The dust has settled from J.K. Rowling’s latest Twitter revelation where the renowned author of the Harry Potteruniverse told us Dumbledore and Grindlewad were in an ‘intense’ sexual relationship. Rowling has become renowned for casually dropping details about her beloved fantasy series that shake up our view of the world with details we weren’t necessarily keen to know. Luckily, as we attempt to process her latest bit of information and wait with nervous trepidation for the next one, the internet had some hilarious responses to Rowling’s latest bit of unwanted Potter trivia. Here are some of the best ones from the Twitterverse.
Like Ben Rosen, who showed us that Rowling was getting a little too real.
JK ROWLING: dumbledore and grindelwald had sex
ME: lol
JK ROWLING: so did you and dobby
ME: what
JK ROWLING: you will never feel love like that again
What were some of your favorite memes and responses to J.K. Rowling’s latest revelation? And what are your opinions of her continued ‘interesting’ trivia pieces about her universe? Are you ready for what her next terrifying piece of information might be? We’re certainly not!
The Harry Potter series has been quiet for the most part besides the Fantastic Beast franchise rolling out steadily. The story of the boy with the cursed mark and his adventures in Hogwarts had come to end. It’s been 17 years since the conclusion of the last book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Image Via WhatCulture
However, the love of the series hasn’t grown cold, but hotter and greater in number. Fans have been standing on their toes with wands in hand as the fandom is once again lit aflame with an answer from the author herself to the age-old question:
If you’re unfamiliar with the theory, it is based on a children story within the Harry Potter world, that follows three brothers and their acquaintance, Death. The story goes as follows: Three brothers are traveling when they come to a treacherous river. It’s here where they would either drown or be carried to their death if they were to swim over so they conjure up a bridge and cross the water. Enraged, Death meets them halfway, feeling cheated its victims.
Image Via Harry Potter Wiki
So, to ‘congratulate’ them, he gifts them each a gift of their choosing. The first brother wanted a wand that was more powerful than any other wand. The second brother asked for a stone that would ressurect the dead. The last brother requested something to help him hide from death which was an invisibly cloak.
Image Via Harry Potter Fan Zone
Death was certain to get the lives he was due. The first brother killed in a duel, the second brother killed himself after he ressurected his lover and found their love did not live beyond death, and the last remained hidden until he was old and gray. When he was close to death, the last brother met up with Death and ‘greeted Death like an old friend’.
The theory is that Voldemort, Severus Snape, and Harry Potter represent the brothers. Voldemort wanted to obtain the elder wand, his obession with the object led to his death in combat.
Image Via Los Replicantes
Severus Snape represents the second brother whose love for Lily Potter led to his self sacrifice althroughout the movie until his death by Nagini at the end. And lastly, Harry Potter represents the last brother who was gifted the invisibility cloak and he does die during the last book.
The center of the theory is the representation of Death through the character Dumbledore. The cunning, old, deceased head master is the one that meets Harry Potter once he dies. He greets him as an old friend, welcoming him and guiding him during the afterlife.
In life, he was the one who had orchestrated in gifting the cloak to Harry as well as planning his death somewhat. He is Death. A very fitting piece into this puzzle of the Harry Potter series. J.K seems to agree.
Check out this clip for an animated look into the re-telling of the Deathly Hallows!
This is the repetitive dialogue between Vladimir and Estragon in Irish playwright Sameul Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The story revolves around two men standing by a tree waiting for a character named Godot (the pronunciation is God-oh). While waiting, the duo talks about many absurd issues, arguing and reconciling, and figuring out games to fill in the time. The absence of this unknown being creates an agitated atmosphere.
Since the script was published in 1952, Waiting for Godot has been put on stage ceaselessly. Now, the Garry Hynes-directed production of Waiting for Godotfrom Ireland’s distinguished Druid Theatre will play Off-Broadway from October 16th to November 18th, in Lincoln Center’s 2018 White Light Festival.
Garry Hynes co-founded the Druid Theatre Company in Dublin in 1975. She’s worked as the Artistic Director from 1975 to 1991, and from 1995 to present. Her brilliant list of awards includes the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1998), the Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Directing for The Cripple of Inishman (2009). She received The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards for Best Director for DruidShakespeare, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and Waiting for Godot, as well as a Special Tribute Award for her contribution to Irish Theatre (2005).
One concern about adapting a classic literary work is that how to surprise the audience? In an interview, Director Hynes said:
You never know how a production is going to be responded to and you certainly never know in a play like this…One of difficulties in actually rehearsing the play was as you were setting it up, you were looking at this iconic images coming to life. One the one hand, I’ve seen this all before, in a hundred other productions or photographs, and yet at the same time you’re trying to own it and make this something that comes out of your own heart. So, to have audiences respond in such a way saying, ‘Wow! I love that’ rather than saying ‘Oh, I’ve seen Waiting for Godot.’ That’s been great.
