Cover Art and Name Change; or, I remember Barry Fairweather

Cover of J. K. Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy”

Today (3 July 2012) Little, Brown released the cover of J. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, along with a page count, a correction to the name of one of the characters, and a synopsis (Hawk at Mugglenet,[1] Catherine at The Leaky Cauldron,[2] Sims at Hypable[3]). The official page count is 512 pages. The name of the only character we know about so far is actually Barry Fairbrother. (The original press release referred to him as Barry Fairweather.) The synopsis is almost identical to the one released previously, but I’ll post it here again anyway. It reads as follows:

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J. K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other. (Little, Brown[4] and Hachette[5])

The image on the cover confused me at first, but then I realized that it looks like a ballot, with a mark in a box for the candidate the person is voting for. After spending many years looking at the covers of the Harry Potter book and associating them with J. K. Rowing’s writing, it feels odd to have a cover that looks so different from those ones, but that attachment to previous books should not be the basis a prejudgment on this one. I do wonder, however, if some publishers think that having a single image on a book cover makes it seem more appropriate for adults. I remember that Bloomsbury released the Harry Potter books with two different covers, one for adults and one for children, and the adult covers seem to all feature one item.[6]

The announcement correcting Barry Fairbrother’s name made me think of the fascinating and weird details about the printing histories of various works (e.g. differences between editions, famous printing errors). One of the most famous examples is a reprint of the Bible which was published in 1631 which advised readers to commit adultery due to an error which removed the word not from Exodus 20:14.[7] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (one of the stories in the canon of Sherlock Holmes) is printed in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most UK editions and in His Last Bow in most US editions due to controversy surrounding the story when it was first published, which necessitated a republication.[8] I wonder if, many years from now, the erroneous press release will be an item of trivia. I can imagine a footnote in the future, in some special annotated edition, stating, “In the  original press release announcing The Casual Vacancy, Barry Fairbrother was erroneously referred to as Barry Fairweather. It is still possible to find articles, fan site pages, and blog entries from April 2012 to June 2012 referring to a character named ‘Barry Fairweather’ in The Casual Vacancy.” In addition to this, another fact which I find amusing is that we fans had already begun analyzing Barry’s name (in addition to noticing that Barry rhymes with Harry), and now we’ve learned that his name is different from what we thought it was.

There are always funny little surprises — such is fandom, such is life.

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Acknowledgement

I found the image via Hypable (see reference #3), and they note that they found it on Amazon.

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References

[1] Hawk, Keith. Cover art for J. K. Rowling’s new book ‘The Casual Vacancy’ is released. Posted on 3 July 2012 at MuggleNet. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/5811.

[2] Catherine. Cover Art of “The Casual Vacancy” Revealed. Posted on 3 July 2012 at The Leaky Cauldron. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2012/7/3/cover-art-of-the-casual-vacancy.

[3] Sims, Andrew. J. K. Rowling’s ‘The Casual Vacancy’ book cover art released! Posted on 3 July 2012 at Hypable. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://www.hypable.com/2012/07/03/j-k-rowlings-the-casual-vacancy-book-cover-released/.

[4] The cover release for THE CASUAL VACANCY by J. K. Rowling. Posted on 3 July 2012 at Little, Brown Book Group. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/TheCasualVacancyCover.

[5] The Casual Vacancy: Little, Brown and Company release the cover for The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, along with updated cover copy, details of the audio reader, and confirmed page count. Posted on 3 July 2012 at Hachette Book Group. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/littlebrown/feature-vacancy.html.

[6] Cover art. Harry Potter Wiki entry. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Cover_art.

[7] Wicked Bible. Wikipedia Entry. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible.

[8] “The story’s place”. The Adventure of the Cardboard Box. Wikipedia entry. Retrieved on 3 July 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Cardboard_Box#The_story.27s_place.

