#tibh

[joannerowling]

I'm reading The Ink Black Heart and the online social media accuracy of how the left and right speak in this is insanely accurate!

It's slightly anachronistic if you want to nitpick it. Terms like "foid" are a bit post 2020s, the mid-2010s had only introduced us to the equally lovely "femoid". But overall yeah, pretty accurate. This is the Dickens in JKR, the Strike books are as much detective stories as they are social novels (+ romance mixed in).

[romnianistan]

halfway through the first episode of tibh and for now my only thoughts are that tom burke is way too skinny to play strike and Wally's videos should have looked like Mr beast's

[emzy-caskett]

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1752747744693784857?s=46&t=JVY811sovaclvfz-7DV79g

😲🤩⚡️

OMG!!!!!

[balkanradfem]

Hey, just someone who's loved reading your Ink Black Heart posts! Can't remember if you've read any of the other Strike books, but FYI to you and your followers, everyone who loves TIBH should TOTALLY read Troubled Blood, the one right before it! It's about Robin and Strike trying to solve the cold case of a very cool feminist doctor woman who disappeared in the '70s. JKR absolutely RIPS into sexism and male violence -- it gets into prostitution, MRAs and "the family courts favor women!!!!" guys, sexual exploitation of disabled women, unsolicited dick pics, workplace harassment, all the invisible emotional work women do to keep workplaces/families/etc running, and sooo many other things. It's such a good Robin story too -- she's so devoted to getting justice for the vanished woman, in large part because she knows the woman is *real* to her in a way she isn't to men, and the book does such an amazing job of portraying Robin's deep kinship and sorrow and rage and love towards this woman as the strength that powers her investigation, not something that makes her too silly or emotional.

Thank you so much for writing this! It makes me look forward to reading it, I’ve read Career of Evil which was also incredible and filled with amazing Robin moments, I loved it so much!

I love how you describe ‘This woman is real to her in a way she isn’t to men’, this is the way I feel about every woman. That is such a great description.

[ordalya]

@joannerowling regarde regarde !!!

Enfin !!!

[cherylrealh]

Well, first of all, I would like to clarify that I am totally an amateur in comics, so while the story progresses will see physical changes in the characters while I get used to the comic, but I hope you liked it, ah !, and also another thing, the next comic strip will be about this universe (I mean mine) and there I will explain some things that will have a lot to do with history! Again, thank you!

[joannerowling]

ok let's settle this

anomouse

morehomie

neither what's wrong with you???!! (everything)

mousefishing (hehehehehe)

whitestar (marauders style naming! mouse loves stars, anomie loves whiteness…)

other lovely suggestion 👻🖤

Voting ended onDec 19, 2024

[joannerowling]

I think one of JKR's strongest suits, in both HP and the Strike series, is how she captures real people. All of her characters feel like people I could meet on the street or share a cup of coffee with. I can imagine what our conversation would be like. There's a lot I find admirable about her writing, but this in particular is something I appreciate a lot more now that I'm reading her as an adult. She seems to genuinely care about real people, which translates to her writing.

Yes, i admire that quality of her as well, especially because her characters feel real despite being… not exactly stereotypical but… easy to read, easy to sumrise. You can't call Vernon Dursley stereotypical because the details of him are so specific, but the details are all that's needed.

At the same time her physical descriptions are minimalist, only including what's useful for either plot or characterisation or (this one is more present in Strike) social background and education. If she were a painter she'd be a great portraitist, a fast working one.

And yes, to segue back to that one interview of Le Guin… sometimes those "portraits" of unpleasant imaginary people can seem a bit mean, because they feel so real.

One example is "Hartella" in The Ink Black Heart. Hartella is not the most hateful character in that book, but she is probably one character many tumblr users could see themselves in, as a "superfan" of a show, whose real name is known in the fandom due to being minorly involved with the production. She's an opportunist, neither smart or talented, she's needy and insecure, she's a very bad judge of character, a coward, lets herself be manipulated into hurting other people, easily joins in bullying to fit in, etc. She's also described as white, fat and unattractive, and having an annoying habit of ending all her sentences in a questioning tone even if they're not questions (subtext: because she's so insecure and unwilling to develop her own critical thinking, she can never make statements).

I remember a few readers took offense at her being described as fat and unattractive specifically. And yet… does this description not feel like a real person? I know i have met that specific girl online at least once for sure (in fact the resemblance is uncanny, down to the speech mannerism). I've known girls who partially looked or sounded like Hartella. I guess that can sting.