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RSS workers start ‘chaddi’ campaign to counter Cong move of burning khaki shorts in K’taka

Bengaluru, June 6 (SocialNews.XYZ) To counter the opposition Congress’s move to burn khaki shorts worn by RSS workers to show their opposition to saffronisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers have started collecting shorts and knickers from houses and sending them to the Congress headquarter in Bengaluru to be given to opposition leader Siddaramaiah.

The move has triggered public outrage in the state. RSS workers of K.R. Pet unit in Mandya district of Karnataka have sent a parcel containing shorts, condemning the call given by Siddaramaiah to burn khaki shorts all over the state.


 

The RSS workers claimed that the opposition leader won’t be able to burn the huge number of khaki shorts that will be sent to him. The workers went door to door in the villages and collected used shorts and knickers.

Later they packed hundreds of shorts and knickers into a box and parcelled it to the Bengaluru Congress office.

Activists of the NSUI had burnt khaki shorts in front of the residence of Education Minister B.C. Nagesh to protest against the revision of syllabus for school students. The ruling BJP had strongly condemned the incident and arrested 15 persons in this connection.

Later, the Congress state unit began burning khaki shorts, slamming the ruling BJP for bending before the RSS in its policies and programmes.

The campaign by the RSS is likely to be taken up by workers all over the state, according to sources.

Source: IANS

About Gopi

Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.

He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.

When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.

He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz

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Evil Genius celebrating Harry Potter exhibit coming to Philly with themed beer and events

Evil Genius Beer Company is honoring the world premiere of a Harry Potter exhibit that’s coming to Philadelphia with the release of a beer inspired by the book and movie series.

“Harry Potter: The Exhibition” will arrive at The Franklin Institute on Friday, Feb. 18. The long-awaited program was first announced in July, and will be an immersive experience that brings together fans of the Wizarding World to get an up-close look at original props and costumes used in the films.


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As part of the festivities, the Fishtown-based brewery and taproom is releasing a special-edition homage to butterbeer on Feb. 18.

“Spoiler Alert: It’s LeviOSa, not LevioSA” is a vanilla caramel blond ale with a 6% ABV. The beer is made with natural flavors and has a sweet taste thanks to the toasted and caramelized malts used during the brewing process. It will be available exclusively at the brewery, either by draft or growler.

Two Harry Potter-inspired cocktails will be available through March 20 as well. These include the “Throwing Snowballs at Voldemort,” a butterbeer slushie made with Stateside vodka, and the “Defrosting Broomsticks,” a butterbeer-inspired martini. 

Evil Genius will also be hosting several special events through the end of March in conjunction with the Franklin Institute exhibit. 

Kicking off the lineup is a 0.5K charity run on Saturday, March 12 at 12:30 p.m, hosted by The Hogwarts Running Club. Tickets are $30 and include a free pint and a swag bag with Evil Genius branded water bottles, bottle openers and more. Proceeds from the event will be donated to support Trans Lifeline, a hotline-based charity that provides emotional and financial assistance to transgender individuals. 

On Sunday, March 27, Evil Genius will hold a Harry Potter-themed drag brunch. Tickets for “Gryffindor in the Streets, Slytherin in the Sheets” are still available. The event will open at 11:30 a.m., with the show to follow at noon.

Aside from its Harry Potter-themed event line-up, Evil Genius will join other area vendors on Saturday, March 12 from 12 until 6 p.m. for the “Block Party Under the El.” The anniversary party for the brewery’s tasting room includes themed-photo opportunities, food provided by Red Stone Pizza, and drinks. 

Anyone under 21 or without identification must be accompanied by a parent or guardian who is 21 or older. 


Evil Genius Celebrates Harry Potter

Netflix’s new Adam Sandler movie just dropped — and it’s already No. 1

Adam Sandler has been making movies for Netflix since 2014, but his newest project might be his best yet. The sports drama Hustle (which arrived today, and is one of th  new movies and shows to watch this weekend) is a hit with critics and Netflix users, earning a 88 percent Rotten Tomatoes (opens in new tab) rating and 90 percent audience score. Oh, and as of Thursday afternoon, it’s the number 1 movie in the U.S. on Netflix, per the service’s front page.

Sandler’s Netflix movies have been poorly reviewed but very popular with viewers. That’s why Netflix extended its high-priced deal with his Happy Madison production banner in 2020 to produce four more films. At the time, the streamer noted subscribers had spent two billion hours watching his films, which include The Ridiculous 6, Sandy Wexler, The Week Of and Murder Mystery (which was the service’s most popular movie in 2019). 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone ultimate fan quiz: Who said these 16 quotes?

