JK Rowling called ‘Britain’s nastiest novelist’ in New Statesman

[IwantToRetire]

After setting out the examples of nastiness in recent works including The Ink Black Heart and The Running Grave, he stated that Rowling has evolved “from saint-like Labour Party-supporting children’s author to polemical political activist, seemingly obsessive about the tabloid media, Scottish nationalism and, most provocatively for her millennial readers, gender-critical feminism”.

He claimed that she lacks “self-awareness” because she “condemns vicious keyboard warriors and hysterical reactionaries in her books but engages in similar behaviour herself online”.

“In another world, JK Rowling could be a character in a book by Robert Galbraith: brittle, insecure, cruel.”

Following the backlash, the New Statesman appeared to alter the original headline to “JK Rowling, Britain’s Gloriously Nasty Novelist”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/15/jk-rowling-called-britains-nastiest-novelist-new-statesman/

I dont think it is a surprise that some male writer would say this. The question is why would the New Statesman want to publish it?

Article behind paywall but can be read at https://archive.ph/LJMFL

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts. She also brags about how much money she has which is a bad look on anyone.

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts.

Really? Could you provide some linked tweets, which show that, please?

Gets comfy...

Come on, where's the next bit?

If I'd made billions of pounds all from my own hard work and imagination I'd brag about it too (not I think JKR does any bragging).

Stephen King runs a foundation to support artists who can't work due to health conditions, and has fundraised millions to help poor families with heating bills.

Thomas Harris is a long standing volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation centre.

Just because someone's not shouting about their charitable work doesn't mean they're not doing it.

And you'd come off equally classless and tacky no doubt. Especially if you were arguing with a teenager on twitter, which Rowling inexplicably seems to spend a great deal of time doing.

Apropos of nothing - my daughter's new soup mug:

How odd to be writing a spiteful article about someone he’s clearly wildly envious of while, making money out of using her name in his headline, and yet him thinking that she’s the nasty one 🙄

No tweets then, PrawnLiberationFront?

I can't stomach Val McDermid's books either, they are unrelentingly violent and horrific violence at that, much like Jo Nesbo who just seems to write violence for violence sake.

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts.

I've never seen her quote tweet a smaller account negatively that didn't post something abusive or slander her. Why should she be silent in the face of threats and personal abuse?

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts.

Especially if you were arguing with a teenager on twitter, which Rowling inexplicably seems to spend a great deal of time doing.

The ones sending her death, rape and sexual abuse threats perchance?

Love her writing and love her supportive views.
Those who criticise her never have anything solid to say and always seem to make it personal and angry.

So true.

😍 want one!

What a wimp! JKR receives awfully detailed rape and death threats, and yet she manages not to be a crybaby and delete twitter.

He got some rightful pushback for being a nasty cunt, and can't take it. boo bloody hoo

Good. I can't tweet about the subject but ohhhhh I wish I had her strength

Only if your definition of "abuse" and "slander" is so broad it includes "anyone who doesn't wholeheartedly agree with me".

And you'd come off equally classless and tacky no doubt. Especially if you were arguing with a teenager on twitter, which Rowling inexplicably seems to spend a great deal of time doing.

Are those grapes especially sour today @PrawnLiberationFront

PrawnLiberationFront · Today 13:38

Only if your definition of "abuse" and "slander" is so broad it includes "anyone who doesn't wholeheartedly agree with me".

Threats of assault, rape and murder aren't "not agreeing wholeheartedly" with another person.

Have you got any tweets to show the sort of thing you meant?

If they write similar hit pieces regularly, fine. Just bringing this out of left field (disclamer: I think the Strike books are badly written, but i know many people love them) is bonkers.

But that isn't the main point here. As pp said: it is his inability to defend what he wrote, to show his working, to show us the tweet she liked (and so fucking what? i have liked tweets by my MP before, on one topic, in all other respects i loathe her) and after a few hours of pushback he... deleted his twitter account? As the Germans would say: he takes warm showers

Because women aren't allowed to stand up for themselves and should be seen and not heard?

You CANNOT leave us hanging, what happens next?!! Will Nick overstep in his unhappiness that a woman has opinions of her own, get fired and replaced by the better qualified yet inexplicably less well paid female journalist who is willing to evidence her claims in articles? And will Miss Marple successfully hide the weedkiller?

This is a criticism I’ve heard before, though very surprisingly with no actual examples provided, so perhaps it’s a standard TRA attack tactic. The purpose seems to be to portray JKR as a bad person, but for me it fails in that purpose because no-one I know is 100% pure and perfect. If the worst that can be said about someone is that they have some wrong opinions and that they sometimes state them in a way that can be interpreted as mean, it seems to me that they are probably have a place among the nicer half of the population.

She's certainly guilty of winning battles of wit with unarmed opponents.