For all the hormones that raged in the halls of Hogwarts, J. K. Rowling's writing has been pretty PG when it comes to sexual matters. Not anymore, though. In an extensive profile of the author, the New Yorker's Ian Parker reveals a potential controversy that might arise with the publication of her adult novel The Casual Vacancy: young Potter fans looking for magic will find some descriptions of very real human anatomy. Parker explains:

Within a few pages, it was clear that the novel had not been written for children: “The leathery skin of her upper cleavage radiated little cracks that no longer vanished when decompressed.” A little later, a lustful boy sits on a school bus “with an ache in his heart and in his balls.”

Unlike the Potter books, The Casual Vacancy, out September 27 from Little, Brown and Company, does not revolve around an epic wizard battle between good and evil, but rather, a local election and an English town. Rowling explained to Parker that she "had a lot of real-world material" in her. As for the less real-world stuff, she explained, "The thing about fantasy—there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy. You don’t have sex near unicorns. It’s an ironclad rule. It’s tacky." Huh. Based on that comment we bet we can guess how she feels about the works of Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin.

Read the rest of Parker's profile here.

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Esther Zuckerman