Quick question about the Robert Galbraith pseudonym....

[ContessaferJones]

A lot of TRAs (and sadly some of my own friends) are banging on about how JKR obviously chose (part of) the name of a crazed American psychiatrist who pioneered gay conversion therapy as some sort of elaborate fuck you to the LGBT community. I am of the opinion that it's an unfortunate coincidence, as it took me a little while to dig up the details on the original Robert Galbraith Heath and I actuary knew he was there to look for.

I've seen her explanation of the name and think it sounds believable, but haven't seen her make any recent statement regarding the overlap. Is anyone aware of any such statement? If so I'd be grateful for a link, ta :)

*I actually, that should say!!

I would imagine she's ignoring it for the absolute tripe it plainly is.

Bloody good books, I've raced through them.

Have you read the Robert Galbraith books op? There is a trans character and she is very kind towards them, a lot kinder than I would have been (they don’t realise the character is trans until they have to show some ID) - I think if J.K. Rowling wanted to pull a stunt like your friends are suggesting then she’d be a bit subtler about it, she’s an intelligent woman and an excellent writer.

Gay conversion therapy is an accusation levelled at the 'services' the Tavistock are 'providing' to would-be transgener children; c.f. those whose parents would rather they had a trans- child than a gay one. She's a smart lady, I think Robert Galbraith is very subtle.

@TheSingingKettle49

Have you read the Robert Galbraith books op? There is a trans character and she is very kind towards them, a lot kinder than I would have been (they don’t realise the character is trans until they have to show some ID) - I think if J.K. Rowling wanted to pull a stunt like your friends are suggesting then she’d be a bit subtler about it, she’s an intelligent woman and an excellent writer.

Oh, I agree that it sounds like utter tosh. I was just wondering if she'd said anything further on the topic.

Not read any of the RG books - I did enjoy The Casual Vacancy though.

@ContessaferJones I can highly recommend them, I’ve flown through them and the first three are on BBC iPlayer at the minute, but the books are better than the TV series.

Just remember JK Rowling has shown herself to be a liberal caring person who has set up charities to help orphaned children, pays all her taxes when she could afford clever accountants to evade them and given huge amounts of money to charity. It’s not likely she’d suddenly decide to pick on one minority group of vocal people, generating in mountains of vile twitter responses and people boycotting her work for shits and giggles.

It's strange how the TRAs have only realised this since that tweet?

The same goes for the racism allegations they are throwing in as well.

She's explained the Galbraith pen name before. She had an imaginary childhood alter ego called Ella Galbraith. It's in an interview from waaayyy before all this kicked off.

@ContessaferJones This Twitter thread explains how the story of Robert Galbraith Heath was plucked from obscurity 3 years after JK Rowling began using the pen name Robert Galbraith. The tweeter Robert Coalville, who has a blue tick, is the person who found the forgotten story of Heath, researched him, wrote about him and brought him to people’s attention.

mobile.twitter.com/rcolvile/status/1270794437967392771

Don't worry SingingKettle, I'm a regular attendee at WPUK meetings and have a bunch of friends who think I'm dreadful for defending JKR - I'm on her side :)

Thanks Purple, I did see that but was just wondering if she'd said anything about it recently in response to all the flailing media attention.

Thank you Chicken, I will take a look at that!

She’s already explained the pen name. She liked the name ‘Robert’ and hadn’t used it in Harry Potter, and she liked the name Galbraith since childhood.

It’s just a very Scottish sounding name. Even if it had been Bill Smith there’s be some nutty theory cooked up.

Some people have too much time on their hands.

Some people do not seem to realize that transgenderism and BIID figure prominently in her second and third Galbraith books.
It doesn't suit them to admit that good writers do their research.

They never stop making up stupid bullshit, do they?

Really good books.. worth a read

Bloody good books, I've raced through them.

Agreed. I bought them all as a show of solidarity following publication of her essay and I’m loving them.

If you actually were an evil terfy transphobe trying to pretend to be a lovely liberal person, would you really deliberately choose the name of a conversion therapist for your pseudonym?

