MTV Interview: Are Slytherins All Evil?

July 1, 2015 by 8 Comments

f39080230Shaunna Murphy at MTV News contacted me for a story she was writing about Slytherin House consequent to Ms Rowling’s tweeting that all racist witches and wizards are sorted into the House of Emerald Green and Silver. She wanted some help with the six pervasive misconceptions she believes readers and movie goers hold about Slytherins and I did my best. You can read her only slightly tongue in cheek treatment at You’re Getting Slytherin All Wrong: Six Myths About Harry Potter’s Misunderstood House.

Oh, and if you don’t think MTV News is a respectable source for your news, please remember that it was an MTV reporter who first asked The Presence on her Open Book Tour in 2007 about the Christian content in Deathly Hallows. Because, y’know, every other media outlet and journalist missed that part of the story, the explosion of almost ten years of nonsense about Harry’s adventures being ‘the gateway to the occult’…

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Guest Post: David Martin reveals the Role of Books in the Hogwarts Saga

June 30, 2015 by 11 Comments

Tomorrow night MuggleNet Academia’s Keith Hawk and I interview David Martin, Potter Pundit extraordinaire, about a talk he gave at MISTI Con on the role of books inside the Harry Potter novels. David graciously agreed to letting me post his notes from that brilliant talk here so listeners could have a follow-up reference to the podcast. He only asks that I mention upfront that this is a work in progress, not a polished piece or finished production.

If you’re like me, you’ll be wow’ed by this remarkable survey and eager to hear David talk on the subject in this week’s MuggleNet Academia show. Here’s David!

[An updated version of David’s Notes was posted here at his direction on Thursday, 2 July 2015. Enjoy!]

Introduction

Note: This talk was presented at Misti-Con in 2013 and again in 2015.

Introduction

The Harry Potter novels take place in a fully developed book culture – that is, they take place in a world where people (some people) use and interact with books.  There are many more books used in the Harry Potter novels than there are other series with which they are sometimes compared.  When I present this topic as a talk, I begin by asking the audience for the names of books that are mentioned in the HP novels.  The audience will easily come up with a dozen titles very quickly. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Guest Posts, MuggleNet Academia

New Cormoran Strike Novel Details: Plot, Publishing Dates for ‘Career of Evil’

June 29, 2015 by 13 Comments

CareerOfEvil-UK-US-800x611The plot and publishing dates of J. K. Rowling’s new Cormoran Strike novel, Career of Evil,  were announced today at Robert Galbraith.com. As predicted in talks I gave at the Chestnut Hill and MISTI-Con gatherings, Career will almost certainly be the book that triggers the tsunami of readers to the series — as Prisoner of Azkaban did for the Hogwarts Saga. Read on for details!

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“Little, Brown Book Group today announced that the next Cormoran Strike crime novel by Robert Galbraith, Career of Evil, is to be published on 20th October in the US, and 22nd October 2015 in the UK. Little, Brown also revealed the cover for the third book in the series, and further details about the story.

 

“When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

 

“With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…

 

“Career of Evil is the third in the highly acclaimed series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, it is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.”

 

The title, Career of Evil, is from a Patti Smith song that Smith wrote for Blue Oyster Cult. You can listen to the song here, if you like. Scroll down past the anti-Semitism bit… Who knew Smith hated Jews? I knew Rowling was a big fan of The Smiths (even dressing up like them and wearing the heavy eye liner make-up) – but Patti Smith?

Anyway, because the Strike mysteries are written in parallel with their numeric counterpart in the Hogwarts novels — I kid you not — we can expect that Career of Evil will be about the mysterious underworld informant that has played significant parts in both Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm. His role in the second book was to get Cormoran a job interview with a mobster as an enforcer. Cormoran accepts 500 Pounds from the Godfather to break a client’s son’s arm, i.e. to send a message, which, of course, Cormoran does not do. Unfortunately, he also spends the 500 pounds and doesn’t get around to repaying it.

Whoops.

I think we can be pretty sure that the bad guy takes this out on both Cormoran and his friend for having deceived him. The Doom Bar Detective has had his picture in the papers often enough that the tech mafioso realizes he was set up as well as short changed. Hence the severed leg — a pointer to Strike’s infirmity, to the horse’s head of The Godfather, and to violence against women, a Rowling thematic touchstone.

The mystery figure is an echo of Sirius Black in Prisoner of Azkaban and we should expect, as was the case of Harry’s third year adventures, a good deal of narrative release, back-story hinted at in the first two books that will be the substance of the drama in the next four mysteries. Which is to say, more on Rokeby, Lida Strike, Cormoran’s Army career and the accident that cost him a leg, and, hurrah, why Robin left University and is beholden to her tosser of a fiancee.

It promises to be great — and, yes, we’ll be discussing it here at Hogwarts Professor in great detail in the months between now and the October release. Can you say ‘Midnight Madness’? The mania returns…

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Guest Post: MISTI Con 2015! TGTSNBN

June 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Misti-Con 2015 was an awesomely magical event that took place May 21 – 25, 2015 at the Margate Resort in the beautiful lakes region of Laconia, NH.  The Margate was sold out within weeks of the announcement of Misti-Con 2015 in August 2014, which gives tremendous credibility of this fantastical bi-annual Harry Potter conference.  Misti-Con was organized by The Group That Shall Not Be Named (HP-NYC),

I have been to Potter conferences all over the U.S. by various organizations over the last 10 years and Misti-Con was impressive by the dedication of its loyal staff who saw to every minute detail of the 5-day event from the programming, events, talks, concerts, hotel menu items, and down to the immense amount of decorations that permeated the hallways, lobbies and conference rooms at the two locations at the Margate (main hotel and secondary building).  To welcome us as we entered was a large statue with characters from the Potter movies intertwined together as one entity.

