JK Rowling new book — chronic illness references

I've noticed that a number of the people who were early supporters of Rowling's views on trans issues had come from that culture of lazy skepticism that had been condemning of those criticising PACE, etc.

 

Okay, I’ve downloaded and read this book now. It’s a whodunnit, and a fair discussion of Rowling’s attitudes to ME/CFS would be tricky without spoilers. So if you are keen on overlong detective novels, please read it yourself and ignore this post.

The co-creator of a cartoon series is murdered, and the suspects are all members of - or somehow connected to - the cartoon’s vocal fandom.

Several of the characters have disabilities or chronic illnesses. This partly serves to chart the hero’s evolving attitude to his own disability (by the end of the book, he has seemingly accepted the limits of stoicism), but also serves a plot purpose: we learn early on that the murderer is a carer.

Let’s look at these characters first, and then address the wider question of JKR’s attitude to PwME.

Inigo has ME, although his main symptoms alongside fatigue and wheelchair use (even indoors) seem more Parkinsonian: his illness is evidenced as real to the detectives when he spills his herbal tea all over himself. An overbearing, self-pitying and peevish domestic tyrant, his conversation and online output covers very S4ME themes, including the iniquity of graded exercise therapy and psychological diagnoses. His illness is portrayed as essentially real and not psychosomatic, although his rage at cruel fate is compared (through juxtaposition) with other, more stoical invalids.

Cormoran, for instance, the hero of the series, has part of a leg missing, but thumps gamely around London and uses mobility aids as little as possible. Like JKR’s most notable authorial proxy, Albus Dumbledore, he explicitly believes that it is one’s reactions to adversity that define one’s character, rather than the misfortune itself, and he has little sympathy for Inigo.

We don’t see much of Vikas, but he is a wheelchair-using cerebal palsy sufferer, who nevertheless has become a Cantabrigian astrophysicist. He is lauded by other characters for doggedly overcoming his disability.

Kea identifies as having CFS. The seriousness of her condition is suspiciously varied and perhaps selective: she runs away in awkward situations, sudden fatigue is cured with a glass of coke, and the explanation of “good days and bad days” is relayed with clear authorial snark.

Kea may just possibly be faking the whole thing: members of the fandom regularly pose as sufferers from chronic conditions in order to enter into dialogue with Inigo, whose wife is the cartoon creators’ agent. That would imply, though, that Kea is also deceiving her mother and primary carer. JKR leaves the matter open.

Kea’s online musings on illness and life are portrayed as mawkish, self-pitying and defensive. She posts that it is okay to use mobility aids without being advised to by a clinician: this is juxtaposed snidely with Cormoran’s avoidance of canes.

A member of the detective agency quits early on because he has MS and can no longer soldier on bravely. Another character’s mother has lupus.

The killer turns out to be Inigo’a put-upon son Gus, who suffers from hives, which he secretly excacerbates by eating unsuitable foods. Gus’s hives (alongside his virtuoso cello playing and his care for his father) initially serve as sympathy-inducing misdirection.

By contrast, Kea and Inigo are deeply unsympathetic characters from the start. That said, most of the characters are unlikeable - after all, this is a whodunnit, and JKR wants the reader to suspect all of them, at various points, of being the murderer.


JKR uses Kea’s possibly spurious illness and Inigo’s self-pity as indicators of potential villainy, but to be fair, she has a seemingly inexhaustible list of characteristics which she clearly regards as reprehensible. This eclectic list includes: dropping aitches, t-fronting or any other non-U diction; chewing noisily; exposed bosoms; shabby clothing; great wealth; having any interest in money; playing loud music; prolific social media output and spending time on the internet in general.

It’s a rather Daily Mail-ish mix of snobbery, inverted snobbery and anti-present nostalgia, which prejudices JKR seems to assume that her readers will share in full. It must be a huge relief for her to write for an audience of peers, rather than for the dewy-eyed children who morphed into the creepy adult Potter fandom which so clearly inspired much of this book.

Because fundamentally, what JKR hates isn’t PwME, it’s Internet People. Would she hate all of us? Undoubtedly. We’re on an online echo chamber of doom, complaining about reputable academics instead of somehow making the best of things. Like Kea, we write absurdities about “spoons” and may even list our comorbidities by way of online introduction.

And JKR has decided (understandably), to hate every aspect of microsocial platforms, especially the snap judgements and over-sharing of Twitter. Kea’s online activity is cast as risible, but then so is all online social communication.

I don’t think that JKR is good at writing about the Internet. She’s always had a tendency to write the dialogue of minor characters lazily and to lapse into parody, but this fault is much more glaring in the epistolary sequences of online communications. And it comes across as parodic, I suspect, because it has been lifted from quick scans of both primary online activity and secondary analysis. Her whiny ill people on Twitter are unsatisfactory for the same reason that her online pick-up-artists and Odinists are flimsily delineated: she doesn’t like them enough to put much work into them.

 

What a joke. Would she dare express these kind of views on an illness like cancer? Of course not. She would be figuratively nuked off the face of the earth if she did that. But because its CFS and POTS, you know, those fake "SJW illnesses" where the patients complain and antagonize the academics, then it's fine.