They would dig anything up to try and discredit her. It's like the right wing press trying to dig things up about Keir Starmer (and failing). If they can't find something genuine, they'll make it up. Even presented with facts, like she talked about the imaginary friend before anyone had heard of this bloke (thank you PP), they will still repeat the lie. It's a calculated tactic for social media these days. If you print a lie long enough, people believe it must be true.

The worst thing is all the people who've benefited from her writing or those intelligent enough to know better have jumped on the woke bandwagon to attack her. It must be so painful. What a strong woman to hold her ground. Even if you're not bothered about female spaces, the erasure of the word woman for woman's products (while not erasing men from men's products), women being beaten by physiological men in competitive races, men winning women in business awards, sexual offences committed by men being miscategorised as being committed by women to muddy the statistics etc. you would surely admire someone for standing up for women when the far easier thing would be do keep schtum.

@JoyFreeCake

If you actually were an evil terfy transphobe trying to pretend to be a lovely liberal person, would you really deliberately choose the name of a conversion therapist for your pseudonym?

Well, quite.

JKR obviously chose (part of) the name of a crazed American psychiatrist who pioneered gay conversion therapy as some sort of elaborate fuck you to the LGBT community

It's not an elaborate anything though, is it? If no one knows who the bloke is.

And if she wanted to give a fuck you to the LBGT community, she would. It's not as though she's exactly shied away from being controversial.

It's far more of a admission to think that a) a multi millionaire children's author who set up charities for deprived children would fit the profile of a Machiavellian political homophobe and

b) go to the trouble of expressing it purely in order to have a secret laugh up her sleeve about all those people who don't get it.

Either their paranoia is off the scale. Or they genuinely think saying such a thing out loud doesn't make them look unutterably stupid and desperate.

Just as an aside, I can't imagine how mind breaking awful it must be to have your every waking moment, and your every written word scrutinised by those wishing you harm.

Having to account for everything you've ever said, written, commented on, or remarked about.

How the woman does not go insane, I have no idea.

How she hasn't turned round to all these weasels trying to undermine her with a deafening just fuck the fuck off you fucking fucks, is beyond me.

She must have tremendous strength of character, very healthy self-esteem and a rocking sense of humour.

In the course of a week we’ve had Rowling falsely accused of using the middle name of someone no one has ever heard of as a tribute to gay conversion therapy, and Glinner falsely accused of sending dick pics to women on Mumsnet.

This is what level they’re at.

They’re completely unhinged and utterly devoid of morals.

@NotBadConsidering

In the course of a week we’ve had Rowling falsely accused of using the middle name of someone no one has ever heard of as a tribute to gay conversion therapy, and Glinner falsely accused of sending dick pics to women on Mumsnet.

This is what level they’re at.

They’re completely unhinged and utterly devoid of morals.

I can distinctly remember quite a few years ago when it dawned on me that their arsenal is and always has been entirely empty. I had asked questions, got involved in conversations, and then suddenly realised there wasn't just a reluctance to talk, there was nothing to talk about.

There is no coherent argument. Other than shut up, or be kind and then shut up.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that they genuinely think people are going to believe that Graham Linehan is sending pictures of his penis to women on mumsnet (🤣 sorry, even writing it is making me piss myself), Or that the number of people they can find with the name Robert, or Galbraith, who have ever done or said anything they disagree with, is going to make people think J. K. Rowling is a bigoted homophobe 🤣🤣🤣.

Sorry I meant to say it shouldn't come a surprise that they are reduced to those tactics, but it does.

And let's not forget she gave half a million pounds to Refuge. She's a complete leftie and always has been. Someone who dragged herself up from nothing and has given back in spades.

Sadly though it appears mumsnet is now a target for the TRA community who is using it to make things up to suit their purposes. I've seen a few threads clearly posted by them, a few comments by people who are clearly part of that world etc. Not news to you all I'm sure. But just really fucking sick as far as I'm concerned.