JKR's essay wins Russell prize

[TheChampagneGalop]

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55350905
"JK Rowling is almost certainly the greatest writer of English children's fiction of her generation, and a remarkable humanitarian. It turns out she writes exhilaratingly powerful prose too.

In a blog about the transgender debate, she offended many people. Offence is the price of free speech. Those offended felt she was questioning their identity and even attacking their human rights, which they argue is a form of discrimination or hate speech.

I take absolutely no view whatsoever on the issues that she raises.

I do take an issue on abuse and trolling, and Rowling has achieved the inglorious honour of topping many a league table for those. The deluge of hatred that she faced before writing this blog made it brave, and it was nothing compared to what came after. Talking about bravery, so too, by the way, was Suzanne Moore's engrossing, long, personal essay for Unherd on why she left the Guardian.

We should all applaud bravery in writers - even those with whom we disagree. And Rowling's essay contained moments of both real beauty and piercing honesty, as when she revealed that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

What the judges - that is, the voices in my head - most admired about the writing was the plain English. It is an interesting fact about rhetoric that if you want people to understand something, plain, mono-syllabic words are usually your best bet: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country".

Or think of the final line from Enoch Powell's most notorious speech: "All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal."

I'm not endorsing the argument; but the rhetorical power of that line comes from the fact that there are 16 words, the first 15 of which have one syllable, and the last of which has three.

Compare it with this line in Rowling's essay: "So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe."

The rhetorical power from those two sentences derives partly from the plainness of the English. Only "women" (twice) and "natal" contain more than one syllable.

If you're ever editing copy that seems verbose, go through it and think about cutting syllables while conveying the same meaning. Plain English has power. JK Rowling gets that.
In his essay for Rolling Stone, Wade Davis captures what he believes is the end of American pre-eminence"

[Igmum]

Well done Amol Rajan. Shed a little more light

[Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons]

I have self-identified as convenor, founder, chair, president, and - in a new designation for 2020, approved by me - CEO.

[SerendipityJane]

Or think of the final line from Enoch Powell's most notorious speech: "All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal." [] I'm not endorsing the argument; but the rhetorical power of that line comes from the fact that there are 16 words, the first 15 of which have one syllable, and the last of which has three.

Didn't Churchill deliberately limit his oratory to Anglo-Saxon words, in order to subtly chime with as many people as possible ?

I find myself curious as to how Enoch Powell would have engaged with todays Trans debate, had he so chosen.

[Mollyollydolly]

I never cease to be amazed and shocked (however many times I see it) at the number of privileged, white males in the media on Twitter with thousands of followers who cannot wait to shit on JK Rowling from a great height.
The misogyny and myth making is a sight to behold. It makes me so angry and makes me doubt anything I read from the media outlets they work for.
It's shocking. I don't know if Jo reads this board but if you do we bloody see them in all their glory.

[CaveMum]

I always thought Amol was a good egg.

[WinterIsGone]

I notice that one of the other writers named, Ian Leslie, defends JKR in his tweets
twitter.com/mrianleslie/status/1341088040362635266

[Winesalot]

Well. She is trending on twitter again. So yes, interest will be piqued.

And 12 months and 1 day since ‘that’ tweet!!!! Already people were retweeting it.

[Mollyollydolly]

I follow Ian Leslie, he's a good bloke. You forget they exist sometimes on twitter.

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

“As always, the selection process was watertight, in that nominations were submitted by me, to a rigorous and impartial panel of one, also me, wherein I have self-identified as convenor, founder, chair, president, and - in a new designation for 2020, approved by me - CEO.”



I like Amol Rajan more every minute! Totally unintimidated.

[NecessaryScene1]

The article does highlight something. Even though Rajan is framing it as being about the rhetorical power of JKR's essay, it is a key insight into the whole debate.

If you're ever editing copy that seems verbose, go through it and think about cutting syllables while conveying the same meaning. Plain English has power. JK Rowling gets that.

GC people, almost without exception, write clearly.

Their opponents do not.

This made possibly the biggest impression when I first looked into what was going on. If your arguments make sense you don't need to dress them up in bullshit. Sensible ideas, even complex ones, can be explained plainly and without evasion. Clearly one side found itself utterly unable to do this, ever, and this reassured me that their emperor had no clothes.

As nauticant put it beautifully in a recent thread:

A suggestion OP. If you read any of the posts on this thread and find them to be describing things that don't seem to make sense or are incomprehensible feel free to assume that they're actually wrong rather than assuming that there's some profound complexity you don't understand.