And if it was just an isolated incident, then whatever. But this stuff keeps happening over and over. Just a few days ago i was reading a reddit thread on r/medicine and 99% of the doctors there were saying POTS is psychosomatic. It never fucking ends.

 

I think the core issue comes back to the fact that people listen to what the professionals (doctors) have to say and form their opinion based on that. 99% of them still think these illnesses are fake, psychosomatic, etc so that's what the public will think. You might have some echo chamber on twitter but it's not representative of the general public attitude towards PwME which i don't think has changed much at all. But on the other hand advocacy doesn't really work on doctors either, because they don't take into consideration anything except what other doctors say. A bit of a pickle isn't it...

 

i wonder where she got those ideas from?

well there you go, say no more

 

Oh, for sure that's it. Add to it the general nastiness about us portrayed in UK media, which is what's said publicly about us, and add some of the things said privately about us from people likely exposed to the worst misinformation about us.

Bigotry begets bigotry. Who knew?!

 

You have to pick your battles. Is this one really worth fighting? JKR is an author of second-rate children's fantasy books. Her adult books are reported to be worse. There is no reason to suppose that she is a particularly profound thinker. The same would be said of anyone who takes seriously her views.

Better not to fall into the trap set by her. It would only help her justify herself.

I do admit to not having got beyond the first page of her first book. I looked at it to decide whether I should encourage my children to read it. I quicklydecided I shouldn't. They would have to find it for themselves. They stuck with Phillip Pullman.

 

This.

I read through @Shadrach Loom 's post with interest, mainly because I decided I couldn't be arsed jumping in until I knew the context.

What a strange thing for her to decide to do as a next step after she'd had all of the turmoil from her trans comments. Writing troped bigotry about the disabled would leave her no leg to stand on re accusations of general small-mindedness/bigotry if there was actually something she thought it was worth her saying on that initial spat. The rule of 2. And the second one just for the sake of it picking the lowest hanging fruit available to her. What a strange habit.

The phrase 'lacks depth' seems to be the correct in all meanings of the word assessment of this. Cheap being the other. Surely you'd at least interrogate, probably do further research to get the storylines/characters to add up even if 'someone' had relayed the tropes [they'd invented to cover up their trial being debunked] to her.

Hopefully we'll see what some of the actors say if they do get asked to act this out. An offer to them to 'meet' (or see if it is very severe/severe) some real PwME, as actors used to go on TV talking about doing 'as part of their research for the role' might be the only thing I'd think isn't a trap potential.

 

I have read it. I will do a big post on it when I have the energy.

Edit: I see now that someone else has already done this, but I have more that I want to say about it!

 

Funnily enough, the Audrey whose tweet you’ve quoted here, is actually my friend - it’s me she got these screenshots from haha! I was keeping her posted whilst I was reading.

Like I said, I’ll post more details when I have time/energy. Hopefully in the next few days.

 

(Spoilers: I HATED the portrayal of ME and a few other disabilities. Also, no detective novel has any right to be 1000 pages long. It was a SLOG.)

 

Under rules for efficient policing all detective novels are one page long, as any member of the police that wastes time with the rest of the 'novel' when the culprit is detailed at the end would be liable for disciplinary action.

 

I think the real amazing thing is that at least 2 people with MECFS were able to make it through a {boring?} 1024 page novel. I couldn’t have done that in a normal state—not even close!

 

What would that be the consequences? Promotion?

 

Just posting here before I lose the thought forever - given the successful transfer of the Galbraith novels to TV production and broadcast by the BBC, there's a good possibility that this latest will make it's way to TV as well. BBC Producer Guidelines may be significant: https://www.bbc.co.uk/delivery/portrayal#diversitydefinitions

"Diamond diversity reporting
As part of our pledge to improve the diversity of our content and our workforce we need to be able to measure and report on progress. Without knowing where we are now, we can’t confidently improve in the future. To do that we use the industry standard Diamond monitoring system to collect data about the diversity of our programmes.

Diamond is made up of two different types of information:

• Actual: the self-declared diversity characteristics of everyone contributing to the production, including on-screen talent and off-screen crew and production staff. This gives us a picture of the actual make up of our teams.
• Perceived: the diversity characteristics of on-screen characters, presenters and contributors to the programme as viewers might perceive them. This gives us a sense of how our content and storylines are likely to be representing the range of communities across the UK.

Diamond forms are completed via the production reporting system Silvermouse. Find guidance on completing and submitting the forms in the help and resources section below."

My bold

Perhaps early expression of concern how the the latest novel might fall foul of the guideline might be made to BBC production and the outside production company - Bronte Films & TV https://www.brontefilmandtv.co.uk/biographies might be useful ?

 

It’s a great thought. Is the aim to head an adaptation off at the pass, or to force an improved portrayal of PwME and ME communities? It might affect the optimum timing of such a campaign.

 

Important to be careful when approaching TV adaptation issues as we'll just be painted as "online trolls and campaigners" again if it's not handled properly.