The Running Grave - possible spoilers

[thevegetablesoup]

I've just finished this and really loved it, felt it was a return to form after the ink black heart which I still Enjoyed but not my favourite.

Anyway, in this one, strike and Robin are investigating a cult called the United humanitarian church and I did notice a lot of parallels between the church and trans ideology.....

For example

The church has a difficult relationship with the truth
It encourages members to cut themselves off from family members
Its emphasis on the spirit over the body- at one point Robin is chastised when she is undercover as a cult member for referring to someone as gay- she is told "bodies don't matter, spirit matters"

It was brilliant and thought provoking and JKR is a genius.

Of course it's not the first time in literature that it's been done, but I liked the way she showed how language can be used to modify the way people think.
The jargon she came up with, using familiar words with loaded new meanings,
(materialist possession, flesh objects, ego-motivity), and the pressure to use the new terms, certainly remind me of a certain social phenomena.
In some ways I found this to be the most thought provoking book of hers so far, I couldn't help imagining how I'd have coped in the circumstances on the farm, as a child or as an adult.
Maybe the ink black heart is still my favorite, though, the way the online entities were revealed as real life humans one by one was like a mystery with lots of reveals.

After reading it, it seems strange to me that it's so often portrayed as a swipe at her detractors, when to me it was much more about the strange intersection of isolation and community online, as well as how misogyny is a point of intersection between strands of right, left, and apolitical.

I finished it 10seconds ago and came straight back here.

IBH probably was my favourite, prior to this, for the reasons a pp gives …. that intersection of real life and online.

but bloody hell, now I’ve read the RG. Shit I don’t think I’ve read a more anxiety Inducing set of chapters than Robins time at the farm. and yeah, normally the UST between characters would piss me off. But not them two. Argggggh.

Might have to change my username again.

Somehow, whether she is writing children's fantasy or adult mysteries, JKR creates worlds that I can slip into and don't want to leave.

Actually it was the same with The Casual Vacancy - I re-read it last year after finishing the 🖤and really enjoyed it - a v under rated book with great characters and v sad ending.

Actually I think I'd be quite up for joining a cult started by Rowling; presumably based on reality and common sense, peopled mainly by educated middle aged women in sensible shoes.

Although if there was a cult just for women, devoted to women's rights, transwomen would be simultaneously calling the leader an evil Nazi whilst wailing to be allowed to join. Could be entertaining to watch.

I think we'd call it a commune, or more likely a 'writer's retreat' though

it'd a totally different thing when we do it 😘

I'm not sure trans ideology was at the forefront of her mind when she wrote this. Someone in pink news pushed that angle but I thought that was more them not seeing past trans ideology and presuming everyone else was similarly blinkered. To me it drew more on other cults/ religious beliefs like Bhagwan Ragneesh (the orange people) and Scientology and Christian Science.
The charismatic male guru who lived a lifestyle very different to that he imposed on his followers was very like Rajneesh with his rolls royces and expensive watches. The active meditation and not encouraging family life and new names and special form of dress was Rajneesh. Avoiding medical care is like Christian Science. All the rich celebrities helping prop it up was Scientology. The special language and inner truths only revealed to the special ones is also scientology.
I think it's clever the way she combined all these elements. I was less impressed by the very unbelievable prophets but I suppose many Catholic saints are no less weird and unbelievable and yet they are venerated by millions, often for having been martyred so venerating people who had gory deaths isn't that unbelievable.
I think JK Rowling is much more than an opponent of trans idiology. The way women are abused by men in most religions and free sex usually benefits men came through.

@2Rebecca yes it was absolutely generalised with some elements from a lot of different cults that are now universally seen as cults, and some fictionalised elements within a keen understanding of the types of behaviour and practices that make something a cult, and that tend to be found in successful cults.

Anyone who sees any parallel with how (some) trans people behave can only be advised to consider it carefully. Tell us all the parallels and similarities in which YOU think your friends behaviour is like this.

I agree with what you say, regarding JKR's inspiration for building the Wayce cult. However, and this is something that's been in my mind for as long I've been interested in this phenomenon of trans activism, it's impossible for me at least to not notice the same cultish behaviour in TRA circles. The interesting aspect to me is that, for something to be considered "properly" a cult, it seems you need a leader (charismatic, narcissistic, authoritarian...): it can be one person, or a group of persons. But how do you define a group without visible leaders, that has the same thinking structure of a cult, but it's not a "closed system" per se?
Am I making sense? (Sorry, english is not my mother tongue, and I'm afraid I can't quite put into words my concerns).
I guess this is something that does exist in a spectrum... 🙄

By the way: any recommendations of books similar to the Strike series? I need a coping mechanism until the next one is out...

Finished it last night. I think it's my favourite. My only criticism it's maybe too long and could do with some tighter editing. But that aside I loved it, a fascinating breakdown of how cults work and how even the strongest can get dragged in. I feel a bit bereft now I've finished it.