[MondayYogurt]

Not quite so many slurs and insults as usual. I suppose it must be hard finding equivalent hate words for a man.

[HecatesCatsInXmasHats]

Watch the woke white fellas try to get an Asian man sacked for defending the writing of a woman who disclosed the abuse she'd suffered, expressed her concerns for women and trans people and her worries about the medicalisation of kids. Way to go white dudes.

[VulvaPerson]

This is final straw for me, the BBC is clearly institutionally transphobic and I’m no longer prepared to give them anymore of my money, license cancelled.

I am sure these people live n another planet. BBC transphobic indeed..

[littlbrowndog]

Yeah white dudes shouting fuckyou

The hate is really horrible.

I mean how can people write such terribl3 hate filled stuff in full view

This is a woman who gives and gave so much to differen5 charities

And these hate filled warriors no doubt pat themselves on the back for calling out transphobia

[HecatesCatsInXmasHats]

And these hate filled warriors no doubt pat themselves on the back for calling out transphobia

Never in their wildest dreams did they think being to 'good' guys would be as easy as hurling abuse at women on the internet.

[donquixotedelamancha]

Another of the nominees (Paul Vallely) seems to be subtly putting his weight behind JKR.

twitter.com/pvall/status/1341025177824595969

He's always seemed a thoughtful and deeply moral bloke so I can't see him issuing a weaselly statement tomorrow.

[HecatesCatsInXmasHats]

Should read 'being the good guy'

[yourhairiswinterfire]

I'm not about to give PinkNews clicks, but I wonder if they can point to the errors in JKR's ''error strewn'' essay? She was right about the medical scandal. And rapists have IDed their way into women's places, (prison) which is why there is a Judicial Review on that coming up too. Telling that no one is willing to acknowledge that.

I bet they were delighted to have a reason to write yet another 'article' on her though (to add to the other hundreds).

[littlbrowndog]

I swear they get high on abusing women with impinity

They love it

[HecatesCatsInXmasHats]

Misogyny is a heady drug

[AnotherLass]

If you were an aware person doing this, you'd know that all of the other nominees would immediately face pressure to denounce JKR, and if you were a decent sort you'd contact them and make sure they were okay with it first.

So it may not be coincidence that the other authors seem to be refusing to denounce her (so far anyway).

[SophocIestheFox]

Some good articles there that I didn’t know about, as well as the cracker that I already did.

If Amol said he wasn’t endorsing the views once, he said it half a dozen times, but that simply won’t do and he must be sent off for re education and/or cancelling immediately. It’s so silly.

[PotholeParadies]

@MondayYogurt

Not quite so many slurs and insults as usual. I suppose it must be hard finding equivalent hate words for a man.

Look at the racism in the third screenshot. One man does something someone else doesn't like, and suddenly "Desi men don't deserve representation"

And they think they're the good guys? Can you imagine JK tweeting something like that about anyone?

As always, the selection process was watertight, in that nominations were submitted by me, to a rigorous and impartial panel of one, also me, wherein I have self-identified as convenor, founder, chair, president, and - in a new designation for 2020, approved by me - CEO.

I'm.following this guy!

[VulvaPerson]

[quote WinterIsGone]I notice that one of the other writers named, Ian Leslie, defends JKR in his tweets
twitter.com/mrianleslie/status/1341088040362635266[/quote]
If you wanted you could take advantage of this opportunity to condemn them for giving her this prize. That would be a pretty cool thing to do.

What the fuck?!

Why on earth should he. Why is it always 'ahhh but if you wanted to though you could [do what I want you to instead of what you want]'?! Just seems so weird and presumptious, and arrogant to boot.

So they think it is reansble to hound other people on the list, because said people will not condemn JK because some MRAs want them to?! Bizarre behaviour really.

[VulvaPerson]

"I'm not taking sides on the content, it's about the bravery." Why give it to Rowling then? Give it to a Covid denier instead, they're braver, they got much more hostility than she ever got for talking dangerous nonsense.

This reply has pissed me off a lot though. Its like they are purposely trying to lie their way into a bigger lie that everyone believes. I mean, specifically adding on the ridiculous and untrue 'they got more hostility!!!' stuff is just trolling surely, when the TRA response is so easily found/seen? No right minded perso could claim JKR did ot get abusive replies, by the thousands also! Then the posting dick pics on her childrens drawing threads..it really does seem like some TRA types live in a totally different world to me smetimes, some parallel universe.