Open Letter from Autors and Entertainers in Support of JKR

[Igneococcus]

In the Times:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d714149e-003d-11eb-a6ce-737681864bdd?shareToken=522b280f5312e063be007bba64a0e96d

Here is the letter (a few down the list):
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2e240198-fe6a-11ea-a6ce-737681864bdd?shareToken=8bcca8afb981c27e32894e05e7776f41

And the signatories:

We wish JK Rowling well and stand in solidarity with her.
Ian McEwan, author; Lionel Shriver, author; Griff Rhys Jones, actor; Graham Linehan, writer; Maureen Chadwick, writer; Andrew Davies, writer; Frances Barber, actress; Craig Brown, writer; Alexander Armstrong, actor; Amanda Craig, writer; Philip Hensher, writer; Susan Hill, writer; Jane Thynne, writer; Ben Miller, actor; Simon Fanshawe, writer; James Dreyfus, actor; Frances Welch, writer; Francis Wheen, writer; Arthur Matthews, writer; Aminatta Forna, writer; Joan Smith, writer; Nick Cohen, journalist; Kath Gotts, composer & lyricist; Ann McManus, writer; Eileen Gallagher, writer & producer; Jimmy Mulville, producer; Lizzie Roper, actress; Stella O’Malley, author; Nina Paley, animator; Julie Bindel, journalist; Abigail Shrier, journalist; Rachel Rooney, author; Jane Harris, writer; Tatsuya Ishida, cartoonist; Lisa Marchiano, author; Zuby, musician and author; Debbie Hayton, journalist; Gillian Philip, Author, Jonny Best, musician; Manick Govinda, arts consultant; Russell Celyn Jones, writer; Magi Gibson, writer; Victoria Whitworth, writer; Dr Mez Packer, writer; Grace Carley, producer; Sam Leith, journalist; Malcolm Clark, television producer-director; Shirley Wishart, musician; Charlotte Delaney, writer; Nehanda Ferguson, musician; Justin Hill, writer; Trezza Azzopardi, writer; Birdy Rose, artist; Jess de Wahls, textile artist; Mo Lovatt, writer; Simon Edge, novelist; Tom Stoppard, playwright; and Amanda Smyth, writer

What do they really have in common with traditional leftism, with it's basis in low level community engagement, collective labour action, or the kind of really fairly traditional social values that it used to espouse? Pretty much zilch.

Exactly. The problem with today's left runs far deeper than their neglect of women's rights.

My take is that the left isn't in fact the left. The people who consider themselves to be on the left have changed in a fundamental way. When you scratch the surface they are usually not left economically, and it's only because social liberalism became associated with the left that there is an appearance that they are similar there - but really, it's a liberalism based on a kind of individualism that matches their economic vision

With you, Goosefoot. If your views on the economy aren’t leftwing, then you’re not leftwing, full stop. The gender identity movement is so extremely individualistic, it’s pretty much the exact opposite of leftwing.

Idealistic young lefties used to want to change the world — realistic or not, we hoped to make a better world for everyone. Identity politics is about “The world must change to suit me, I am all-important.”

My take is that the left isn't in fact the left. The people who consider themselves to be on the left have changed in a fundamental way.

We're getting off-topic, but... At least it's not as bad here as it's got over the Atlantic. Two good threads on that topic here, both replying to the same tweet, from James Lindsay and Anna Slatz.

Some blue tick posts a pic of a run-down house with a porch full of Trump 2020 posters with the caption "This is called voting against your own best interests."

Reponses, edited down, emphasis mine:

Slatz:

the working class are, by and large, siding with Trump because the loudest voices in “the left” are woke capitalists who fundamentally hate the working class

this isn’t difficult

The working class are currently under the impression there isn’t a “left” movement beyond screeching IdPol maniacs who would throw them under the bus the moment they bought the wrong kind of asparagus.

Lindsay:

There's a simple explanation for why the lower class on the right and the upper class on the right unite into a single coalition very naturally. They're not bourgeois. [...]

The working class generally understand that there are elites in society[...]

What the working class hates with great hate are fake elite posers (the bourgeois) who pretend to be people's betters without producing anything of any real value and then believe they're above the rest of society and the rules, except they didn't earn it.

The Democrats have slowly become the party of the bourgeois fake elites over the last few decades, and the majority of the working class resents them more than they can even put words to. [...]

What the working class, the guy who voted for Obama out of hope and then Trump four years later, hates more than anything is pretentious better-than-you fake elite bourgeois posing. They see straight through it and hate it. Wokeness is that. They hate it. [...]

PPS: The bourgeoisie tends to be eaten up by what Nietzsche described as "ressentiment," which is a kind of curdled envy. They wish they were good enough to be elite but aren't but think too highly of themselves to come down to Earth and get a real job.

Bit more than that in each of their threads, but that's the key points.

If you were a woman in the US, given a choice between a party that wants to mess with abortion laws at federal level, and a party is currently put men in women's prisons at state level, it's seems to me that voting for either party would be "voting against your own best interests".

Dame Jenni is no surprise but my heart soared. Cannot wait for her contract to expire.