The frame-like setting attracts me a lot. I’m ready to buy the ticket, review Beckett’s words, and waiting for Garry Hynes’ Waiting for Godot in Lincoln Center! Would you wanna come with me:)?
I used to avoid reading works of drama because I didn’t think they were “my thing.” As a long-time reader of fiction, the format of traditional drama was a bit intimidating and not aesthetically pleasing to me. It wasn’t until I got to college and was forced to take a Shakespeare course, and other english courses that introduced plays, that I finally came to appreciate the genre.
While the format is indeed different than other genres, that very format has so many benefits in of itself that audiences can appreciate. The messages, emotions, and stories behind the written words can echo much louder and clearer and when you discover a play you love, you wonder how you could have possibly missed out on the chance to be touched by it for so long. Maybe you’re also a reader who has hesitated to read plays, or hasn’t come across a drama naturally, but hopefully these 5 dramas will be enticing enough to give it a try.
Angels in America depicts an emotionally riveting tale of the AIDS crisis in 1980’s America. It conveys the complexity, fear, and rejection AIDS affected communities faced during the time and while it largely focuses on the history and experiences of the LGBT community, the story can speak to and impact a larger audience.
This is a legendary play exploring sexuality, mental illness, and familial relations. A Streetcar Named Desire has delivered not only one of the most iconic American plays in history, but an equally acclaimed film adaptation, directed by Elia Kazan, that has earned a reputation as being an American classic.
Titus Andronicus may not be the most well-known or studied Shakespeare work, but it’s certainly, in my opinion, one of the most worth reading. Though it’s advertised as a tragedy (and certainly has some dramatic and emotional scenes), this shocking story about a Roman soldier, whose family becomes involved in bad blood, has some bizarre and ridiculous moments that makes it wildly entertaining and certainly a page-turner.
The Laramie Project explores the tragic death of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who was brutally murdered in his small town of Laramie, Wyoming. Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project visited Laramie after Shepards death and conducted over 200 interviews with his neighbors, friends, family, and foes, cultivating in a powerful discussion of prejudice, rejection, and the worth of LGBT lives. The second half of the play sees the group returning 10 years later, observing the long-term affects of Shepherd’s tragic death and the lessons learned by the small town folk since.
The onset of the AIDS epidemic is written about extensively, yet The Normal Heart nevertheless portrays it in such a unique and humanizing experience that it packs just as big of an emotional punch as any similar story that came before it. With moving dialogue,heart-felt messages, and an honest and emotional criticism of the social forces that failed to intervene in the AIDS crisis, The Normal Heart is an absolute must-read!
Featured Image Shows Mural of William Shakespeare Painted by James Cochran
Mental health, along with the illnesses that can plague us, make up some of the most taboo, stigmatized topics of discussion within our society today. Historically speaking, society has always had a difficult time equating mental illnesses with the same sincerity physical illnesses foster. It’s almost as if there’s this underlying belief that people can think their way out of mental illnesses as opposed to receiving professional medical treatment.
However, within the past five or so years there has been such an uprise in the media of people coming out of the corners, shedding their shame, and openly sharing their struggles with mental health that the way we view mental illnesses has begun dramatically shifting for the better. This is even despite the stigmas society has already planted; it’s a shift that has been so necessary. Mental health is just as crucial to us as our physical health; we cannot function as whole, healthy, happy humans when the neurons in our brains are preventing us from doing so.
Stigmatizing mental health only harms our society more; insinuating that there is something to be ashamed or embarrassed of only prevents people from seeking the help they need. It’s important that we are open about our struggles. It’s vital that we are receptive to the struggles of those around us. We have to uplift and support each other, always standing up for the insanely complicated complexities of what it is to be human.
If you or someone you know is struggling, here are hotlines that solely exist to support you. Don’t be afraid to utilize them, there is no shame in feeling trapped inside of that dark, lonely place our minds can sometimes go:
24 Hour Crisis Text Line: Text CONNECT to 741741 from anywhere in the USA, anytime, about any type of crisis and a live, trained Crisis Counselor will receive the text and let you know that they are here to listen.
And, if you’re struggling, here are seven memoirs of people who may have been in your shoes before and have proven that even the worst is never permanent; we are alwayscapable of recovery.