ANSWERS:

1: Professor Minerva McGonagall, Chapter 1. 2: Rubeus Hagrid, Chapter 4. 3: Garrick Ollivander, Chapter 5. 4: Molly Weasley, Chapter 6.

5: Professor Albus Dumbledore, Chapter 7. 6: Professor Severus Snape, Chapter 8. 7: Professor Minerva McGonagall, Chapter 9.

8: Hermione Granger Chapter 10. 9: Draco Malfoy, Chapter 12. 10: Draco Malfoy, Chapter 13. 11: Ron Weasley, Chapter 14. 12: Professor Severus Snape, Chapter 15.

13: Hermione Granger, Chapter 16. 14: Professor Albus Dumbledore, Chapter 17. 15: Professor Quirinus Quirrell Chapter 17. 16: Professor Albus Dumbledore, Chapter 17. 

The scrapped ‘Ugly Sonic’ movie design has a cameo in the new Chip ‘n Dale film

The original version of Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie makes a cameo appearance in the new Disney+ film Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

The original Sonic design, which had a more ‘realistic’ appearance, was scrapped following a backlash after the first Sonic movie trailer (which can be seen embedded below) was shown.

Sonic was redesigned into something more aesthetically pleasing, and the movie went on to enjoy the best opening weekend of any video game adaptation at the time.

That original design has become internet legend, however, hence its appearance in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, which arrives on Disney+ today.

In the new Disney+ movie, ‘Ugly Sonic’ has his own guest booth at a comic convention, and is trying to make the most of his infamy by selling signed photos of himself.

Talking about the convention-goers, Ugly Sonic says: “They’ll like me for who I am, not like last time when the internet got one look at my human teeth and burned the place down.”

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He then signs an autograph for a teenager, who chuckles to his friend.

“Oh, they’re laughing at me,” Ugly Sonic reacts. “I know that. You can’t hurt my feelings if I’m in on the joke.”

He then claims to have been offered a job on a reality show called Ugly Sonic, Uglier Crimes where he accompanies the FBI on ‘ride-alongs’.

The director of Rescue Rangers explained how the Ugly Sonic cameo came about on Friday, and said he’d like to “thank the lawyers”.

The scrapped ‘Ugly Sonic’ movie design has a cameo in the new Chip ‘n Dale film
Ugly Sonic is seen at a comic convention in the movie

The original Sonic the Hedgehog trailer was first shown online in April 2019 and was instantly met with widespread displeasure from the Sonic fanbase.

After the trailer’s release the less exaggerated, more realistic Sonic design came under heavy criticism on social media, with even the character’s co-creator Yuji Naka acknowledging the unpopular design.

Sonic movie director Jeff Fowler then took to Twitter to reassure fans that their message had been received.

“Thank you for the support. And the criticism,” he wrote. “The message is loud and clear… you aren’t happy with the design you want changes. It’s going to happen.”

Adding the hashtag #GottaFixFast, he promised: “Everyone at paramount and Sega are fully committed to making this character the best he can be.”

The resulting redesign was a clear success for paramount. The first film performed well enough to justify a sequel, which has now become the highest-grossing video game movie of all time in the US.

paramount and Sega also announced in February that a third Sonic the Hedgehog film and a live-action TV series focusing on Knuckles have already entered production.

Puffs: Theatre West End to premiere Harry Potter-themed youth performance

SANFORD, Fla. – Sanford’s Theatre West End is set to premiere its student-led showing of “Puffs,” based on the Harry Potter series of children’s books.

According to the show’s web page, “Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic, finally gives the Hufflepuffs their due after they’ve been given short shrift in the series. Here lies the answer to ‘What is a Hufflepuff?’”

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The production’s summary reads:

“Puffs” is part of the theatre’s West End Prep program, which is designed to support youth with a passion for performing.

Showtimes will run Friday, June 24 through Sunday, June 26, with both matinee and nightside tickets available.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the theatre’s website here.

The Silent Hill movie’s director says he’s written a script for a third film

The director of the 2006 Silent Hill movie says he’s written a script for another one.

Speaking to Jeux Video, director Christophe Gans revealed that he wrote the script during the Covid-19 lockdown, and that the film is unrelated to the 2006 and 2012 Silent Hill films.

“I’m working on it now,” he said (translated by VGC). “There were the Covid-19 years which finally forced us to stay home.