The Scottish Book Suspended: The Uncertain Fate of the Harry Potter Encyclopaedia

Back in April, when J. K. Rowling’s site was reopened, her answer to a frequently asked question concerning the Harry Potter Encyclopaedia caused great excitement in the fandom; many people, myself included, interpreted her words to mean that she was actively working on the Encyclopaedia and it would be published, albeit sometime in the far future.[1] On 22 May 2012, however, J. K. Rowling updated that page on her website with a different answer to that question.[2] Her new answer reads as follows:

Updated May 2012

I have been enjoying sharing information about Harry’s world on Pottermore for free, and don’t have any firm plans to publish it in book form.[3]

So, the fate of The Scottish Book is currently suspended, as it always had been before the reopening of Rowling’s website, in that place between existence and non-existence, with fans waiting eagerly to see if it will emerge from this unknown domain and into our world. It is, of course, Rowling’s story and her decision about what to write or not write. My love of books and my love of Harry Potter cause me to hope that, in the end, her decision will be to eventually write and publish it, even if it’s many years from now.

Though I have been enjoying Rowling’s new content on Pottermore immensely, the nature of the website is that a person has to click around to find the new content in bits and pieces. Although this can be fun, it does make finding the material again to reread and reference a bit of an issue. After going through the material for the first book on Pottermore, I went through the story again to copy and paste J. K. Rowling’s new content into a Word document (for my own use, so I can easily reread whenever I want to, without having to search through the pages on the site again). I think that the new material on the website has the potential to become unwieldy, scattered all over the place. (This potential for a disorganized release of new content has become even more likely given that there is an upcoming video game called Wonderbook: Book of Spells that will include new content from Rowling.)[4] To have all this new Harry Potter-related writing in one place, to have a book — a tome — that is the encyclopaedia of this magical world, would be wonderful. My guess is that the encyclopaedia is many years away (if it is released at all), and perhaps Rowling updated her site with the new message so that people aren’t anxiously awaiting it and asking her how far she’s gotten in writing it. It’s her decision, but it’s to be expected that fans will have hope for their favored outcome.

All of this is not to say that Harry Potter works are the only pieces of writing by J. K. Rowling that I am excited to read; I’m looking forward to The Casual Vacancy, to be released in September.[5] It’s just that the encyclopaedia would give a chance to learn more about this world I love, and it would actually be another book. I had begun to think of The (fabled and currently suspended) Scottish Book as the Harry Potter Apocrypha (inspired by J. K. Rowling’s new book The Casual Vacancy being referred to as J. K. Rowling’s New Testament), and it would seem that this was oddly somewhat appropriate, because the word apocrypha is from

late 14c., from L.L. apocryphus ‘secret, not approved for public reading,’ from Gk. Apokryphos ‘hidden, obscure,’ thus ‘(books) of unknown authorship’ (especially those included in the Septuagint and Vulgate but not originally written in Hebrew and not countd as genuine by the Jews), from apo- ‘away’

(see apo-) + kryptein ‘to hide.’ Properly plural (the single would be Apocryphon) but commonly treated as a collective sing.[6]

This book is not from an unknown author, but it certainly does seem to be hidden, its fate uncertain. With all the new Harry Potter-related merchandise being released in the near future, I do hope that — at least one more time, even if it is the last time — there is a new Harry Potter book to read, and that it is an archive of information about this beloved story.

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References

[1] Sharmin, Ani. “The Scottish Book”: J. K. Rowling is working on the Harry Potter Encyclopaedia. Posted on 18 April 2012 at The Eternal Bookshelf. Retrieved on 27 May 2012 from http://eternalbookshelf.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/rowling-is-working-on-the-scottish-book/.

[2] Tannenbaum, Micah. Rowling ‘has no firm plans’ to publish Potter encyclopedia. Posted on 22 May 2012 at MuggleNet. Retrieved on 26 May 2012 from http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/5669.

[3] Rowling, J. K. “What about the Harry Potter Encyclopaedia?” under FAQs. Retrieved 26 May 2012 from http://www.jkrowling.com/en_GB/#/about-jk-rowling/faqs-and-rumours.

