Those who would burn books
must be resisted.
September 29th 2020.
The mob has turned on J.K.Rowling with unthinking and unbridled malice. Her crime? That of holding an informed and well-reasoned opinion on matters close to her heart, but which runs contrary to the strict groupthink of some (by no means all) trans people.
It all kicked off when she objected to the phrase 'people who menstruate'; a painfully clumsy way to avoid using the word 'women'. She called this out: "I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? “ and then the dogs of the cancel culture were well and truly unleashed.
What followed has already been well documented and commented upon, but it wasn't until I sat and read the tweets under #RIPJKRowling that I began to understand the seething malice and hatred being fomented and perpetuated. Many of the tweets are so venomous and malignant one would think JKR was slowly boiling kittens in oil whilst recording their pitiful screams for a later lullaby. Indeed the term 'witch' is commonly used by these people who profess constantly to be understanding, caring, empathetic and supportive. As long as you don't dare disagree, of course.
Added to this are a string of slebs who, terrified of being subjected to such vitriol, join the clamour and criticise her with transparently varied degrees of conviction. This includes the entitled children Radcliffe, Watson and Grint who were plucked from obscurity and made wealthy household names by her talent.
It also includes the insufferably annoying Jedward who say that 'JK's new book is perfect to burn next to a romantic fire. Aww get all cozy and comfy can't wait'.
And did the leading Harry Potter fan sites the Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet stand by the lady whose imagination they celebrate? Did they proclaim that JKR is as entitled to our hard won right to free speech as anyone else?
No, they didn't. The mealy-mouthed muggles proudly proclaimed they would no longer use images of her or link to her site. One can only marvel at the twisted thinking process that could lead them to such a decision.
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JKR posted an essay explaining her position in which she outlined five reasons she was worried about what she described as 'the new trans-activism'. It makes for compelling reading.
What is notably absent however, is any 'hatred' for trans people. It simply isn't there. Instead, there is a depth of understanding and knowledge that I think is valuable and instructive. This, however, makes no difference to the howling mob.
And now, the book burners are upon us. The fact that I have written such a sentence outside a fiction worries me, to say the very least. How have we come to this? For me and for many millions of others, the burning of books is a chilling and iconic act of malice and hatred. Newsweek reports that burning copies of JKR's books is a new TikTok trend. In a chillingly prescient comment from the 1820's, Heinrich Heine observed 'where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings'.
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No mob I have ever read of has ever paused to consider its position or listen to reason. I have seen riots and felt the terrible heat of hatred and unthinking violence first hand, and I doubt the lily-livered serial offendees spitting vitriol at anyone who dares hold an opinion even slightly at variance to theirs have the first idea of the eventual consequences of their actions, beyond that of signalling their own virtue and bringing sadness and hurt to JKR and her family, not to say deep dismay to any thinking person familiar with the term Kristallnacht.
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They are right, and if you don't agree, you must therefore be wrong and should be cancelled.
It's as simple as that.