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In late February of this year I traveled to New Haven to sit in as a guest expert of sorts in Prof. Danielle Tumminio’s “Christian Theology and Harry Potter” course (CSBR 352b). It was a Hogwarts Professor dream date, as you might imagine. Picture a neo-gothic seminar room with a diverse group of very thoughtful and well-read young adults who meet to discuss topics like sacramental theology in the context of their reading of the Harry Potter epic. And my book was part of the reading for the course.

The course description said that it was an “exploration of ways that the Harry Potter novels espouse a Christian theological worldview” with “readings from theological texts as well as the novel series.” Prof. Tumminio, Read the rest of this entry »

Stop the clocks! Jim Dale’s recorded book version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finally became available for my children to check out from the local library. They put their name on the waiting list when we moved here last June and the three CD copies went into circulation early last August, so, do the math. A Nine Months Wait!

These books may have fallen from the New York Times bestsellers list, but it’s Deathly Hallows Day again at my house. I have read the book aloud to the younger trio, of course, and one of them has read it herself - but, when they came home from the library yesterday, you would have thought Santa had come early to Allentown this year. They ran into my office saying “Dad, look what we’ve got!” Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a different take on the spiritual understanding and underpinnings of Harry Potter from Israel. It turns out Harry is not a Christ figure, which makes sense in a way; but who would have thought that Jesus would be cast as He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named? Talk about variance in Reader Response… Read the rest of this entry »

And to be part of the A-Level Exams, no less. Read about it here and here.

However appropriate or inappropriate this selection may be, it certainly challenges the assumption that there will be a significant time lag between Ms. Rowling’s popular success and her acceptance by the Academy. The Brits have made our favorite boy wizard hero no small part of their secondary school English curriculum.

Perhaps this means there will soon be an endowed chair in Hogwarts Studies at Eton for which I can apply… Read the rest of this entry »

No, I still don’t want to discuss the merits of Ms. Rowling’s law suit against the publishers of Mr. Vander Ark’s Lexicon. That is a subject for the judge trying the case — and everyone who thinks they know how it will turn out and what that ruling will mean in the long term is kidding themselves and, frankly, wasting their time in an especially unedifying way.

On the other hand, on a site for serious readers, I am obliged to note trends in criticism of Ms. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Linda McCabe sent me a link this morning to an article by a notable writer about Ms. Rowling and her lawsuit that suggests that a backlash against Ms. Rowling is building and that this will affect understanding of her books for years to come.

That — and how much our beliefs about an author color our understanding of his or work — are subjects worth talking about. Do we love or loath Harry largely as a function of how we feel about Ms. Rowling? Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, Wizard Rock is a blast but it’s time to put Potter-mania and Fandom aside and get back to the books and some serious thinking, folks. Here are three notes on Umberto Eco and how to think about the narrative of the Harry Potter stories, especially about why it resonates so universally.

The first is a delightful introduction to the man himself in I Invented Dan Brown, a Jerusalem Post interview with Italian novelist and semiotics professor Umberto Eco: Read the rest of this entry »

A Guest post — with photos — from HogPro stringer (and real-life Spokesman-Review freelance correspondent in Spokane, WA), Arabella Figg! Thank you, Arabella, for this HogwartsProfessor.com Exclusive:

A Rockumentary That’s Wizard!

By Arabella Figg (Deborah Chan, Muggle Alias)—April 18, 2008

“Arabella, please send us a full report!”—John Granger

When John Granger announced at Hogwarts Professor that young twin sisters and filmmakers Megan and Mallory Schuyler had made a documentary feature film on Harry Potter wizard rock and the world premiere was in my hometown of Spokane, WA I was floored.

Wizard rock? Enough of it for a documentary? Made by Spokanites? I could attend a unique Harry Potter event? Wow!

My fan participation has been limited to HogPro. I knew nothing of the wizard rock subculture and was eager to have my Harry Potter horizons broadened.

The Filmmakers

“I feel we’ve grown up through this project.”—Megan Schuyler
“It’s our contribution.”—Mallory Schuyler

(Mallory, Deborah, and Megan: photo by Richard Chan)

The Schuylers (Griffinclaw Productions) traveled cross-country for two years to document wizard rock and its musicians of all ages, styles and creativity. It was Mallory who coined the term “rocking and rowling.” Read the rest of this entry »

Hard as it may be to believe, we have live footage.

Your thoughts?

I’ve heard the saying “life imitating art” before — but “nature echoing art” is a first for me. Any precedence for this sort of thing in your experience?

Or should we be thinking that as a child Ms. Rowling saw an albino stag in the Forest of Dean? It would certainly have made seeing the St. Godric icon with white stag or reading about the Narnian albino a different experience than most of us had.

From the Telegraph’s article describing The 100 most powerful people in British culture:

#14 J.K. Rowling, 42, author. Harry Potter brought her fame and fortune, and she in turn has given a break to the British film industry, by insisting the films of her books be shot in Britain with an all-British cast. Has said:

‘I never wanted [fame] and I never expected it and certainly didn’t work for it, and I see it as something that I have to get through, really.’

She has made four assertions about fame here, each of which is counter-cultural in a celebrity-consumed world: fame isn’t an end to be desired in itself, or expected, or worked for, or, when thrust upon the unwilling, to be neglected as a chore (lest it eat you for lunch).

Two thoughts for your discussion beyond grading her efforts to “get through [it]:”

(1) How much of Harry Potter’s response to fame is an echo of Ms. Rowling’s beliefs as stated?

(2) Is she right about fame?

”Any guide to the Harry Potter books should have a lengthy entry on death,” Rowling said. ”It is probably the major theme of the whole seven-book series, and it appears in so many different ways.”

Class Assignment: Name up to three different ways in which the major theme of death appears in the Harry Potter series of novels. Discuss.

Alternative assignment: If death is not a “major theme” in these novels, identify one or more of those themes in which death plays some part. Discuss these themes and what light they shine on the mystery and meaning of death.