[4] Sims, Andrew. Sony announces ‘Book of Spells’ for Playstation – a ‘Harry Potter’ game with ‘new writing’ from J. K. Rowling. Posted on 4 June 2012 at Hypable. Retrieved on 10 June 2012 from http://www.hypable.com/2012/06/04/harry-potter-book-of-spells-playstation/.

[5] Sharmin, Ani. J. K. Rowling’s New Testament “The Casual Vacancy”: My Thoughts on the Announcement and Hopes for the Book. Posted on 13 April 2012 at The Eternal Bookshelf. Retrieved on 7 May 2012 from http://eternalbookshelf.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/rowlings-the-casual-vacancy-announcement/.

[6] “apocrypha.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 10 Jun. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apocrypha&gt;.

J. K. Rowling’s New Testament “The Casual Vacancy”: My Thoughts on the Announcement and Hopes for the Book

Yesterday, 12 April 2012, J. K. Rowling’s official website[1] reopened with a new design, and she announced a title and release date for The New Book that was previously mentioned.[2] It’s called The Casual Vacancy and will be released on 27 September 2012.[3] The synopsis reads,

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Seemingly an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults. (Rowling’s website,[4] Little, Brown[5])

This brings to mind “The Riddle House”, chapter one of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which there are mysterious deaths in the village of Little Hangleton. The Muggle villagers do not know what actually happened (that Lord Voldemort murdered his Muggle father and paternal grandparents) and there are many rumors.[6] What would we see if we went from the scale of an entire world and focused in on this little town? Though I do not and cannot know the contents of Vacancy based upon the short and (probably intentionally) vague information provided, that it reminds me of a very fascinating chapter from one of her previous books makes me think and hope that the book contains a similar feeling of mystery and that she has perhaps explored themes she did not have a chance to fully delve into during her previous works.

When an author has written a fantastically famous and bestselling series and is moving on to a different book, there is always the question of how similar or different the new work will be from her previous works (as well as the anticipation that it is very unlikely to sell quite as well as the books she is most known for). Many other fans have commented on the amusing similarity of the names Harry and Barry, and also of note is the fact that one shocked those around him by surviving; and the other, by dying. Harry Potter is known as The Boy Who Lived,[7] because his survival surprised the wizarding world,[8] as he is the only person to ever survive the Killing Curse.[9] According to the synopsis of The Casual Vacancy, Barry Fairweather’s death surprises others (causing me to think of him as “The Man Who Died”). Another thought that I entertained was that maybe Barry’s death is Rowling metaphorically killing off Harry, symbolizing the end of the Harry Potter series and the publication of her first non-Harry Potter book.

Although this new novel is not a Harry Potter work, I hope that some of the elements of Rowling’s writing style that were evident from that series will be present in this work as well. This new novel is said to be “blackly comic” and I hope that is indeed the case. Rowling’s humor is one of the parts of her writing that I very much enjoy, based as it often is in everyday occurrences and in the weirdness of life. Vacancy is also said to be “thought-provoking” which many of us fans have come to expect from Rowling. Her writing is often relevant to reality, and I hope that this story also provides a lens through which to look at humanity and society and notice that which we may have missed. Additionally, and lastly for now, Rowling’s characters are among the most beloved parts of her previous writing, and I hope that this new novel contains characters readers can similarly find fascinating. This may seem a lot to ask, I know, but I’ve high expectations of my favorite authors.

There are one hundred and sixty-seven days left until the release of J. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. Let the countdown begin.

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Acknowledgements

“J. K. Rowling’s New Testament” is the title of MuggleCast episode #250, after a comment made by Micah Tannenbaum.[10] Much thanks to the MuggleCasters for their awesome podcast.

Much thanks, also, to J. K. Rowling.

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References

[1] J. K. Rowling’s official website can be found at http://www.jkrowling.com/.