“I took the opportunity to write two scripts, [including] the script for a new Silent Hill movie that is totally independent from the two previous movies made and respects the way Silent Hill has evolved.”

“Most of the time, these are stand-alone stories. Silent Hill is a bit like The Twilight Zone, the fourth dimension, a place where anything and everything can happen.

“I worked on a new Silent Hill which is a Silent Hill of the year 2023 – because the film would be released next year – and not a Silent Hill as I imagined it in 2006. It is a Silent Hill for today’s audiences while being ultra respectful of the saga.

It’s not entirely clear from the interview whether Gans is confirming that the film will indeed be released in 2023, or whether he simply wrote the script with a 2023 release in mind.

“I’m aware that Silent Hill is a very big video game franchise, and a work of art in the noble sense of the word,” he added. “The people who thought up Silent Hill put a lot of their guts into it. If I know them well, they are people of great integrity.

“For me, it was important to design a Silent Hill for today’s audience. It’s clear that today’s horror movies don’t look like the horror movies of 2006, and so much the better. Not that the horror films of 2007 weren’t good, but every genre goes through an evolution.

The Silent Hill movie’s director says he’s written a script for a third film
Gans directed the first Silent Hill movie

“I’m trying to take into account what I’ve seen recently, what’s most original and amazing in horror films, and see if Silent Hill has the seeds, or even the expression of that. Silent Hill has always been an unusual game and ahead of its time.”

Gans directed the first Silent Hill film in 2006. A second film, Silent Hill: Revelation, was released in 2012 and directed by M.J. Bassett.

Multiple Silent Hill projects are currently in development at studios around the world, sources have told VGC, and could include a remake, a full sequel and a story-focused episodic series.

Last month a collection of leaked concept images appeared to confirm that a new Silent Hill is or was in development. This followed a VGC story from last February, in which we reported that Konami was planning to revive the long-dormant horror game series.

The leaked images are understood to be related to a PT-style teaser game, codenamed ‘Sakura’, which is intended to be released as a free digital title to build anticipation for the larger projects.

VGC first reported on Konami’s plans to ramp up its premium game development last year, with new instalments and remakes for its biggest franchises, including Metal Gear, Castlevania and Silent Hill.

What Happened to J.K. Rowling? Why She’s Cancelled From ‘Harry Potter’

First things first. I am not here to debate whatever “cancel culture” means to you today because, frankly, I do not care. But I am interested in why the need to separate the art from the artist is suddenly crystal clear when it comes to J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter universe—in a way that it’s not for other once-beloved creators. We’ve been urged to stop streaming Travis Scott’s music following the Astroworld tragedy. And who doesn’t have extremely messy and uncomfortable feelings about revisiting Woody Allen’s filmography?

And yet somehow the internet, as a general vibe, has been able to sever Rowling and her transphobic screeds from the magical world she created with surgical, unambiguous precision. 

Particularly for millennials who grew up alongside the books and then the movies, the series and its characters occupy a uniquely personal place in people’s hearts in the way that only children’s books can. I was nine when I first read The Sorcerer’s Stone just the right age for the richly-drawn world to more than half convince me to expect a Hogwarts letter in two years, and I was 11 when the first film premiered, the same age as Harry, Ron and Hermione. I remember reading an interview with Emma Watson sometime around 2002, when she and I were both about 12, in which she said something like, “it’s a world you want to be real.” And it was. 

Every kid has a special, magical world they live in in their imaginations—Narnia, Middle Earth, Green Gables. It just so happened that this particular generation all had the same one: Hogwarts.

Image: Warner Bros.

Honestly revisiting the books as adults, the holes and problematic aspects of the Wizarding World become more clear. The economic system, for instance, has rightly been called feudal. The Gringotts goblins are uncomfortably close to anti-Semitic charicatures. And no, Quidditch has never and will never make real sense. But none of that really penetrates when you’re 12. The world’s strict sorting and caste system could be seen with adult eyes as slightly fascistic—but when you’re a kid, these are the elements that allow you to put yourself into this world and personalize your experience in it. Hogwarts Houses that reflected your best personality traits and talents, bespoke wands that respond to your unique abilities, and animal patronuses that reveal your soul’s true core—all these things appeal to our need for self-definition and categorization, like your Astrology sign or love language or Meyers-Briggs test results. (I am a Gryffindor with an acacia and unicorn hair wand and my patronus is a Siberian cat, thank you.)

Harry Potter is now, frankly, a world too big and too rich for any one person to have built single-handedly, least of all Rowling herself. 

