Background Information:
In my English Expository Writing class, we discussed the topic of how some authors wrote under a pen name. Upon doing some research, I found an interesting case about how J.K. Rowling might or might not have written the book Cuckoo’s Calling and decided to do some research on it.
We all know that J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series, but the real question here is whether or not she wrote another book called Cuckoo’s Calling under a different name. J.K. Rowling was suspected of writing the crime novel when the Sunday Times explained that after investigation, they came to the conclusion that the book was more accomplished than normal for a debut writer. A Time’s journalist tweeted that the book was great, but someone unknown retweeted that it was by J.K. Rowling and then deleted the comment and their account. Others already suspected that it was Rowling because she stated that she wanted her first adult novel to be a mystery novel and the publisher of the novel, David Shelley was known for publishing crime novels.
One person who was involved in the investigation of Cuckoo’s Calling was Patrick Juola, who is a forensic linguist with a focus in authorship attribution. He explains that one of the things that most authors would change while writing under a pen name would be the word length. They look at how many words are used in the book and compare it to another book written by the suspected author or other authors to see if there are any similarities. Words like of or but are hard to change because they are so subconscious. On top of this, I decided to do a stylistic analysis of the books Cuckoo’s Calling and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Stylistic Analyses:
I decided to do a stylistic analysis on the first paragraph of the prologue of Cuckoo’s Calling.
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. Snow fell steadily on hats and shoulders; gloved fingers wiped lenses clear. From time to time there came outbreaks of desultory clicking, as the watchers filled the waiting time by snapping the white canvas tent in the middle of the road, the entrance to the tall red-brick apartment block behind it, and the balcony on the top floor from which the body had fallen.
The subject of this paragraph is the paparazzi at the scene of the crime. The main verb would be the humming from the buzz on the street. There are similes and metaphors to help paint an image in the reader’s mind of the scene of the crime and what is happening there. An example of a simile is, “The buzz on the street was like the humming of flies.” She also uses a longer sentence at the end of the paragraph to help with descriptions. A metaphor that I found was the long-snouted cameras poised, their breath rising like steam. The use of the word, desultory caught my attention because I didn’t know what it meant and actually had to look it up. The overall effect of the stylistic choices on the reader is that it is suspenseful and makes you want to keep reading the book. It keeps the reader interested.
Rowling creates an ethos of suspense and mystery. The buildup to the end of the paragraph creates a sort of cliffhanger and makes the reader want to read more of the book. Her footing is as a witness to what’s happening at the scene of the crime. Rowling takes a stance of suspense and is expecting readers that enjoy being left in a cliffhanger and enjoy reading mysteries and crime books. The relationship she has with the reader is one where she is narrating something that happened. The fact that it is not written in first person creates this effect. The writer is trying to accomplish a spark in interest so that the reader would want to read more of the book and to create suspense. I think J.K. Rowling succeeds in doing this. The purpose of this text is to entertain the reader. The reader would want to read this book for a good suspenseful thriller. The text works well because it is suspenseful and entertaining.
The text does not have any widely used stock phrases or clichés. This piece of the text also does not have any standard organizational schemes. This paragraph does not have any known cultural texts, beliefs, values, symbols, or myths.
I then took a passage from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone from the scene where Harry and Malfoy find the dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forrest.
It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.
Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered. . . . Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal’s side, and began to drink its blood.
The subject of this passage from Harry Potter is the discovery of the dead unicorn. The main verb is crawling. There is a metaphor and a simile in this passage. An example of the simile is “…a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast.” Some of the sentences are longer than others for descriptions of the scene. They help to create a mental image of what’s happening at that point in time. The use of the word transfixed instead of the word stunned caught my attention. It created a feeling of horror at something unexpected. The overall effect is to be suspenseful until the main action (the drinking of the unicorn blood) happens.
Rowling created a suspenseful ethos built on tension. The buildup creates a sense of tension about what will happen next after Harry and Malfoy find the dead unicorn. Her footing is of someone who is witnessing the scene and telling about it. Rowling is taking the stance of suspense and expects the reader to keep reading to find out what will happen next. The relationship she has with the reader is that of someone narrating to the reader what’s happening at the scene. She is trying to create a sense of tension and succeeds. The purpose of the book is to entertain the reader. The text does work well for this purpose because it is suspenseful and makes the reader want to read more of it.
The passage contains the stock-phrase pearly-white and is used to describe the unicorn’s mane. The passage does not contain any standard organizational schemes. The text refers that magic and unicorns are real. Rowling invokes them for entertainment. They make the book interesting and fun.
Both of the passages from the different books are very similar in their stylistic tendencies.
J.K. Rowling actually came out and admitted to being the author of Cuckoo’s Calling under the pen name of Robert Galbraith. Rowling had hoped to keep the secret a little longer because of the liberating experience and expressed regret that she had been found out.
Overall, I can’t wait to read Cuckoo’s Calling. Just by reading the first paragraph, I was hooked and wanted to read more.