. After 10 books plus some short stories, the publisher decided to dump her right before book 11, the final book in the series, could be published. Even though it had a release date & cover art, so the fans never got the final book after reading 10 books.

[DearEvette]

On 1/13/2016 at 12:02 PM, JaneDigby said:

Kathleen Hale stalked a reviewer who gave her book one star, then wrote an article about it. Because she was the victim. And she's quirky!

One by-product of the Dessen mess is that so many of the people commenting on twitter are veterans of the Hale drama.  So that was brought up and re-hashed again.

12 hours ago, Starleigh said:

To add to the list, I don't remember all the details because it was so complicated but did anyone else see that New Yorker piece ( I think that's where I read it) last year about the best selling author A.J. Finn and how he's basically a pathological liar, plaigarist, and possibly a psychopath??

Yeah, I think that was talked about briefly elsewhere on this board.  The article was so fascinating and such an illustrative example of how a narcissist is able to con people into doing what they want.  My husband read Finn's book and I remember him being singularly unimpressed, called it derivative. But he completely loved the article.

12 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Earlier this year, Jenny Trout was posting about some drama that had gone down between romance authors, but first she got distracted by recaps for the latest E.L. James book and then she didn't want to cause the drama to flare up again, so she only posted a couple of times. But they're here and here.

I remember the whole shit-show when Faleena Hopkins tried to copyright the word 'cocky' and sent cease and desist letters to other romance novel authors who had the word 'cocky' in their titles.  She even succeeded in getting Amazon to pull some of the titles for a little while.  Romance twitter went HAM on her.  And a bunch of authors pitched in an Anthology where ALL the titles included the word 'cocky' LOL.

9 hours ago, GaT said:

I just saw this thread for the first time & immediately thought of Rob Thurman. After she got dumped by her publisher, she went on Twitter & blamed her readers.

Man, I loved that series but she was batshit with that.  Retroactively poisoned the series in my opinion. 

[proserpina65]

18 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Has anyone been following the Sarah Dessen debacle on twitter?  Yikes!

Sarah Dessen is a NYT bestselling author who writes YA teen romance novels.

Apparently, Dessen was alerted to a 3-year old quote in an interview done by a then college junior of a small college (enrollment of 1500) in South Dakota in a local SD paper.  Like a lot of colleges they have something called a common read for their incoming freshman class.  A book that the entire class reads and then discusses critically across their freshmen seminars and even sometimes the author is invited to the school.

At the time the young woman volunteered for the committee because apparently the list of books under consideration included a recent Dessen novel and she felt the Dessen's work was not appropriate for a common read, but instead advocated at the time for Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (the book eventually chosen), Edwidge Danticat’s  Breath, Eyes, Memory, and’ When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.  "All three, she believed, addressed “relevant social issues” more pointedly than Dessen’s work." She went on to say that Dessen's books were written for teenaged girls.

Well Dessen cropped everything but the 'written for teens' part and made a very passive aggressive tweet about "ingrained misogyny"  and "authors have feelings too". etc. etc. 

And you can guess what happened.  Yes her followers went to town on the poor girl, doxxing her and she was forced to delete all her social media.

But the followers weren't the worst of it.  Other really famous writers, like Jennifer Weiner, Roxanne Gay, Angie Thomas, Celest Ng, NK Jemisin and Jodi Picoult also chimed in and piled on.  I think Weiner at one point made some really terrible comparison to Larry Nassar.  JFC!  One YA author called the poor girl a 'A fucking bitch' and another one chimed in calling her a 'raggedy ass bitch' both tweets Dessen liked and responded with a heart eyes emoji.  The girl's school, egged on by Angie Thomas, tweeted an apology to Dessen.

But then people actually went and read the original article without Dessen's out-of-context woe-is-me quote and the reaction to that was swift.  Jezebel, Slate and the Washington Post picked up the story and their reporting of it clearly was not complimentary toward Dessen nor her author friends.  A slew of mea culpas and super apologies began to come in.

I don't read YA fiction, not my wheelhouse.  I have read Jimison and Gaye and Angie Thomas  so their involvement was a huge disappointment to me.  But overall I loved seeing so many people coming to that poor girl's defense after she was dog piled like that. 

Jennifer Weiner's involvement doesn't surprise me at all.  Picking Twitter feuds with anyone who dares to criticize her work has been her main activity for the last few years, so branching out like this makes sense.  It's pretty damn juvenile.

[OtterMommy]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Jennifer Weiner's involvement doesn't surprise me at all.  Picking Twitter feuds with anyone who dares to criticize her work has been her main activity for the last few years, so branching out like this makes sense.  It's pretty damn juvenile.