Because of this, I feel a personal ownership over Harry Potter in a way that I don’t over, say, Louis C.K.’s Louie, a show that I once loved. While other artists are indelibly connected to their own work—how do you separate Bill Cosby from The Cosby Show?—Harry Potter feels, in some ways, like it’s mine alone. Not that Rowling hasn’t tried to claim supreme ownership of the World she generated. 

Image: Warner Bros.

On Twitter, when Rowling isn’t grousing about pronouns and spewing hateful nonsense about trans women, she’s dropping random new canon into the Harry Potter universe. Dumbledore is gay! Hermione could be Black! Hogwarts has no tuition! Uncle Vernon loves Top Gear! She likes to wish happy birthday to Harry and Ginny’s fictional children, and suspects that Lord Voldemort would have evolved beyond the need to eat food. 

But hard as she tries to reclaim it, the Wizarding World is, in many ways, lost to her. Harry Potter fan-fiction has flourished online, becoming a genre of its own. Quidditch is now a real-world sport with gameplay rules edited for logic and, ironically, extremely progressive regulations on gender homogeneity within individual teams. People have gotten Harry Potter tattoos and themed weddings—including my own sister. And many have taken the actors and film creators as Harry Potter standard-bearers rather than Rowling herself. She was not even invited to the 20th Anniversary Reunion Special on HBO Max. 

I admit that at first, I had a hard time reconciling the world that meant so much to me as a child and adolescent with the more troubling one I see as an adult—and especially its creator. But Harry Potter isn’t just a series of books anymore. It’s a commercial industry, a media conglomerate, a culture, and a community. It is now, frankly, a world too big and too rich for any one person to have built single-handedly, least of all Rowling herself. 

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Review: The Daniels’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ is Pure Chaos

Review: The Daniels’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ is Pure Chaos

by
April 19, 2022

Since originally debuting at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival back in March, Everything Everywhere All at Once has become one of the most anticipated films of the first half of this year. Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, better known simply as “Daniels“, made their big-screen debut six years ago with the Daniel Radcliffe comedy Swiss Army Man, a movie overlooked by many viewers. Personally, I was fascinated by the strangely captivating mix of a flatulent corpse and the emotional aspects of the screenplay. Since then, the bizarre duo hasn’t made a new feature film, until now… I hope we don’t have to wait another six years for their third flick because Everything Everywhere deserves all the hype its generated over the last month.

From the premise involving hundreds of multiverses and different versions of the protagonist, Evelyn Wang, to the overwhelming editing and visuals, this movie shouldn’t work as well as it does. Conceptually it should be confusing, too complex, and challenging for viewers to form a strong bond with the main character and her family. However, The Daniels demonstrate their immense talent as writer-directors in preventing any of this from happening. Not only do they never lose focus on narrative, but they also embrace chaos as the engine of the whole film. One of the most surprising aspects of the script is linked to the film’s exposition.

Everything Everywhere has an extremely relevant set of rules, technology, and small details that need to be simplified into understandable explanations for the public. With tremendous creativity and assertiveness, The Daniels put viewers on the same page as the protagonist, with every question and revelation about the multiverse and everything it entails being interpreted by the character in the same manner as the audience. Without an exceptionally effective first act, the entire story of this movie would fall into an endless spiral of narrative doubts and frustrations, negatively affecting the overall entertainment value.

Witty comedy is another vital characteristic of Everything Everywhere that helps viewers stay captivated throughout the runtime. Whether in family interactions, with store customers, or blended with the insane action, the humor results in numerous burst-out-laughing moments. In this regard, Asian-American viewers will be able to find even more details worthy of a good laugh or smile as The Daniels depict the immigrant family’s life with great pride and authenticity. Michelle Yeoh contributes significantly to this last point, playing the dozens – or even hundreds – of Evelyns impressively.

Everything Everywhere also ends up becoming a meaningful tribute to the actress. Yeoh’s facial and body expressiveness elevate every line of dialogue, but honestly, it’s her physical prowess that will leave viewers in absolute awe. At nearly 60 years old, the actress manages to perform most of her own stunts, all with shocking elegance and dedication. And it’s not simple choreography, with only one or two fighting partners. These are excruciatingly long sequences, with outstanding execution of intricate, violent attack-defense movements. In fact, action is yet another area where The Daniels shine again.

