Authors quit JK Rowling's literary agency

[donquixotedelamancha]

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/22/authors-quit-jk-rowling-agency-over-transgender-rights

The ever entertaining TRA power couple Fox and Owl were apparently represented by the same agents as the wonderful Ms Rowling.

They, along with some bloke called Drew Davies, have severed ties because the agents refused to issue a public statement slagging off their biggest client.

Being bastions of professionalism they left by telling the guardian.

a friendship between a trans woman and her neighbour, who turns out to be transphobic. ... exploring how two very different women come together in their shared experiences of womanhood.

From the traumatic first period when you think you've been disembowelled, through the jobs in which mediocre men leapfrog over you up the promotion ladder, via a excruciating abortion or childbirth, to the hot flushes of menopause and middle-aged female invisibility -- yes, so many shared experiences to bond over ....

So I emailed the Blair Partnership to say thank you for standing up for free speech, and got their auto-response email back and it is the longest auto-response I’ve ever seen and it is literally all about JK Rowling, looking at their list of clients I wouldn’t be surprised if JKR was bankrolling them all! There is no way these tantrumming toddlers could have thought they’d win this one 🤣

'Re-educated' who do they think they are, comrades in Pol Pots regime??

These nyaffs thought they could stamp their feet and pressure the agency to fall into line with the hive mind. Unfortunately for them, they've realised that not everyone is going to fall for their BS and that there are independent thinkers out there who understand democracy, free speech, tolerance as well as the perils of censorship.

The bandwagoners!

They’re upset because they didn’t think it was a “demand” and it was a fair request to “re-educate”. Their mistake is thinking their opinion on such matters - or any matter - carries any weight at all and that staff should listen to it. The sheer arrogance.

No one cares what Owl thinks because every time Owl tries to convey anything, such as in a Guardian article, it comes out as a garbled incoherent mess. Owl believes Owl has an important voice, because the Guardian tells Owl so, so Owl then thinks everyone else should listen to Owl when Owl speaks. But when reality bites, and someone tells Owl that their opinion really isn’t worth a cent, Owl flounces.

This is what happens when inadequate people are elevated above their talent because of identity. They get delusions of grandeur.

This is what happens when inadequate people are elevated above their talent because of identity.

Very well put. Yes.

I thought this was funny.

Then I googled JK Rowling's agent, The Blair Partnership.

Now I'm finding it hilarious.

It looks like the company was founded to represent JKR. The founder, Neil Blair, is also chair of both Pottermore and Lumos.

I can only assume these writers had no idea who their own agents were!

Fox and Owl:

www.stonewall.org.uk/people/fox-owl

Owl: 'If non-binary identities are recognised within the reformed GRA, it would mean that I exist in the eyes of the law. Currently, we’re a nobody. Our ID documents don’t reflect who we are, which seems like a massive contradiction to me.'

But... in that Mail article, Owl looks like, um, a woman. Even her surname - that 'dottir' bit is something of a giveaway, what with it meaning, uh, daughter.

This is all just PoMo taken too far.

Didn't Fox & Owl do a piece in the Observer ? Which was a load of rubbish, and the paper got sued

I can only assume these writers had no idea who their own agents were!

Or more likely they were happy to benefit from the largesse flowing from a successful author while she kept quiet, but the moment she has said something they don't like their contempt has got the better of them.

But... in that Mail article, Owl looks like, um, a woman. Even her surname - that 'dottir' bit is something of a giveaway, what with it meaning, uh, daughter.

Owl is a transwoman. Fox is a trans man.

@Redshoeblueshoe

Didn't Fox & Owl do a piece in the Observer ? Which was a load of rubbish, and the paper got sued

The independent I think. I don't know about sued but it was debunked by Nicola Williams I believe

And yet the found each other.

How... biological.

Fox and Owl had a fake wedding in Brighton to protest that they can't get legally married. However as a heterosexual couple playing at being the opposite sex heterosexual couple they could get married either as
Man and woman
Woman (GRC) and man (GRC)
Woman and Woman (GRC)
Or man and man (GRC)
Of course I don't know if either or both of them have GRCs but if they don't they are still certainly able to get married and they absolutely definitely exist legally and in every other sense.

Fox and Owl were my introduction to the concept of non binary. I remember thinking 'I bet that's what trans people do when they realise they won't ever properly pass so they pretend they never meant to pass in the first place'. Given the lengths that they have both gone to to approximate the opposite sex, I can only conclude I was right.

Not sure why people are having a go. It's their lives, their choice. If the no longer want to be represented, then bye bye!

This is the funniest thing I’ve read about in ages. A great big door slamming flounce, but out of the back door and into the empty car park.

Well that’s really cheered me up! I have been feeling so sorry for myself (shielded, stuck in bed, very ill and isolated) but this has given me the first laugh in ages.

Can’t the agency identify as being ‘re-educated’ and carry on as normal?

But then they might have to pass the “How many fingers test” or be able to identify margarine from butter in a blind taste test.

Hahaha. Can I just also say that the abuse jkr has received has prompted me to buy the 7 Harry Potter books and read them for the first time? Philosophers Stone came out when I was late teens and the books passed me by although over the years I've watched and enjoyed the films.

I've read all 7 books in a fortnight, completely sucked in by them. They're wonderful.

But but but EVERYONE on Twitter who isn't blocked by me agrees with me!!!

@lionheart

Fox and Owl:

www.stonewall.org.uk/people/fox-owl

Owl: 'If non-binary identities are recognised within the reformed GRA, it would mean that I exist in the eyes of the law. Currently, we’re a nobody. Our ID documents don’t reflect who we are, which seems like a massive contradiction to me.'

'We're a nobody'.

Well, yes.

If only you'd realised that before you tried to re-educate J K Rowling's agent.

My ID documents don't reflect my deep inner sense of self either, they just tell you my sex, where I was born, where I live now, and so on.

@Singlewhiteguineapig

This is the funniest thing I’ve read about in ages. A great big door slamming flounce, but out of the back door and into the empty car park.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

I'm imagining them wandering around looking confused and wondering where Lorraine Kelly is.

Love this little snippet from The Blair Partnership twitter thread - hope I'm the first to spot it! (Sorry if not)