To be fair, Jennifer Weiner has posted an apology for her role in this.

Ms Weiner does tend to have a thin skin, but I'm glad to see that she has apologized both publicly and to the author of the article.

[Mabinogia]

Gotta love the irony of claiming to want to support female writers while tearing apart a young female writer. Sure, she's not a "genre" writer, but maybe if female genre writers weren't such thin skinned mean girls who attack anyone who says a negative thing about them there would be more support in the community. 

[Spartan Girl]

Emily Giffin apparently has been trashing Meghan Markle on social media. So not only is she a garbage writer, she's also a garbage person.

I feel so vindicated.

[andromeda331]

5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Emily Giffin apparently has been trashing Meghan Markle on social media. So not only is she a garbage writer, she's also a garbage person.

I feel so vindicated.

I think she showed it after that bullshit about her husband attacking a negative review and she instructing her followers to attack the person who wrote it. I've hated her ever since. But thanks Emily for letting me know your still a crappy person. 

[Mabinogia]

14 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

But thanks Emily for letting me know your still a crappy person. 

At least she's consistant.

[MeloraH]

When I saw this topic had new replies I kind of thought it was going to be about a certain transcontinental divorce...

Or the battle of the cookbooks...

So much author drama going on right now.

[peacheslatour]

17 hours ago, MeloraH said:

When I saw this topic had new replies I kind of thought it was going to be about a certain transcontinental divorce...

Or the battle of the cookbooks...

So much author drama going on right now.

I had a great grandmother named Melora. A real genteel southern lady.

[Ohiopirate02]

My love for the Harry Potter books has plummeted over the years as I become more aware of the books' and JK Rowling's shortcomings, but this is a new low.  

https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/j-k-rowling-trans-issues-sexual-assault-survivor-1234630367/

 

[OtterMommy]

1 hour ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

My love for the Harry Potter books has plummeted over the years as I become more aware of the books' and JK Rowling's shortcomings, but this is a new low.  

https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/j-k-rowling-trans-issues-sexual-assault-survivor-1234630367/

 

Daniel Radcliffe had a very moving response in support of trans rights.   

I'm not sure why J.K. Rowling insists on continuing to dig a deeper hole for herself.

[GaT]

4 minutes ago, OtterMommy said:

I'm not sure why J.K. Rowling insists on continuing to dig a deeper hole for herself.

You know, I read her tweets & I don't really know what (or why) she's trying to say. I'm very confused.

[OtterMommy]

Just now, GaT said:

You know, I read her tweets & I don't really know what (or why) she's trying to say. I'm very confused.

I think she hasn't figured out that her HP popularity doesn't grant her the power to walk on water and that just because she's one of the best selling best-selling authors doesn't mean that people love her simply because they love her books.

[DearEvette]

2 hours ago, GaT said:

You know, I read her tweets & I don't really know what (or why) she's trying to say. I'm very confused.

That first tweet was weird.  I think she was trying to be clever and make some sort of backwards comment about the word 'women' and who can and cannot claim it.

That second tweet, tho, is just flat out ignorant.  She keeps talking about sex and sexual attraction.  As if she is not perfectly aware that sex =/= gender identity.  She wrongly conflates the two and it is maddening to read.  Who you are sexually attracted to is a very different thing than how you identify as a person and I know that people have been telling her that for awhile now.

[GaT]

And I still don't know what she's trying to say.

[MeloraH]

4 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

Daniel Radcliffe had a very moving response in support of trans rights.   

I'm not sure why J.K. Rowling insists on continuing to dig a deeper hole for herself.

Katie Leung's response was pretty great too. Since people were also bringing up how not great her naming of the only East Asian character in the series was.

Edited June 11, 2020 by MeloraH
fixed link

[Irlandesa]

She has long been referred to as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist).  She claims she is pro trans men and women but when push comes to shove, she is only pro trans men and women on her terms. 

She seems to feel including issues facing trans women in discussions about feminism and women's issues is distracting to or diminishes women's issues.  Separate but "equal" so to speak.

In the initial tweet she reacted to, the headline mentioned "menstruating people" which she felt should have just said women (even though not all cis women menstruate) seemingly taking offense at language which includes the trans men who menstruate.

Basically, she claims to be in favor of trans people as long as she can put them in some "other" category.

[Spartan Girl]

I've been hurt and confused by all this. But her ignorance will not stop me from loving Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts. And no matter how I feel, I don't think it's okay for the Twitter mob to call her a hag and send her death threats, etc. 

Dan, Katie, Emma, and Eddie Redmayne all had classy responses.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Irlandesa]

I know. I was never a Harry Potter fan but I was so looking forward to the next installment of the Strike series due in the fall.  And now, I'm so torn.