With evident influence from famous Hong Kong action cinema as well as its biggest icon, Jackie Chan, Everything Everywhere combines the stylish visual effects of Hollywood, the engaging cinematography of Larkin Seiple, and the exuberant editing of Paul Rogers with the genuinely insane fight choreography to deliver some of the best action seen on screen lately. The fierce commitment that Asian stunt teams bring to these set pieces is far from surprising, but it’s interesting to see the American group let themselves be inspired and guided by the people who have done so much to evolve this important filmmaking component.

Nevertheless, it’s the poignant, pertinent study of distinct themes such as nihilism, self-acceptance, regret, forgiveness, or the emotionally draining search for parental approval that ties all the plot points and the Wang family together. In addition to Evelyn, Ke Huy Quan plays Waymond – a wonderful human driven by his feelings, a kind-hearted father who cares about making everyone around him happy – and Stephanie Hsu takes on the role of Joy / Jobu Tupaki – a daughter who merely wishes for the pride and love of her mother who has a hard time accepting her girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel), amongst other issues.

It’s the mother-daughter relationship that deeply nourishes Everything Everywhere. Despite following a somewhat predictable path to the resolution, the emotion generated by the confrontations between the two characters is so overwhelming that it’s difficult to hold back the tears. Though their arc is remarkably well explored and concluded, I expected The Daniels to push it further. For example, there’s a scene where Evelyn blames her daughter’s suffering and her life choices on the evil version of her. The dialogue delivered by Yeoh hits the viewer hard, as it demonstrates how disconnected from her daughter Evelyn really is.

This scene and a couple of other moments aren’t as powerful as they could be. Everything Everywhere’s climax is excellently earned, and the eventual resolution of the mother-daughter relationship is undeniably efficient, but some assertive dialogue on Joy’s part is missing. In addition to this less favorable detail, The Daniels hold astonishing control over the movie’s frenetic pacing, not making it any more confusing than it can possibly be. Even so, there are some short periods where the momentum slightly slows down, but since the pacing is so intense for practically the entire runtime, these decelerations seem more like full stops.

These are tiny problems that hardly impact the overall enjoyment of what has become one of my favorite films of the year so far. All of the cast members deliver extraordinary performances – Jamie Lee Curtis also deserves a shoutout – and Son Lux’s score cannot be forgotten. Like all other technicalities, it elevates Everything Everywhere in an awe-inspiring manner. It can be too bizarre and disjointed for some viewers, but overall, it’s unreasonable not to recommend a work that was crafted with so much care and affection.

Final Thoughts

Everything Everywhere All at Once is undoubtedly one of the best movies of the year, finally pushing The Daniels into the mainstream. Made on this low of a budget, it’s almost humiliating that so many expensive Hollywood Blockbusters lack in originality, imagination, excitement, and emotion. Michelle Yeoh leads the troops in a film that also pays homage to the iconic career of the actress who also accompanies the fantastic stunt team in truly outlandish fights. The mother-daughter relationship as the emotional core of the story follows a surprisingly predictable path and needs a bit more polish to deliver an even more powerful climax, but it still induces tears and a genuine sense of concern for the characters. All the elements are so creatively unique that it warrants the clickbait exclamation: “you’ve never seen anything like this!” See it in theaters.

Manuel’s Rating: A
Follow Manuel on Twitter – @msbreviews / Or Letterboxd – @msbreviews

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The PR attempt to separate JK Rowling from Harry Potter and why it’s important

Cast your mind back 25 years. Hanson’s MMMbop was number one, Titanic topped the box office, and Tony Blair had just been elected PM.

But perhaps more culturally significant than all three of these 90s moments is the first 500 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone being published at the end of June 1997.

It would become the third best-selling novel of all time, establishing JK Rowling as one of the world’s most loved and best-selling authors; a towering figure in the arts.

But the prolific author’s legacy now seems destined to be defined by the culture war sparked by her position on women’s rights and gender.

Rowling thinks, in some circumstances, women and girls should have the right to single-sex spaces – prompting accusations of transphobia, which she denies.

The controversy has rendered the author notably absent from anniversary celebrations – as was the case with the recent TV reunion – decisions widely presumed to be driven by the deepening controversy.

Attempting to separate the art from the artist is now apparently a mission for many invested in ensuring Harry Potter continues to be lucrative.

More on Jk Rowling

Sky News was invited to a new Mandrakes and Magical Creatures feature at Warner Brothers Studios this week, and such is the effort to distance the brand from the toxicity of the debate around trans rights, Sky News wasn’t allowed by the PR to bring up JK Rowling’s name in the interview.

Our reporter was interrupted mid-flow and made to redirect the line of questioning.

