Harry Potter and the Ongoing Spat

[JsmeLegie]

I see she is now claiming that she was never actually friends with Fry.

Link here: https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/jk-rowling-stephen-fry-friends-b1234360.html

In support of Fry, barrister Jo Maugham stated “Really creditable this, from Stephen Fry. I've spoken to so many of JKR's once friends who now despair at her privately but won't do so publicly, which is very much the British way and why nothing ever changes for the better. So well done Stephen.”

Now Casey Bloys, CEO of the network working on a new HP series, has felt the need to clarify on a podcast that the forthcoming series won't be infused with her controversial views, insisting that her views are entirely separate to the show they're making.

And, as one of the latest celebrities to decide to speak out, Boy George weighed in at the beginning of the month with a few observations of his own (see attached image).

So the question here, really, is just how long are certain people going to blindly insist that JKR is an infallible saint when the (increasing) evidence from multiple sources is to the contrary?

Yes, she has funded a lot of good and charitable works for women, that is not in question, but at what point do we as a society finally agree that a human being is not absolved of horrendous behaviour in one part of their life simply because they compensate for it by doing a few good works in another?

Or perhaps you disagree entirely with all her detractors and feel she is unfairly treated / misunderstood / misquoted?
I'd like to hear your views. They are guaranteed to create an interesting dialogue.

To answer the question as to what is this “horrendous behaviour” sadly the answer is clear as day - saying no to men. Twas ever thus.

Yes, I know a moderately successful writer who lives in London, goes to the launches, features at the literary festivals, travels abroad. Speaks of lots of people as 'friends' who as far as I can see have that description because they are in the same social circle. Cannot stand Stephen Fry, though, which is interesting.

One of JKR's early Strike novels has a character who is and who does a few subtle checks to find which of her many fawning acquaintances can actually be trusted as a friend. I always found that interesting.

Not read the thread yet- but perplexed by the word horrendous to describe her behaviour. Horrendous? Really?

Meh. Stephen Fry doesn’t strike me as someone who spends too much time worrying about and protecting women’s rights and child safeguarding. This is a non news news story.

I guess it’s all about her being insanely wealthy , successful and female. It’s jealousy. They know they can’t destroy her and it’s eating away at them.

I think it’s the opposite.

If her life had taken a different turn and nobody knew who she was, I think she would still have been thinking about politics and ‘mouthing off’ on Brexit, Scottish Independence and Women’s Right and actively involving herself in causes she supports. It’s just who she is.

I think she has experienced being an almost mythical icon and knows that if you take all of that seriously you will go mad, so she doesn’t attempt to preserve that image.

I think she is sometimes overly reactive to people like India Willoughby (the twitter algorithm ‘nut picks’), but perhaps it’s more difficult to ignore twitter if you still get the same threats when you don’t engage.

I don’t recall any HP cast or crew complaining about her in any context that doesn’t relate to her women’s rights activism.

Agree.

The fact that he spent years around JKR and was probably unable to outshine her has possibly always grated on him.

Stephen Fry had a comic story of how, when he read the first Harry Potter audio book, he stumbled every time over the phrase "Harry pocketed it", to the point that he asked JKR if he could say "Harry put it in his pocket" instead.

Jo said no. And then apparently just to annoy him (in SF's view) she also used the phrase in all the other books written after that point.

Maybe this is his revenge.

One of the things she’s annoying him about is debunking that story. Great tale. Not true.

He’s a fabricator. The line between entertaining raconteur and fantasist is slender.

Evidently it never happened. Though I am amused at the idea that Fry's festering rage at finding it hard to read something written for 10-years-olds still animates him.

Apart from clearly being much less intelligent than he likes to imagine, he's being very stupid to deliberately attract a spotlight that filters for dodgy attitudes to child safety.

I nearly added that I hadn't fact-checked that tale. Must say that the timeline never seemed that likely.

Hmmm. I think you are gaslighting, and insulting everyone’s intelligence and level of reading comprehension. Bullshit.

It is very much about creating an opportunity to smear JKR, minimise the extensive financial support she has given to charity and her creative output, and point at some tweets you don’t like.

But assuming you are not being disingenuous (😂) and would like to genuinely discuss whether a person’s “good works in one field entitle them to behave with impunity in another”

There are a lot better examples with far greater misdemeanours to discuss if that is what you really wanted ( of course you did).

Pablo Picasso art vs.abuse of women
Michael Jackson music vs allegations of abuse of underage boys
Richard Wagner music vs antisemitism
Boy George music vs chaining prostitute to a radiator
Neil Gaiman books vs allegations of sexual predation
Eric Gill artist sculptor and paedophile

I am sure others can add to this.
All men, strangely enough.

She is clever and funny and sticks up for women. What’s not to like?

That makes sense. This corner of the internet feels like it's been taken over by Harry Enfield-esque sixth formers recently.

I suspect JsmeLegie is far too young to know who boy George is let alone know he is a convicted criminal. The pompous 'discuss' thread makes absolutely no sense otherwise.

That explains it. There's been a sudden influx of people telling us off.

For anyone who missed this, well worth reading when you're evaluating who's interested in safeguarding children and who's interested in breaching their boundaries.

And thanks OP for your biased opening that's enabled so much light to be shone on the behaviours of a number of grubby men.

So during the period that they were "friends" Fry chose to make up a story that deliberately made JKR look at best unkind and at worst like a dick.

Interesting.

I don't think anyone here thinks JKR is an infallible saint. In fact, I think it's her waspishness and enjoyment of a good row that makes us like her even more. Her twitter game reminds me of old school wits like Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, Bette Davis etc. It's a shame there are so few people around who match it.

ongoing controversies raised against her by others
There has been no controversy raised against her by others aside from 'she believes in biological sex and thinks this is sometimes important." That's all these midwits can find against her. Nothing else. Not one thing.

Yes, I did wonder why I'd seen so much #BeKind-ing going on in the last few days.

This does come across as school level mean girl whispering with a side order of jealousy. And wanting to take someone down a peg because she is successful.

“She's always mouthing off her opinions as if hers matter more because she is rich”

We can all mouth off our opinions in the age of social media, I don’t know how you make out that she thinks hers matter more because she is rich? Says more about you that you can see into her head and what she is thinking.

She's rich because of her own creative work. She started out in poverty. I would say that is something to admire. I also admire just how much of her wealth she has given away to charity.

I would judge her “mouthing off” on the merits of what she is actually saying.

In Uni, we watched "The Birth of a Nation". In the 1990s, our lecturer carefully explained to our majority white class that it was considered a classic despite the scenes of the KKK burning crosses outside the houses of Black people. They used the n word repeatedly. We were told to evaluate the art and remember it is of its time and times have now changed.

I wasn't sure then if that was right and I'm still not sure. But the current "cancelling" simply erases inconvenient situations without analysis or remedy so I don't believe it's a better way of doing things.

Telling us dinosaur mothers what's what

BG and SF are gay men so I wouldn’t expect them to agree with JKR.
MN are mainly women and the vast majority of women support JKR.
Oh and the Supreme Court agrees with JKR too.

So they can have their disappointed opinions all they like, we just don’t care.

Oh to have the confidence of a mediocre man.