And if anything, her blog post response about this whole thing makes things worse. 

[DearEvette]

3 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I know. I was never a Harry Potter fan but I was so looking forward to the next installment of the Strike series due in the fall.  And now, I'm so torn.

If an author  whose work I have enjoyed in the past presents as problematic I have an internal  meter on how much enjoyment I can continue to have of their work.

If what they did or said is so problematic to me that even looking at their stuff causes me revulsion then I quite them cold turkey.  There have been cases when they have retroactively poisoned what I liked about them.  So much so that I can't even go back an re-read stuff I actually liked in the past.

But if they are at a level of problematic that doesn't quite rise to my personal kill it with fire revulsion level then I will still read them, but they won't profit from me. I won't purchase, review or recommend.  I'd get it from the library or pirate it.

 

[Ohiopirate02]

5 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

 

And if anything, her blog post response about this whole thing makes things worse. 

Honestly for me what makes the post worse is her decision not to cite any sources.  She "researched" the issue, read sundry books and articles about the topic, but doesn't list anything.  She drops statistics that are easily proven false without citing her source for the statistics.  She apparently spoke to multiple transgender people but doesn't name any of them.  The only people she names are TERFs.  I don't want to think about some of the DMs and emails she has received over this, I know how hateful people can be, but she also wants to ignore the people she hurt who reached out.  She wants to paint herself as the victim because some people on the internet called her a "slur" and hurt her feelings.  The woman has made enough money that her great-grandchidren wont' have to work.  She could be using that money to support people who's lives have been ruined because of this pandemic, or donate money to the worldwide BLM movement, but no she uses her position of power to hurt the least of us.  

[dubbel zout]

6 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Honestly for me what makes the post worse is her decision not to cite any sources.  She "researched" the issue, read sundry books and articles about the topic, but doesn't list anything.  She drops statistics that are easily proven false without citing her source for the statistics.  She apparently spoke to multiple transgender people but doesn't name any of them.  The only people she names are TERFs. 

I think she didn't give details about her sources because they'll show she only looked at the ones that reinforced her (inaccurate, to say the least) views. Naming only TERFs reinforces that: "trans exclusionary" is in the abbreviation.

It's really a bummer when someone you admired creatively turns out to be a garbage person.

[nodorothyparker]

Sometimes I'm pretty good at separating the artist from their work and sometimes I'm just not.  For the rest of my life, for example, I'll never again be able to watch anything Bill Cosby had anything to do with because he was "America's Dad" during too many of my formative years and I can't separate that out.  I'm not going to pretend to know yet how I'll feel about the Potterverse sometime down the road if and when one of my kids wants to read the series, but it is making me think much more critically about things I was maybe more willing to give Rowling the benefit of the doubt on in the past.

Mostly, I'm just watching in sheer astonishment that someone who did manage to beat all the odds to make good in such a huge and pop culture changing way can be this hellbent on throwing her legacy away.  There's self sabotage and then there's whatever this is.

[dubbel zout]

And she keeps doubling down. That amazes me. Do everyone a favor and STFU, Joanne.

[nodorothyparker]

She very much makes me think of the first rule of advice for when you find yourself in a hole: Stop digging.  She won't put the damn shovel down.

[Mabinogia]

I wish she was using this as a learning experience for herself rather than sticking her heels in on her original stance. I am willing to give someone a pass the first time they say something ignorance, because, well, they are ignorant. But at this point I have to believe that enough people have pointed out to her how ignorant her ideas are and she, being supposedly intelligent and caring, should have stopped trying to defend herself and done some non-biased research. It saddened me that she made the original comments but it breaks my heart that she isn't trying to learn from it. 

[Annber03]

53 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

I wish she was using this as a learning experience for herself rather than sticking her heels in on her original stance. I am willing to give someone a pass the first time they say something ignorance, because, well, they are ignorant. But at this point I have to believe that enough people have pointed out to her how ignorant her ideas are and she, being supposedly intelligent and caring, should have stopped trying to defend herself and done some non-biased research. It saddened me that she made the original comments but it breaks my heart that she isn't trying to learn from it. 

This. I'm just some average low-income person living in a state with some very conservative-leaning areas, and I know she's wrong. She's in a very prominent position where she has plenty of access to all kinds of information on this topic if it's one that she's so interested in, so there's really no excuse in her case. 

And her words would be bad enough at any time of year, but the fact that she's saying all this during Pride Month, of all times, to boot...seriously, Rowling, read the freaking room. 

