When it comes to the controversy over her documented history of anti-transgender remarks, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling apparently isn’t losing sleep on how she’ll be judged in the future. Despite castmembers like Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe publicly denouncing Rowling’s views, she’s only concerned about the present.
“I do not walk around my house, thinking about my legacy,” the author said during the first episode of The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling podcast. “You know, what a pompous way to live your life walking around thinking, ‘What will my legacy be?’ Whatever, I’ll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.”
According to Variety, the podcast is an attempt to claim that Rowlings views on transgender women are “misunderstood.” It also attempts to equate the criticism of those views with Christian claims that the Harry Potter books are witchcraft, which is one heck of a take:
[Host Megan] Phelps-Roper is looking for commonality between the intolerant right-wingers who wanted to ban and burn the Harry Potter books and trans activists who have threatened Rowling over her comments. “What is it about this woman and her work that has captured the ire of very different groups of people across time?” Phelps-Roper says in the intro to the premiere episode.
Despite constant claims that she’s being “canceled,” Rowling contains to maintain a lucrative relationship with Warner Bros. In fact, after the studio merged with Discovery, it’s become increasingly eager to make more Harry Potter movies with Rowling even though the Fantastic Beasts prequel films — which she personally wrote — failed to match the success of the original franchise. That’s not the kind of thing that happens to someone who’s been “canceled.”
(Via Variety)