Reading

[profshallowness]

I read that it was Rowling's lawyers (or one of them) who let slip that she was Robert Galbraith. I'm sure that those few who went and bought the book and enjoyed it are feeling smug. Despite having endured The Casual Vacancy more than enjoyed it, I daresay I will read the book at some point.

For now I'm currently reading and loving The Night

Comments

[swordznsorcery]

Can anyone else think of extreme examples of where someone’s life changed canonically and how they’d react at losing their memories?

Are you familiar with "Doctor Who"? When the show was off the air during the nineties, many books were written, continuing the adventures of the Eighth Doctor. There was a huge amnesia arc there, where he had no idea that he was a Time Lord, and was stranded on Earth for the entire twentieth century, with no real idea of who he was, or why he wasn't aging. The fact that the books were written by a whole host of people meant that sometimes the story was handled better than others, but there were some good ideas in there, especially early on, when he was first confronted with the situation.

[profshallowness]

I don't watch Doctor Who (it scared me as a child to the point where I have a visceral reaction to it) but

he had no idea that he was a Time Lord, and was stranded on Earth for the entire twentieth century, with no real idea of who he was, or why he wasn't aging

sounds like a delicious set-up.

Are those books counted as canon? I didn't make discuss this in the main post, but I'm fascinated in how amnesia plays out in shows etc too.

[swordznsorcery]

It was a wonderful set-up! Sadly things got screwed things up a little, as cost-cutting meant that the books switched from being one a month to one every two months. That dragged the storyline out, and ultimately meant that it was left unfinished, as they weren't allowed to continue with the Eighth Doctor range when the TV series came back. There were some fine stories during the arc, though

[profshallowness]

fans have always had a mantra of "If I like it, it's canon".

I think that's probably the only way to go when you have contradictory canon, especially over several media. I first came across it with Star Trek novelisations, really.