[2] Sharmin, Ani. And The Fandom Rejoiced: “J. K. Rowling’s New Testament”. Posted on 3 March 2012 at The Eternal Bookshelf. Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from http://eternalbookshelf.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/and-the-fandom-rejoiced/.

[3] Hawk, Keith. Title, release date and website revealed for J. K. Rowling’s latest work. Posted on 12 April 2012 at MuggleNet. Retrieved on 13 April 2012 from http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/5570.

[4] The Casual Vacancy, Timeline entry posted on 12 April 2012 at J. K Rowling’s official site. Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from http://www.jkrowling.com/en_GB/#/timeline/the-new-book.

[5] THE CASUAL VACANCY, by J. K. Rowling. Posted on 12 April 2012 at Little, Brown Book Group. Retrieved on 12 April 2012 from http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/TheCasualVacancy.

[6] Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2007, Ch 1 (p. 7-19).

[7] Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London: Bloomsbury, 1997, Ch1, p. 18.

[8] Philosopher’s Stone, Ch1, p. 15

[9] Goblet of Fire, Ch 14, p.191

[10] Sims, Andrew. MuggleCast Episode #250: J. K. Rowling’s New Testament. Posted on 2 March 2012 at Hypable. Retrieved 13 April 2012 from http://www.hypable.com/podcast/episode-250-j-k-rowlings-new-testament/.

And The Fandom Rejoiced: “J. K. Rowling’s New Testament”

On 23 February 2012, J. K. Rowling announced that she’s written a new book that will be published soon (Anelli at The Leaky Cauldron,[1] Fried at MuggleNet,[2] and Sims at Hypable[3]). At the moment, there’s a message on the main page of her website (which is currently being “refreshed and redesigned”) about the new book in the form of a note from Rowling, which reads, “Although I’ve enjoyed writing it just as much, my next novel will be very different from the Harry Potter series.” (There is also an image of a book with a plain orange cover — not dissimilar from the background shade of the US editions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — with the words THE NEW BOOK BY J. K. ROWLING on it.)[4]  She also updated her Twitter (for the 9^th time in the more than two years and five months since she started the account) with the statement, “As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year. Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much.”[5]

There is, of course, much excitement in the fandom, and there are many predictions about the genre and contents of the new book. Several people think it will be a mystery, a guess based partially on the fact that the Harry Potter series contains mystery and suspense[6] and partially on the fact that an editor who will be working on the book has worked on well-known crime and mystery novels (Sims at Hypable,[7] who quoted Flood at The Guardian[8]). While I don’t have a good idea about what genre the book may be in or what topic it may be about, my own guess is that it won’t be fantasy, or at least that it won’t be a fantasy story of the same kind as Harry Potter. My reasons for thinking this are the following: In addition to her comments about this book being different from Harry (quoted above), Rowling has also said that Harry’s success has given her the gift of being able to “explore new territory” (see references 2-4), which I interpret to mean that this story is her opportunity to write something that will not just be unrelated to her previous works, but also something in a totally different genre, or at least a different sub-genre. Some other factors I’m taking into consideration are that this book is being released five years after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and the fact that anything she writes will inevitably be compared to Harry Potter. Rowling has put so much effort into creating the series that I think if she was going to write another series like it (an epic fight between good and evil spanning lots of books) it would have taken her more time to plan it all out, especially considering that she would have, over her shoulder, the shadow of her previous characters — the pressure of creating a villain as evil as Lord Voldemort and a plot as intricate and suspenseful without using the same surprises. I could, of course, be disastrously wrong, and that remains to be seen.

The release of J. K. Rowling’s new book is a cause of great happiness for me, and I’m actually happy that it’s going to be a non-Harry Potter book. As much as I wanted (and still want very much) to read the The Scottish Book,[9] I think that the release of a non-Harry Potter Rowling book will be a great moment in the fandom. Up until this point, the Harry Potter fandom and the J. K. Rowing fandom have been almost synonymous; Rowling is known for the series first and foremost, and hasn’t published any other novels or stories. The release of this new book will open up the fandom in a way; we will be able to see our favorite author’s writing in a different story, a different world with different characters. We will have, I hope, a better understanding of her writing; we’ll be able to do all sorts of analyses of and write new essays examining, not just this new book, but also all of her works together — finding commonalities and differences in writing, theme, and all sorts of other aspects.

