JK Rowling has a new crime novel this week, The black ink heartand while there are obvious parallels between her experiences and the book’s plot about a female creator facing backlash over a controversial issue, the Harry Potter scribe states that it is mere coincidence.
Published under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the sixth installment in her Cormoran Strike series follows Edie Ledwell, co-creator of a popular cartoon called The black ink heart. According to the book’s official synopsis, Edie “is being pursued by a mysterious figure online who goes by the pseudonym Anomia.” According to Rolling Stone, Edie “sees internet trolls and her own fandom against her after the cartoon was criticized for being racist and ableist, as well as transphobic for a bit about a hermaphrodite worm.” While the detectives initially deny investigating the matter, they change course once Edie is found with a Taser and murdered in a graveyard.
In a new podcast interview with celebrity British presenter Graham Norton, Rowling said the parallels between the plot and her life are nothing more than coincidental. Rowling has been at the center of controversy for more than two years over comments she made on social media and in an essay on a range of transgender-related topics, from gender-affirming health care and therapy. from conversion to bathroom use.
Norton says that while reading the tome, she couldn’t help but think about how it “echoes her life”, to which Rowling says there are “more echoes” than she realized. However, she was quick to state that the book does not describe recent personal experiences online. “I wrote the book before certain things happened to me online,” she said. “I told my husband, ‘I think everyone will see this as a response to what happened to me,’ but it really wasn’t.”
She went on to say that the first draft of the book was completed when she herself faced controversy online. “The fandom within the black heart it’s absolutely not the Potter fandom. I had this idea for the plot, it was about three years ago, and I said to my two teenagers, ‘Who do you think is the most toxic fandom?’ To my amazement, they mentioned a certain cartoon, uh, that I had seen and thought was very clever and funny.”
Rowling declined to name the cartoon, but said she was surprised by his comment: “Then I went online and watched and thought, they’re absolutely right. That’s why he’s an animator in the book. I originally thought I could make him a comic book writer, but he’s an animator in homage to this particularly toxic fandom.”