[Spartan Girl]

I'd like to think that maybe Dan, Eddie, Emma, etc speaking out will get her to reeducate herself and see the error of her ways, but I'm obviously a naive person. I still can't bring myself to believe she's ALL bad, because if there's one thing HP has taught me is that everybody, even the ones we admire and love, is flawed and has their own ignorant prejudices, whether they will own up to it or not, and will fuck up spectacularly. It's not an excuse, it's just a fact. 

No matter what, this shouldn't ruin HP for everyone. Authors are not their stories, or their characters, and these stories have helped out a lot of people, especially in the LGBTQ community.  Nobody can take that away.

And for what it's worth, plenty of children's authors have been shitty people -- Roald Dahl, PL Travers, Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket -- and that doesn't make people love their stories any less.

[OtterMommy]

7 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

Sometimes I'm pretty good at separating the artist from their work and sometimes I'm just not.  For the rest of my life, for example, I'll never again be able to watch anything Bill Cosby had anything to do with because he was "America's Dad" during too many of my formative years and I can't separate that out.  I'm not going to pretend to know yet how I'll feel about the Potterverse sometime down the road if and when one of my kids wants to read the series, but it is making me think much more critically about things I was maybe more willing to give Rowling the benefit of the doubt on in the past.

While there have been a number of authors whose words or actions I find problematic, I'm having a much harder time dealing with them.  I loved The Mists of Avalon, but will not touch it ever again after learning what happened with MZB's daughter and MZB's role in it.  I donated all my Sherman Alexie books as soon as I found how he has treated native women.

Rowling is hard, though, because *I* can put the HP books away and not watch the movies again, but my kids can't.  And I don't think they should now, but I know that conversations are coming down the road.  

As for Harry Potter, though, I've learned to separate what I consider HP (the HP books, the movies, and The Cursed Child) from everything else.  I guess I had already cut JKR out of it when I realize she wasn't going to stop crapping on the Potter world.

[Blergh]

7 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

While there have been a number of authors whose words or actions I find problematic, I'm having a much harder time dealing with them.  I loved The Mists of Avalon, but will not touch it ever again after learning what happened with MZB's daughter and MZB's role in it.  I donated all my Sherman Alexie books as soon as I found how he has treated native women.

Rowling is hard, though, because *I* can put the HP books away and not watch the movies again, but my kids can't.  And I don't think they should now, but I know that conversations are coming down the road.  

As for Harry Potter, though, I've learned to separate what I consider HP (the HP books, the movies, and The Cursed Child) from everything else.  I guess I had already cut JKR out of it when I realize she wasn't going to stop crapping on the Potter world.

Good for you for actually being willing to use Patron Power to stick to your principles regardless of how much of a bummer it is to give up onetime fave writers and, especially, considering the need for conversations with one's offspring re why they may want to consider forgoing contributing to the support of certain dubious authors. Even if they wind up blowing you off, they WILL know what you consider true values and principles to support  so no way will the convos be  wasted!

[nodorothyparker]

11 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

I donated all my Sherman Alexie books as soon as I found how he has treated native women.

Sherman Alexie was a hard one for me.  I really loved his early writing and bought everything of his I could get my hands on back in the days before you could just click and buy anything on Amazon -- he felt like that much of a revelation -- but I haven't been at all inclined to read anything of his stuff since the news of his bad behavior broke.  It felt almost like a personal betrayal of the persona he had put forth all these years.  I'm a terrible packrat where books are concerned though, so his collected works are still taking up space on one our TV room bookshelves. No idea yet whether they'll eventually stay or go.

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, nodorothyparker said:

Sherman Alexie was a hard one for me.  I really loved his early writing and bought everything of his I could get my hands on back in the days before you could just click and buy anything on Amazon -- he felt like that much of a revelation -- but I haven't been at all inclined to read anything of his stuff since the news of his bad behavior broke.  It felt almost like a personal betrayal of the persona he had put forth all these years.  I'm a terrible packrat where books are concerned though, so his collected works are still taking up space on one our TV room bookshelves. No idea yet whether they'll eventually stay or go.

If you feel like you don't want to keep reading those old books of his, donate them to a local library or shelter so others who might want to would still have the option of reading them- but NOT pay him a dime in order to do so! 

[DrSpaceman73]

I am not a big JK Rowling or Harry Potter fan. 

But I read her response and while I may not agree with it all, I certainly don't think it makes her a horrible person. 

 

[DrSpaceman73]

On ‎6‎/‎11‎/‎2020 at 11:39 AM, Ohiopirate02 said:

She could be using that money to support people who's lives have been ruined because of this pandemic, or donate money to the worldwide BLM movement, but no she uses her position of power to hurt the least of us.  

