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JK Rowling reignites controversy in new book with transphobic character

the writer J.K. Rowling received criticism again and became one of the most talked about topics on Twitter this week due to the launch of his new book, “The Ink Black Heart”.

The story portrays Edie Ledwell, the co-creator of a cartoon murdered after being persecuted by netizens who accuse her of being transphobic, racist and ableist.

Posts on Twitter point to a parallel between the book’s character and the attacks suffered by JK Rowling herself after publishing transphobic statements in 2021.

In an interview with the podcast “Radio Show” , by Graham Norton, however, the writer denied that the work was inspired by her own life. She said she imagined readers might get that impression, but that the book was written before “certain things” had happened to her.

“I told my husband, ‘I think everyone will see this as a response to what happened to me.’ But it genuinely isn’t,” she said.

The book “The Ink Black Heart” is the sixth volume of the crime fiction series “Cormoran Strike”, written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, and still does not have a release date in Brazil.

The fifth volume of the series, released in 2020, had already received criticism from internet users and LGBTQIA+ rights activists.

“Troubled Blood” tells the story of a serial killer who dresses up as a woman when committing his crimes.

At the time, charity organization Mermaids, which supports transgender children and their families in the UK, told CNN that portraying people in cross-dressing as a threat was “a battered and even half-worn stereotype responsible for the demonization of a small group of people who simply hope to live their lives with dignity.”

The pseudonym Robert Galbraith

The writer had already been the subject of comments because of the name chosen as a pseudonym to publish the series.

Robert Galbraith Heath was an American psychiatrist who experimented with conversion therapies that were intended to “reverse” patients’ homosexuality.

At the series official website JK Rowling explains what led her to choose this name: “I chose Robert because he’s one of my favorite male names, because Robert F Kennedy is my hero. Galbraith came about for a slightly odd reason. When I was a kid, I really wanted to be called ‘Ella Galbraith,’ and I have no idea why.”

THE CNN the author’s spokesperson declared that the claim that the pseudonym was chosen on account of the American psychiatrist is “categorically false”.



Source: CNN Brasil

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