@MsNeis you're right there are some overlaps but it isn't a perfect analogy by any means which is why I'm glad she hasn't tried to make it an analogy. It probably has more in common with the puritans or the Taliban where any man can at any time decide to put on the right clothes / a black turban and is then 'part' of the Taliban and gains the 'right' to boss around and punish women for not following the rules. Where the number 1 rule is always women should always do precisely what they're told to by men. And of course, shut the hell up.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/scolds-bridle

@howdoesatoastermaketoast Oh, that article is awful... I didn't know about those horrible artifacts... Although I once ended up in a "witchcraft museum", and it was such a traumatic experience at such a young age, for me... Really gave me some perspective on the reach of misogyny.

It was the mention of Il Portico that really made me smile, such a lovely tribute to them.
(As a previous poster said, I’m reading it again now I can do so without feeling so anxious!)

Might join the reading it again crew! I had to skip around chapters to check what was happening as got so tense! Never normally do that 🙈

@sooty20235 relatable, I like how it played out but the tension was definitely a bit much at places.

Well done again, Jo, I fell for all the red herrings and you got me again as usual...and I can't say I wasn't warned or the clues weren't there, because they totally were.

I'll need a bit of time for the themes and so on to percolate a little but I love how, as ever, she's got right to the heart of human complexity. Also, I think I fancy Strike.

I was recently sent The Running Grave on Audible by a friend with the instruction to forget my prejudices and listen. I recognise the skill of JKR's plotting and imagination but have always found her writing unreadably clunky. Somewhere along the way she missed out the lesson about showing and not telling. A skilled editor could cut the texts to half their length and make them so much better. Several people here have mentioned the impact Pat makes, despite rarely appearing and saying very little. If only the whole book would work that way instead of the endless repetitive internal monologues.

BUT I thought the decision to base the book around a cult was inspired and take my hat off to her for leaving Robin at the farm for so long in order to explore the way cults work. It gives such scope for exploring the hive mind, the social control, the othering, the way in which the sociopaths rise to the top and the vulnerable are exploited. I hope JKR had enormous fun seeding the narrative with things she knew GC readers would recognise. I was particularly fond of Wace quoting Step 6 to Robin and telling her that

'The pure spirit knows acceptance is more important than understanding.'

I actually whooped at that point.

I didn't love the Harry Potter books as much as (everybody?) else seemed to but I've really enjoyed the Strike novels. I think it's because I feel closer to and more interested in the characters. I agree the characterisation and personal lives of the detectives in given much more space in these books compared with an Agatha Christie (who I also love) which makes the pacing of the AC feel tighter.

But as soon as I finish the book I wish there was more of it so...

My favourite two fingers to the fuckwit brigade was in Troubled Blood (I think) when someone was referred to as a "radical feminist witch".

She has such a mischievous sense of humour.

By the way: any recommendations of books similar to the Strike series? I need a coping mechanism until the next one is out...

The Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey series?

I am loving the audiobook (I think I must be about 25 hours in!!!). By listening to it whilst cooking/cleaning etc., I can overlook some of the iffy editing.
Robert Glenister is a brilliant narrator.

Robin/Rowena must have excellent cholesterol levels after all that porridge she got through.

I finished it a week or two ago and this thread popped back up. I’m going to brag now about how I picked the killer! It was after Cherie Gittins hanged herself, the only person who knew they were going was Abigail Glover because Strike had told her during the phone call by the side of the road. The pigs were always going to be integral.

My main criticism was I think it was little bit too neat how Strike put it all together in his monologue to her but it was such a great story overall I didn’t mind too much. The cult chapters were incredibly stressful. It’s so descriptive of how it happens in real life. But I had faith that JKR would not allow Robin to be raped again.

I agree with pp that it wasn’t just gender cultism, I read a good deal of other general cult themes, Scientology, general religion…the roots are always the same. Charismatic men who manipulate angry, lost men into helping create a society of control over money and women. JKR nails it every time.

I think Ian Rankin's "Rebus" books might be a good alternative to Cormoran Strike. There's also Anne Cleeves' "Shetland" and "Vera" novels.

A skilled editor could cut the texts to half their length and make them so much better.

i respectful disagree. I think it’s a calculated move on the part of her and her editors.

her USP is as a skilful world builder. Her fanbase in both of her genres relish every moment spent in that world. I definitely don’t want less book. I’m in there for a long time AND a good time (to mis quote a well known phrase)

I agree. I've read books that are 200 pages long recently that have DRAGGED. This one was about 900 pages and I didn't want it to end and felt like I'd read it far too quickly.

This is the MO of every single cult, though, it's not particular to The Church of the Gender Essence.

I loved it, my favourite Strike book by far. Incredibly well researched, especially considering it was written before all the recent Lighthouse revelations were made public.