Best known for her children’s series Harry Potter, author JK Rowling has recently expanded her domain by
composing several adult fiction novels. While some of her novels have been
received more generously than others, none have experienced quite the same
fan-fare as The Cuckoo’s Calling,
which was originally published under the pseudonym Robert
Galbraith. It was only a matter
of weeks before an insider with knowledge gained from her attorney husband blew
the whistle, unleashing a flurry of speculation, investigation, and eventual enthusiasm.
While this case of disputed authorship was not long lived, the methods with
which Rowling’s authorship was determined reflect a new component of life in a
digital age – the public assumes, and often demands, a entitlement to
information, even when that information comes at the cost of someone’s privacy.
So, what happened?
In July 2013, a journalist at The Sunday Times tweeted that she “had loved ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling,’ and that it did not seem as if the
book had been written by a novice.” According to the journalist’s colleague,
Richard Brooks, “After midnight she got a tweet back from an anonymous person
saying it’s not a first-time novel — it was written by J. K. Rowling,” “So my
colleague tweeted back and said, ‘How do you know for sure?’” “The person replied, ‘I just know,’ and then
proceeded to delete all his (or her) tweets and to close down the Twitter
account.”
How'd they prove that Rowling wrote it?
Hesitant to take
the mystery whistle-blower at her word, Brooks began investigating. He quickly
discovered several similarities, some of which, such as the same publisher,
agent, and editor, raised a flag. Why would an agent that handles an author of
Rowling’s caliber also take on a virtually unknown new writer? With his
suspicion at an all time high, Brooks then contacted linguist Patrick Juola.
Juola, a professor of computer science and
computer linguistics at Duquesne University, described his evaluation of
the writing in question for an article in Scientific
American. Linguists with a background in forensic stylometry are few and far between, and as one
of these select few, Juola was able to develop a unique program that analyzes
writing based on key style choices, such as frequency of certain words, word
length distribution, and the one hundred most common words. The program
quantifies the degree to which an author may have written a disputed text, and
while it is not a perfect system, it did identify that Rowling was more likely
to be the author than any of the other authors tested, as she was the only one
who was not ruled out by at least one of the tests. The specific statistics and
data can be found in his articles, but the general consensus that Rowling was
the most likely author was enough for The
Sunday Times. The newspaper approached the publishing company, and Rowling
gave a separate interview conceding her authorship a few days later.
What if no one had told that journalist? How can we tell that the writing is the same?
This
revelation of the novel’s true author has led to interesting consideration of
the obvious content similarities between The Cuckoo’s Calling and Rowling’s debut series, Harry Potter. Critic David Kudler wrote in an essay for Huffington
Post’s blog that “There are
certainly some notes that will be familiar to anyone who read the adventures of
Harry & Co. The detective has the wonderfully Dickensian, delightfully
Rowling-esque name of Cormoran Strike. There’s a wealth of sly social
commentary, and a familiar deft hand with quick, vivid character sketches. Like
Harry, Strike is an orphan — his single mother’s dead…There’s even Rowling’s
nostalgia for the West of England; in the Harry Potter books, the Weasleys,
Harry’s adoptive family, live in Devon, as do the aunt and uncle with whom
Cormoran and his sister took refuge. (And of course, it was difficult to read
the description of Strike in the first chapter and not think of him being
played by Robbie Coltrane — aka Hagrid.) His sidekick is a fastidious, meticulous,
but surprisingly resourceful young woman.”
While these
content similarities are clear to most readers, they are interesting in that
they on a certain level reflect her personal experiences and beliefs. However,
these themes also play an important role in the effectiveness of her story.
Some, such as her preoccupation with death, play to the audience’s feelings,
effectively employing pathos through a personal and generally relatable topic.
In Harry Potter, she wrote, “You think the
dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more
clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you,
Harry, and shows himself plainly when you have need of him.” This contemplation
of death was continued in The Cuckoo’s Calling. “The dead could only speak
through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left
scattered behind them.”
In addition to
these content themes, there are more obscured tendencies that can be observed, tendencies
very similar to what linguist Patrick Juola studied. Some, such as Rowling’s
use of alliteration, create a unique literary impression; it’s not often that
readers are presented with characters like Luna Lovegood or Lula Landry. This also reflects her careful and dedicated
consideration of names. She frequently creates names, many of which come from Latin
roots, and those names often reflect character traits, character history, or
character story line projections.
Other
characteristics of Rowling’s writing reflect personal and habitual style, and
when combined, create interesting ethos. She frequently uses parenthesis,
climax, metaphors, and parallelism, which together help to weave a more
impactful story, despite the age or interests of the audience. This complex
writing style also influences how the audience perceives Rowling. Generally, we
assume that writers who use such techniques are talented, knowledgeable, or
somehow trust worthy. “Yes.
You see what I've become? See what I must do to survive? Live off another, a
mere parasite! Unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a body of my
own. But there is something that can; something that, conveniently enough, lies
in your pocket!” This quote from Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone demonstrates Rowling’s use of parenthesis,
climax, and epistrophe, while the following quote from The Cuckoo’s Calling displays her fondness for similes. “The buzz
in the street was like the humming of flies. Photographers stood massed behind
barriers patrolled by police, their long snouted cameras poised, their breath
rising like steam.”
Well, why does any of this matter? Why should we care?
Previous to the
rather sensationalized revelation, the book had received very good reviews,
although it had not sold many copies. It is likely that the book’s true author would
have eventually been revealed, even without the tip, but it would have been
interesting to see how it fared on its own. Rowling articulated that she “had hoped to keep this secret a little longer
because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has
been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure
to get feedback under a different name.” While the freedom to write without
pressure is certainly important, perhaps a more important addition to the burgeoning
conversation would be consideration of the long term consequences, consequences
that are far more serious than we often acknowledge. The loss of privacy is concerning
in that it can potentially have lifelong effects, especially if the subject
written about is controversial, like sexuality, religion, or abuse.
While analyzing
the novel in relation to her previous work has certainly been interesting, we as
a society should question the value of this information and our right to have,
or our lack of right to have, this information. This case of disputed
authorship is unusual in that it was intentionally concealed, but how may it have
affected the literary community differently had the true author not been exposed?
What would we have come to know and expect had Rowling been allowed to continue
writing under a different name? The unbiased feedback she would have received
had the potential to allow her to develop as a writer, and now that her secret
has been disclosed, that opportunity has been lost. We have done ourselves a
great disservice, and may have potentially, albeit unintentionally, contributed
to the loss of great literary works from an arguably great writer.
Sources
Sources
2. Juola, Patrick. "How a ComputerProgram Helped Reveal J. K. Rowling as Author of A
Cuckoo's Calling." Scientific American Global.
Cuckoo's Calling." Scientific American Global.
5. Vineyard, Jennifer. "10 Harry PotterHallmarks Found in J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's
Calling." Vulture.
Calling." Vulture.
I really enjoyed reading this piece. I liked how you wrote it like a 'who did it' article. I also wrote about JK Rowling. It was a very interesting topic. Well written and well done
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