The Witch Trials of JK Rowling

Thanks nauticant. It's going to be very thorough, in that case.

Brilliant stuff.

There are reports that there'll be 7 episodes.

It's fascinating. I've never heard J. K. Rowling speak. She comes across as warm, unstarry, and very thoughtful.

And yes, drawing on the advent of tumblr and 4chan does give a different perspective.

Up until now, it's mostly been about maybe a bit of trans humanism, big Pharma, fetishism, paedophilia, etc (although there was apparently a ton of fetishism and paedophilia on tumblr. It's never far away, like a rat.) So seeing the clear creation of a cancel culture alongside that, does give a another frame of reference.

It's also interesting to hear her reaction to how her stories created their own knock on worlds. She said something like she was fascinated, but also concerned. Especially as so many people attracted to her books were vulnerable.

The responsibility must have felt immense.

Does anyone know how many more episodes there are?

And is of course part of the point of the podcast!

I did kind of agree with Marriot when I listened to the first couple (wanted more interview), but on balance I’ve decided I like the social history stuff and it does add a lot.

I have little time for Contrapoints' meretricious content. Style over substance.

I'm just listening now and haven't got to that bit, but have already seen Contrapoints on social media claiming they were misled into taking part/ misrepresented/ Megan's a meanie - a load of bollocks I'm sure - to try and avoid any flack and try to control the narrative (as TRAs are wont)

I was very interested in Natalie Wynne's (aka Contrapoints) comments. I can't remember the exact phrasing but it was around how people use social media to reinforce their own beliefs and ignore what the other side is saying. Something like that.
Contrapoints has been fairly highly rated in my pretty left wing circles, but this is the exact reason I have little time for them. Every video that Wynne has made about JKR/terfs/GC is an exercise in strawmen. I've never seen any of our points actually answered. It's all snarkily responding to bad faith interpretations of what we've said.
I'd be interested to see if the podcast goes into that later, but that part of it did make me roll my eyes a little.

Oops sorry @nauticant should have read your post first !

Loving this . Thought it was interesting that The Times first gave it a lukewarm review saying it digressed ( totally missing the point as it was giving detailed context) .. it has now issued a new positive podcast review. I see the podcast is riding high in the charts, rightly so. It's great to hear from J.K. but also in more of a longer form narrative that Meghan so skilfully delivers. The usual click bait, small morsels of mainstream media replaced with a nuanced, thoughtful argument . Well done to both

There’s one point in ep. 3 where they have a transwoman talking about tumblr, who says

“For a lot of young, queer people, engaging in this imaginative play about all the possibilities of gender was a way for them to experiment with different imaginative possibilities or what is possible with gender”

I mean… what??! What does that even mean? Isn’t that basically saying the same thing twice in one sentence without really saying anything at all? I listened to it several times and even wrote it down, and it almost sounds like the equivalent of saying “for a lot of young football fans, engaging in this imaginative play about how to play football was a way for them to imagine how to play football.”

Fascinating the way that so much is being brought together - a really thoughtful and insightful series. Brava to Megan for such a brilliant approach to a difficult subject.

Yes, fascinating stuff and the more I listen, the more I understand why Megan Phelps-Roper is so uniquely placed to see the big picture on this and recognise the parallels.
The recording of men screaming 'burn in hell' outside feminist meetings at the end... she must have heard that and felt such a shock of recognition. It's all very Westboro.

Finding the social history of different internet communities absolutely fascinating. Is 4Chan the thing that then led into kiwifarms in some way?

Yeach = yeah! Or yes, if we don't want to be vulgar!

Yeach, thought the way they summarised all the tumblr stuff was very useful. The idea that all this terminology/ideology was essentially the creation of a bunch of teenage girls reacting to 4chan misogynist edgelords - makes everything make more sense.

I got the impression reading The Ink Black Heart that JKR really knew her stuff when it came to the internet, and I mean way beyond Twitter. The stuff about “spoonie” communities was particularly accurate. Not surprised at all to hear she knew so much about Tumblr. Great episode.

Really enjoying this, it's so well done and I agree that all the background info is interesting.

It's funny as well that people have been saying her book The Ink Black Heart is all about her recent experiences on twitter, but from the sounds of this it's more based on some of her previous experiences online.

This is all going fantastically with the new book I'm reading at the moment, "What's Our Problem" by Tim Urban (author of the blog Wait But Why).

Thanks! Thought I'd subscribed, but didn't get a notification. Anyway, that's tonight's listening sorted.

I agree. I'd already written a summary but then got distracted:

That's the longest episode so far and has little content of JKR speaking. It's actually about how the cultures on the Internet of tribes, bullying, and cancelling came about. It feeds into the overall theme of the series: what happened to result in JKR being subject to a witchhunt from both the evangelical Right and the progressive Left. I found it really interesting but then I appreciate learning more about the bigger picture of "how did we get here?" rather than who said what and when.

It works well as a companion piece to the previous episode looking at the evangelical Right.

Well worth it - the growth of fandom and online communities this week.

I have meetings this morning (apart from this quick MN break 😜) so will hopefully catch up on Ep3 this afternoon.

Third episode is out, just in time for my commute!

I listened to the first two yesterday on a long drive - they were excellent. I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Thanks, nauticant - that's an interesting review:

Online, there seems to be a presumption that this podcast will be more sympathetic to Rowling’s perspective on gender, but Potter apostates should at least try listening without prejudice.

“We should distrust ourselves most when we are certain,” Rowling says at one point, which struck me as exactly the kind of cautionary advice her critics claim she has jettisoned. This is shaping up to be riveting.

Archived copy here: archive.ph/IVACL