Opening ceremonies offered skilled Japanese drumming and a magician with a few tricks up his sleeve as well as introductions of the Misti-Con staff and brief in-seat introductions of guest speakers; the ceremonies closed with a bang when fireworks filled the lake skies of the Margate.

Guest speakers during the course of the conference included the visual engineers of Universal’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, actor Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley), and the esteemed Dean of Harry Potter Scholars, John Granger.

Several discussion groups, as well as lectures were offered – Harry Potter Fan Zone’s fellow reporter, David Gras, presented two round-table discussions and other talks offered attendees deeper journeys into the world of Harry Potter including Dr. Patrick McCauley from Chestnut Hill College, PA who is releasing a book entitled Into the Pensieve: The Philosophy and Mythology of Harry Potter

Some classes offered Harry Potter dance lessons and art classes.  The Bewitching Bazaar showcased vendors offering various magical items such as Potter tea, Potter-style witches hats, jewelry, as well as fan fic books.  The Wizarding World’s Fair offered various feats of magical-ness – alas the hot air balloons rides were cancelled due to high winds. Wizard Wrock and ghost stories down on the beach entertained the night-time crowd.

Kudos to the organizers of this well-planned and articulated event with special thanks to Clay Dockery, Treasurer and Co-Head Organizer.  This reporter, as one of hundreds, look forward to the next MistiCon!

— Toni Gras, Reporter for Harry Potter Fan Zone

Filed Under: Guest Posts

Rowling Confirms Literary Alchemy in PotterMore Post– about Father Figures?

June 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Yes, Yes, I’ve heard! Joanne Rowling is talking about her use of alchemical colors. In a post last week on Pottermore about Father Figures, the Presence herself admits that Rubeus Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore have their names from the alchemical colors red and white. But here’s the thing all the stories in print and online miss about this revelation: she told us this back in October 2013.

It’s not news, alas.

First, in case you missed this, check out these links to the story as reported in TIME — ‘Here’s What New Information J. K. Rowling Revealed on Pottermore’ — and ‘CinemaBlend’ — ‘J. K. Rowling Reveals the Two Characters Who Represented Harry Potter’s Ideal Father Figures.’

No mention of her 1998 comments about wanting to be an alchemist in either one, right? Or the October 2013 alchemical colors discussion on Pottermore? Nada.

Here’s what she posted about alchemy last week if you want the cheat-sheet short-cut:

 

Alchemy … was once believed to be possible and real. However, the central quest of alchemy may be more complex, and less materialistic, than it first appears. One interpretation of the ‘instructions’ left by the alchemists is that they are symbolic of a spiritual journey…

The colours red and white are mentioned many times in old texts on alchemy. One interpretation is that they, like base metal and gold, represent two different sides of human nature, which must be reconciled. This was the inspiration for the Christian names of Rubeus (red) Hagrid and Albus (white) Dumbledore. These two men, both hugely important to Harry, seem to me to represent two sides of the ideal father figure he seeks; the former is warm, practical and wild, the latter impressive, intellectual, and somewhat detached.”

 

Although there are books on alchemy in the library at Hogwarts, and I always imagined that it would be studied by very clever students in their sixth and seventh years, Hermione most uncharacteristically ignores the opportunity. Perhaps she feels (as Harry and Ron certainly do) that, far from wishing to make another Philosopher’s Stone, they would be happy never to see another one in their lives.

Contrast this with what she posted in 2013:

Colours also played their part in the naming of Hagrid and Dumbledore, whose first names are Rubeus (red) and Albus (white) respectively. The choice was a nod to alchemy, which is so important in the first Harry Potter book, where ‘the red’ and ‘the white’ are essential mystical components of the process. The symbolism of the colours in this context has mystic meaning, representing different stages of the alchemic process (which many people associate with a spiritual transformation).

Where my two characters were concerned, I named them for the alchemical colours to convey their opposing but complementary natures: red meaning passion (or emotion); white for asceticism; Hagrid being the earthy, warm, physical man, lord of the forest; Dumbledore the spiritual theoretician, brilliant, idealized and somewhat detached. Each is a necessary counterpoint to the other as Harry seeks father figures in his new world.

So… the net gain is that we now know (1) that Ms. Rowling thinks alchemy is something All Stars at Hogwarts can study (in Transfigurations? Potions?) before graduation and (2) that she is an ardent online environmentalist, which is to say, she re-packages, re-uses, and re-cycles her bon mots.

One of my daydream delusions is that one day The Presence will be interviewed by a panel of Potter Pundits that are more scholars than sycophants. I expect the Lord will return first. This being the case, rather than put these thin, repeated comments under the microscope — is she saying that alchemy is primarily psychological because it is part of Harry’s search for “father figures” even though she acknowledges alchemists believe theirs is a spiritual journey? — let’s look back at our previous discussions of this subject.

One re-run deserves another.

Rowling Confesses Desire to be an Alchemist (2007)

PotterMore: J. K. Rowling Discusses Alchemical Colors (October 2013)

Be sure to read the comments on this thread about Sirius Black, et cetera.

Thanks to the many friends who sent me the news of this sort of new posting!

Filed Under: Literary Alchemy