When British schoolteacher Joanne rowling began writing her book about a boy wizard named Harry Potter in the 90s, she probably couldn’t have imagined that it would expand into seven novels, supplemental books and films about a vividly described magical world, and that she would eventually become JK Rowling, billionaire novelist, screenwriter, film producer and philanthropist with a wide readership audience from all over the world. That’s not to say that her “Harry Potter” series was acclaimed everywhere; in 2001 a Christian group in New Mexico denounced her literature as Satanic and staged a mass book and CD burning while other schools banned her works in their libraries for similar reasons.
Rowling has weathered this setback, but now a new challenge has arisen in the form of Potter-fans who are supporters of President Donald Trump, who oppose her opinions critical of his presidency. Potter books are burning again it would seem, but Rowling is hitting back verbally.
Response to Trump-supporting book burners
While Rowling has been firing away on Twitter against almost everything Donald Trump since before and after elections – and has gotten social flak from disgruntled Trump voters – the issue came into some kind of prominence on January 31, when a Tweeter identifying as both an owner of the “Harry Potter” series and a Trump supporter declared his intention to burn his books and movie discs in response to the author’s criticism of the recent Trump immigration freeze to several Middle Eastern countries.
Not to be intimidated, Rowling screen-capped the tweet in question and replied that she’d gladly lend the poster her lighter, considering that the money he paid for the HP media are now hers, with an additional warning about toxic fumes from burning DVDs.
Well, the fumes from the DVDs might be toxic and I've still got your money, so by all means borrow my lighter. pic.twitter.com/kVoi8VGEoK
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 31, 2017
The situation recurred only a day later, with a poster who was more articulate with her reasons for burning her own Potter memorabilia, after professing to be a 17-year long fan.
She claimed that she was upset with herself for doing what she did, but ultimately her disgust at Rowling’s continuing social media crusade against Trump’s policies have resolved her never to read the author’s work again. Rowling true to form couldn’t care less about the loss, instead making a quip about how the poster had destroyed her copy of a story detailing the rise and fall of an autocrat, and can therefore mean she supports that way of leadership.
Guess it's true what they say: you can lead a girl to books about the rise and fall of an autocrat, but you still can't make her think. pic.twitter.com/oB7Aq6Xz8M
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 1, 2017
Show of mercy
From the look of the counter-tweets posted by Rowling, one can see that she was remarkably restrained about her response. The screen-grabs of the Twitter pages she’s referring to have the names of the posters blurred out. It seems one final courtesy to prevent the avowed Trump followers from being attacked in turn by her own base of remaining steadfast followers. That’s a class act from the author of “Harry Potter”, and it’ll probably retell itself again many more times in the near future.