It feels like old times again, when we would eagerly await a title, a cover, a release date — any new sliver of information, the pieces to be put together an analyzed as we eagerly anticipate the book itself. I’m very much looking forward to the announcement of the release date. Just as Harry would “cross off another day on the chart he’d made for himself, counting down the days left until his return to Hogwarts”[10] we’ll be counting down the days until we can read the latest words from the pen of his creator.

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Acknowledgements/Notes

Thanks to all the people and websites I linked to.

The title is taken from the title of MuggleCast episode #250, in which the MuggleCasters discuss their predictions about Rowling’s new book.[11] Thanks to them for a great podcast and for participating in keeping the fandom alive.

And last, but never least, thank you to J. K. Rowling for her magical writing.

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Correction (as of 3 March 2012)

When I first posted this, I wrongly attributed the MuggleNet article at footnote #2 to Andrew Sims. (I think I listed his name for both footnotes #2 and #3 because I was entering them together as citations for the same sentence.) The MuggleNet article at footnote #2 was actually posted by Noah Fried. Andrew Sims is at Hypable. Thank you to Keith Hawk, Senior Managing Editor and contact person for MuggleNet, for informing me of the error.

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References

[1] Anelli, Melissa. J. K. Rowling’s Next Novel Announced, Written for Adults. Posted on 23 February 2012 at The Leaky Cauldron. Retrieved on 24 February 2012 from http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2012/2/23/jk-rowlings-next-novel-for-adults-announced.

[2] Fried, Noah. J. K. Rowling writes a new novel for adults – to be released soon! Posted on 23 February 2012 at MuggleNet. Retrieved on 1 March 2012 from http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/5441.

[3] Sims, Andrew. J. K. Rowling announces she’s releasing new novel for adults. Posted on 23 February 2012 at Hypable. Retrieved on 1 March 2012 from http://www.hypable.com/harry-potter/2012/02/23/j-k-rowling-announces-shes-releasing-new-novel-for-adults/.

[4] J. K. Rowling’s official site can be found at http://www.jkrowling.com/.

[5] Rowling, J. K. (jk_rowling). “As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year. Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much.” 24 February 2012, 4:10 a.m. Tweet.

Retrieved on 3 March 2012 from https://twitter.com/#!/jk_rowling/status/172971569218461696.

[6] Hypable Staff. Hypable Staff and Read Predictions: J. K. Rowling’s new adult book. What will it be about? Posted on 23 February 2012 at Hypable. Retrieved on 1 March 2012 from http://www.hypable.com/harry-potter/2012/02/23/hypable-staff-and-reader-predictions-j-k-rowlings-new-adult-book-what-will-it-be-about/.

[7] Sims, Andrew. Clues suggest J. K. Rowling’s new book will be in the mystery/crime genre. Posted on 24 February 2012 at Hypable. Retrieved on 3 March 2012 from http://www.hypable.com/2012/02/24/clues-suggest-j-k-rowlings-new-book-will-be-in-the-mysterycrime-genre/.

[8] Flood, Alison. J. K. Rowling’s new book: clues suggest a turn to crime fiction. Posted on 24 February 2012 at The Guardian. Retrieved on 3 March 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/24/jk-rowling-crime-fiction-clues.

[9] Harry Potter Encyclopedia. Harry Potter Wiki entry. Retrieved on 24 February from http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Harry_Potter_Encyclopedia.

[10] Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York, Scholastic Inc, 1999, Ch 1, p. 15. Print.

[11] Tannenbaum, Micah. MuggleCast #250: J. K. Rowling’s New Testament now available. Posted on 3 March 2012 at Mugglenet. Retrieved on 3 March 2012 from http://www.mugglenet.com/app/news/show/5476.