When we asked why, the response on email from the third-party PR running the event was “JK Rowling is not connected to Warner or Tom Felton, the team felt it was not relevant to the piece”… Not aside from the fact she created Harry Potter and executive produced the films.

(For the record, PRs don’t and shouldn’t – for all sorts of reasons not least press freedom – dictate Sky News editorial direction.)

Image:
JK Rowling

Felton – left somewhat awkwardly momentarily in the middle – was allowed to tell us: “I was auditioned 500 metres from where I am now, which is nuts.

“That was when I was 12, and here I am at 34 years old talking about it still…

“We all expected the Harry Potter fandom flame to start dousing as the years go on and clearly it’s not going anywhere,” Felton added.

Image:
Tom Felton played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films

So 25 years on, Harry Potter is as popular and profitable as ever and seems unscathed – apparently, as long as you don’t mention she who must not be named.

The notion that JK Rowling can or should be cancelled is bizarre to many, but trans woman Nicci Take, who enjoyed reading and watching Harry Potter with her children, told Sky News she is largely just deeply disappointed by it all.

“I am anti-cancel culture, she should be allowed to say what she thinks,” says Nicci Take.

Image:
Nicci Take

“Her views are manifestly out of sync with the general population and desperately, tragically out of sync with the Harry Potter fanbase… trans is almost cool, it’s certainly normalised.

“People know we’re not sexual predators, they know we’re not preying on people in bathrooms, they know because they know us, they’ve met us….

“That’s what happens, people don’t meet us, engage with us, and yet they have opinions about us,” she adds.

Read more:
JK Rowling criticised for ‘condescending’ and ‘transphobic’ tweets
Authors leave JK Rowling’s literary agency over her comments about trans people

Most associated with the wizarding world are perhaps understandably reluctant to comment on the clash, but many concede Rowling is taking more of a backseat.

Thomas Taylor, the original front cover illustrator of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (who told me he wishes he’d made Harry’s hair “madder” – which I love) agrees the author seems to be less prominent in events.

“It is a bit strange not to see the author when we are celebrating a book,” admits Mr Taylor.

Image:
People queued to get a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone after it was released

“It seems to me that fans own Harry Potter now anyway, the fan space has always been incredibly rich, creative and inclusive and I hope people can continue to find what they need in it and shape it to the way they want it to be,” he adds.

Taylor credits the books with bringing back reading when “in the 90s we were panicked that reading was dying off, with video games and TV”.

“This book came along and children were queuing up at midnight dressed up as wizards to get hold of the latest copy and read it, that’s definitely worth celebrating,” he said, reminding us of the fevered fandom that HP ignites.

Image:
JK Rowling signed copies of her books after they were released

The Harry Potter cast seem also to be torn between their relationship with Rowling and any discomfort with her position on gender rights.

Daniel Radcliffe was quick to issue a statement confirming his solidarity with the trans community, saying “trans women are women”.

He also reassured fans, saying: “if Harry Potter resonated… that is sacred”, in a plea to separate the art from the artist.

Image:
Emma Watson

Emma Watson appeared to take aim at Rowling in her BAFTAs shout out for inclusivity and “all the witches”.

So, while the polarised debate is largely hosted on Twitter, its toxic mess spills over the edge of the social platform, leaving an unfortunate stain on the record of modern public discourse infiltrating our biggest cultural and media institutions from BAFTA to Warner Bros Pictures and Bloomsbury publishers.

All of them now forced to consider how to navigate events being hijacked by the issue.

Mina Eduardo Lima are the MinaLima illustrators who have worked on the Harry Potter films and a special edition copy of the first book.

Mina Lima points out the world now transcends the author.

“The wizarding world has become so established now, what she did was entrust creative minds to tell their version of her worlds, our book is just one of those manifestations as well so it’s almost like she’s done her genius and now she hands over the baton,” Lima told Sky News.

Image:
Rupert Grint (Ron), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Emma Watson (Hermione) with JK Rowling in 2001

So perhaps it doesn’t matter that JK Rowling isn’t present at the anniversary celebrations.

Perhaps she and HP fans don’t care whether she attends events held by those invested in ensuring Harry Potter continues to be wildly profitable.

Such is the intensity of the debate, Rowling revealed earlier this year that she’s had so many death threats she could wallpaper her house with them after trans activists doxxed her (meaning they published her address and personal information on the internet with malicious intent).

But as the 25th anniversary of one of the world’s most beloved books is celebrated, whether Rowling has been or should be cancelled continues to obscure the future of the Boy Who Lived.