I leave tomorrow at 4 am for my five day tour of Iowa and Illinois (for itinerary click here). I will be talking about my HogPro friends at every stop and inviting new friends to join us — but I won’t be here to add new posts. Not to mention Halloween blogging friends wanting to know more about How Harry Cast His Spell!
As a “welcome aboard!” to these newcomers, then, I’ve gathered four audio recordings of interviews I’ve given and conversations I’ve had in the last month, all about Harry Potter. They are all pretty long and should keep you thinking until I get back and can finish the posts I’ve started on Elizabeth Goudge, Ms. Rowling’s six story formulas, and a few things I’ve been thinking about the Rocky movies of Sly Stallone and the Orphan novels by Charles Dickens (really).
If this is your first visit to Hogwarts Professor, welcome! Please sign in and leave your comments and corrections. The old hands, HogPro All-Pros, will introduce themselves I hope and make you feel at home.
1. Hog’s Head PubCast #60: John Granger Interview, The Deathly Hallows Lectures: Travis Prinzi, the Hog’s Head maestro, helped launch sales of my latest book, The Deathly Hallows Lectures: The Hogwarts Professor Explains Harry’s Latest Adventure by podcasting a conversation about the eye symbolism of Deathly Hallows.
2. “Are Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels Great Books?” was the question in a Biola University podcast featuring John Mark Reynolds, Paul Spears, and myself, in which the Torrey Honors Institute professors express their doubts and the Hogwarts Professor tries to keep up.
3. The same crowd try to decide “What Constitutes Harry Potter Canon?” John Mark Reynolds champions “text alone,” I argue for “text first,” and the push-back is genial and furious.
4. Just before I spoke at Saybrook College, Yale, Jerry Bowyer, my favorite talk-radio host, called me to catch up and help me promote How Harry Cast His Spell: The Meaning Behind the Mania. This is an mp3 recording of that exchange.
As always, folks, your comments and corrections are welcome!
“Happy Birthday, John!” 47 today…
Well, Happy Birthday, John! Ah, 47 – hmmmm, that was a long time ago for me, or so it seems some days. I hope you celebrated well.
I’m looking forward to listening to all four later. Is the one with Travis the one that was posted at the Hogs Head? That one was great. I’ll get to the others soon.
Pat
Ditto Happy Birthday, John! Hope you had a great day.
When feeling the years are just skipping by, remember singer/songwriter Carly Simon’s sage line about living in the present: “*These* are the good old days.”
Kitties always live “in the present,” whether it be time or a fresh grocery bag…
I LOVE listening to you talk about Harry Potter, John. If fact, I found myself wishing everyone else would shut up! (Is that an “unChristian” thing to say?)
Happy birthday! 😀
Happy Birthday John!
Belated birthday greetings, John! Hope it was wonderful. And hope your trip is going well. Prayers for safe travels and fruitful discussions along the journey!
Bon anniversaire, John!