She has given over $160 million in charity over the years to various worthwhile causes.  And I am sure will continue to do so in the future. 

[Spartan Girl]

Like I said, most people have both good and bad tendencies. Everyone had their own prejudices and biases. That doesn't make it right, but it's human nature. We can ALL do better.

[DearEvette]

Well apparently Stephen King retweeted one of JKR's tweets where she quotes Andrea Dworkin talking about how men react to women speaking their truth.

She was happy about that,  she wrote a tweet in response talking about she reveres him and  'today my love for Stephen King has reached Annie Wilkes levels.'

Someone then retweeted both those tweets and asked King is he believed trans women were women.

He answered unequivocally:  'Yes, trans women are women.'

JKR deleted her fulsome tweet of love and adoration of him, deleted every other tweet of support for him and then unfollowed him.

I mean, dang, that sort of scorched earth deletia is usually reserved for people who do you some harm or have beliefs you find completely distasteful. Her reaction just strikes me wildly out of proportion.

 

 

[OtterMommy]

21 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Well apparently Stephen King retweeted one of JKR's tweets where she quotes Andrea Dworkin talking about how men react to women speaking their truth.

She was happy about that,  she wrote a tweet in response talking about she reveres him and  'today my love for Stephen King has reached Annie Wilkes levels.'

Someone then retweeted both those tweets and asked King is he believed trans women were women.

He answered unequivocally:  'Yes, trans women are women.'

JKR deleted her fulsome tweet of love and adoration of him, deleted every other tweet of support for him and then unfollowed him.

I mean, dang, that sort of scorched earth deletia is usually reserved for people who do you some harm or have beliefs you find completely distasteful. Her reaction just strikes me wildly out of proportion.

 

 

I'm not sure JKR understands that is not how cancel culture works.  But, it does seem strange that she is so entrenched in this that she doesn't seem to care what it is doing to her reputation.  While I do not agree with her at all on her trans beliefs, I would at least think she would SHUT UP about them, seeing how the world is reacting to it.  I doubt that Stephen King is going to take a hit for agreeing with JKR on some things but not this.

Upthread I bemoaned what I was going to do with the HP world now.  I recently heard someone on a podcast say (I'm paraphrasing) that Harry Potter no longer belongs to JKR, it belongs to the world.  JKR's views don't have to change your experience with HP.  And I do agree with this to a point.  I mean, I'm not spending money on the HP world right now because I already own the books and all the movies and that's great.  However, I might think twice about buying something in the future, unless it is from that bookstore (I think in England) that donates all their proceeds from sales of JKR works to trans support groups.

[Mabinogia]

23 minutes ago, OtterMommy said:

I'm not sure JKR understands that is not how cancel culture works.  But, it does seem strange that she is so entrenched in this that she doesn't seem to care what it is doing to her reputation.  While I do not agree with her at all on her trans beliefs, I would at least think she would SHUT UP about them, seeing how the world is reacting to it. 

She seems to be taking it so personally, like it would affect her for trans people to be referred to by the gender they are rather than the one they were born into. I don't really want to delve too deep into why people feel the way she does because I'm afraid it will piss me off too much but I really can't wrap my head around what is so terrible about it.

 

[Darian]

On 6/13/2020 at 11:06 PM, DrSpaceman73 said:

I am not a big JK Rowling or Harry Potter fan. 

But I read her response and while I may not agree with it all, I certainly don't think it makes her a horrible person. 

 

She's horrible but sometimes does good. She has the same gleeful viciousness all TERFs do when they speak and harm about transgender people. They enjoy it. I'm cishet but have been an LGBTQ+ advocate then activist for over 40 years. She's done too much harm for me to excuse her because she also does good sometimes. A dear friend's transgender son died by suicide because of people like her. And she knows she's doing harm but keeps doing it.  

Edited June 29, 2020 by Darian

[Katy M]

On 6/29/2020 at 5:26 PM, DearEvette said:

mean, dang, that sort of scorched earth deletia is usually reserved for people who do you some harm or have beliefs you find completely distasteful. Her reaction just strikes me wildly out of proportion.

I can understand.  I haven't really been following this all too closely, but from what I understand she seems to be taking quite a lot of backlash from stating a scientific fact.  I can understand her just being over the whole thing.

[GaT]

‘Harry Potter’ Fan Sites Will Minimize Future J.K. Rowling Coverage After Condemning Anti-Trans Views

Quote

MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron, two of the largest and most well-established “Harry Potter” fan communities online, released a joint statement on Thursday in support of transgender individuals and rejecting the transphobic comments made by series author J.K. Rowling on Twitter and her website in June.

This is a big deal, these are the major fan sites.