Dame Jenni ❤️

I’ve had a really shit weekend but this has really cheered me up.

Can you imagine this happening a year ago? I certainly can’t. The wheels are coming off! Thank fuck.

So heartening to see this. There's names in there I'm a big fan of.

I've been spending the last few months in dread of one of the "celebrities" who I admire and whose work I enjoy coming out against JKR.

@xxyzz

Hope that certain types like Stephen King and Philip Pullman, who shat on JK Rowling in her time of need, are now feeling full of shame.

I thought Philip Pullman was taking the "I don't know anything... Both sides are equally right and wrong" approach, or has he said something more hateful?

Philip Pullman has just said he'd have signed the letter if asked.

I would bloody love to see some acknowledgment from the Potterverse lot who made their fortunes off her and then roundly stabbed her in the front.

@teawamutu

Philip Pullman has just said he'd have signed the letter if asked.

Hallelujah!

I wonder if he read what JKR had written and thought "Is that it?!" and had s bit of a lightbulb moment. (I can hope, can't I?)

Pullman's done this before then backtracked so not holding my breath or upgrading him in my estimation just yet...

It's disappointing that there aren't many (if any?) children's authors on that list. So many of them have shat on JKR from a great height throughout this, and some of them have clearly enjoyed doing so.

Nothing to do with the letter but Judy Finnigan (of Richard and Judy) wrote a column yesterday saying that Troubled Blood was not transphobic

Great line: "I wish these people would read the books they want to boycott."

www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/richard-and-judy/1340351/jk-rowling-strike-series-transgender-lobby-group-outrage

The TRAs clearly pushed their luck too far with the whole JKR transphobe thing. Everyone not emotionally invested in their ideology could clearly see the book was not transphobic.

I feel like crying reading this. The tide really is turning and it was JKR that set it in motion, and lots of brave people, including lots of women on here. I share all the articles i see on here to facebook and even though i rarely comment i have been accused of transphobia and insulted by total strangers who claim that transwomen are being murdered every day, and how Jkr advocates harm to trans people. My own dd age 17 won't discuss anything about gender as she is so bloody woke and thinks i am transphobic, i find it so hurtful. Just so sick of it all and glad i can come here and see rational and factual discussion.

Maybe it's more of the "Go woke, got Broke!"
Authors can not possibly accept being told what they can write about, in fiction and they know it.

NecessaryScene1

Love those quotes, thanks for posting. I'm always glad when someone neatly summarises something I've been feeling but couldn't quite find the right words for.

@AntsInPenzance

The TRAs clearly pushed their luck too far with the whole JKR transphobe thing. Everyone not emotionally invested in their ideology could clearly see the book was not transphobic.

This is a really good point.

You may not get people to read her essay on her website, or have read her tweets, but there will be hundreds of thousands of people reading her book.

I have had people say to me, what's all this going on with JKR? What's she said? And although I've told them, if you don't read it for yourself, I'm sure some people could still think there can't be this much smoke without at least some fire, surely?

And then they read the book which should be burnt for hate speech...

Twitter threads about this letter are comedy gold today

Fab to see the signatories and lots more are coming out in support today.

Apparently there has been a deluge of other authors now wanting to sign the letter, and there is going to be an update at one point. I've decided to sign (gulp).
Also apparently one of the the board members of the Society of Authors raised the subject of supporting JKR, and the rest were too cowardly to join her. There's an author discussion where someone said "I think we should be raising this, as fellow authors. If we do not defend each other, who will?" But some said, no, we shouldn't have political opinions, it's too divisive, yadayadayada.
Now I'm becoming aware of who among my author friends is NOT agreeing that JKR should not have to put up with that, and swiftly losing respect! Not necessarily big names, but names all the same who are obviously holding back, not even liking posts supportive of her. I've got a little list...
I do excuse anyone who has a trans child (I know a couple) being defensive, and my heart breaks for anyone in this situation. But for the others, there comes a time.
Now that sunlight is coming in, we are crawling out of the shadows, a little ashamed but heads high.
Jane Harris the author is on that list. She has been a lone fighter for a long time on FB and also on Twitter, speaking out again and again, right from the start. Perhaps not a big name, but a real shero in this fight.

I also wonder about Jacqueline Wilson she has spoken up about this years ago but been quiet since. Her latest book is about a girl coming out as lesbian and her first love which can be seen as her way of supporting girls.

I think that Joanne Harris is the chair of the society of authors and she is a massive TRA so would block any moves to support JKR.

not having a political opinion IS having a political opinion. Silence is acquiescence.

Joanne Harris is one of the biggest disappointments to me. Truly loved her books, and oldest DC does too. Couldn't stomach ever buying another one now I know what an Aunt Lydia she is.

Thecatinmylap, agree that I wish there were more children's authors on the list, but in some ways I am not surprised. There are a lot of very woke people in that business, and it's hard to speak out when you're a lone voice. I follow some children's authors on Twitter, and there was a lot of nonsense about seeing if people you follow still followed JKR, and apparently if you did, that was hugely 'disappointing.'

Huge thanks to everyone who has signed.