In this stunning memoir, one woman brings us into her struggle with bipolar disorder and the lithium that grounded her, kept her hallucinations at bay, and led her to lead a healthy, normal life. This was for twenty years before doctors told her it was destroying her kidneys and forced her to choose between functioning kidneys, or the little pink pills that saved her life.
Lowe takes us on a raw, honest journey as she adjusts to a new medication while traveling to Bolivia and examining the world’s largest lithium mines and learn all of the mysteries about the drug that kept her sane.
Everything around me came into question: What was real, what was imaginary? What was genuine feeling and what was the disorder? Who was I in relationship to the disease? What was mental illness? How long had it been around?
This book details Times journalist Rachel Kelly’s struggle with moderate anxiety that, in a period of only three days, suddenly progressed to severe, debilitating depression. She delves deep into the darkest periods of her life and how reading poetry helped her to heal in more ways than she could’ve ever guessed.
Filled with the very poems that pulled her out of the void, this memoir acts as a lifeline for when your chest feels heavy and you don’t want to be alone.
Unlike the moment I fell ill, I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I got better. This is a relative term. Depression has changed everything for me. I will never not need to manage this illness. The severity of the symptoms comes and goes. The illness is not me; I’m just someone managing it’s symptoms, in the way that many people manage many conditions.
This darkly comedic, poetic, and brutally honest collection stems from Broder’s viral Twitterpage; depicting her struggles with anxiety, addiction, eating disorders, obsession, and more. It’s a book everyone can relate to, and a good testament as to why Broder is one of the most popular contemporary writers today.
I know I have an ocean of sadness inside me and I have been damming it my entire life. I have always imagined that something was supposed to rescue me from the ocean. But maybe the ocean is its own ultimate rescue – a reprieve from the linear mind and into the world of feeling. Shouldn’t someone have told me this at birth? Shouldn’t someone have said, “Enjoy your ocean of sadness, there is nothing to fear in it,” so I didn’t have to build all those dams? I think some of us are less equipped to deal with our oceans, or maybe we are just more terrified, because we see and feel a little extra. So we build our shitty dams. But inevitably, the dam always breaks again. It breaks again and the ocean speaks to me. It says ‘I’m alive and it’s real’. It says, ‘I’m going to die, and it’s real.
Emma Forrest’s memoir takes a sharp look at her as a twenty-two year old struggling to make it in New York City, growing more manic day-by-day, and falling further into her own vortex of loneliness and destruction. She begins meeting with a psychiatrist and clinging to him as her own personal safe haven until he suddenly passes, leaving her to now pick up the pieces of her newfound mourning; all while learning how to cope with healing alone.
It is madness. And if you don’t know who you are, or if your real self has drifted away from you with the undertow, madness at least gives you an identity. It’s the same with self-loathing. You’re probably just normal and normal-looking but that’s not a real identity, not the way ugliness is. Normality, just accepting that you’re probably normal-looking, lacks the force field of self-disgust. If you don’t know who you are, madness gives you something to believe in.
In this powerful, poignant memoir that’s part-biography, part-historical look, Sandra Allen translates the messy, mistyped, and fully capitalized autobiography her schizophrenic uncle, Bob, mails her one day and blends it alongside a look back at their familial history and the cultural shifts occurring during Bob’s adolescence in the sixties and seventies.
This book is such an honest, in-depth look at a mental illness that is still so publicly stigmatized, it will forever change the way you view schizophrenia.
I’M ROBERT: this is a true story of a boy brought up in berkely california durring the sixties and seventies who was unable to identify with reality and there for labeled as a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic for the rest of his life.
In this chaotic, tragic memoir, Cat Marnell details her life as a twenty-six year old associate beauty editor, popular Manhattan socialite, and uninhibited party girl who kept secret her chronic struggles with bulimia, drug addiction, hallucinations, and insomnia from the world who knew her well.
This book is such a relatable take on addiction and loneliness it will break your heart.
And you fall deeper and deeper into the earth, but it’s not the earth, exactly, it’s this series of . . . lofts built into the earth like underground tree houses, right, and another floor falls out from under you, and then you are on a different floor of the world, and you are starting to accept that things will never be the same.
In this stunning look at trauma, binge eating disorders, and the dysmorphia beneath it all, Roxane Gay boldly describes her own struggles with food, her body, and the violence that led her here.
This all-too-relatable journey of one woman’s struggle to save herself as she teeters on the line between self-care and self-destruction will leave anyone feeling capable and empowered.
I buried the girl I had been because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. She is still small and scared and ashamed, and perhaps I am writing my way back to her, trying to tell her everything she needs to hear.
| Tennessee Williams
| Moisés Kaufman
| Larry Kramer
