Shameless self-promotion and a public service to those who have asked about my speaking dates this year:

I will be speaking about The Hunger Games at Pepperdine University on 10 April, if you’re near Malibu, and then at Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute (THI) the following Monday on either ‘Ring Composition and the Narniad’ or ‘Nominalist Art: Film and Faith.’ That’s in addition to my Deathly Hallows talks at Augustana College’s Harry Potter retreat at Stronghold Castle and a Hunger Games lecture to the Quad City’s general public at Augustana’s beautiful campus in Rock Island, Illinois, on 31 March. I’ll be part of an Advent Retreat the first week in December at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church outside the District of Columbia to lead some discussions of reading and entertainment within the life in Christ. And there’s talk of my getting to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, after Pascha. If you want me to speak to your group, library, church, or school while on one of these trips to LA, Illinois, DC, and Carolina, let me know via owl to OKC or an email to john at HogwartsProfessor dot com.

Back to the promised Bulletin Board piece on Serious Reader gatherings:

I’m also hoping to get to the three Serious Reader conferences this year and next, both to give some talks and to meet up with old friends. None of these three are ‘super-sized,’ all things for all people attached-to-a-theme park. yes, there’s some serious Cos-Play and fandom events, in addition to the cutting edge discussion of the artistry and meaning of the world’s favorite books, conversations formal and informal around the clock. They’re relatively small gatherings, consequently, hundreds rather than thousands of participants, and intentionally so in order to facilitate the fun to be had at its best.

These big three are Chute 212, a “literary & create-play conference that brings witches and wizards together for ‘A Celebration of Magical Memories‘ ” in Santa Clara, California, 2-6 July 2014, The Harry Potter Conference for the very serious reader at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia on 17 October 2014 (in conjunction with the Harry Potter Festival and Brotherly Love Quidditch Tournament held in Chestnut Hill that weekend), and MISTI Con’s ‘Wizarding World’s Fair’ in wonderfully out-of-the-way Laconia, New Hampshire, 21-25 May 2015. I’ll be writing about each of these gatherings at length as the dates draw nearer; this is just a heads up with Bulletin Board hyper-links, provided with the hope that HogPro All-Pros on the coasts and from fly-over country can meet up there to catch up and pick up where we left off at last meeting.

And, yes, I’m working on a Heart of the Country Potter gathering for those of us in the heartland. Stay tuned!

I hope to post a list today of the various fan cons and academic gatherings scheduled for this year and next. Before I do that, though, I thought I’d post this News Release sent me under a professional publicist’s letterhead  for LeakyCon, the monster gathering for Harry Potter fandom not especially wrapped up in the books so much anymore. We’re talking well over five thousand movie fans, Wrock lovers, and everything written or staged that is current. clever, and popular. A smorgasbord, if you will, of what’s hot among the Leaky Elite. Make your reservations early because the best seats are taken promptly!

MORE THAN 5,000 FANS EXPECTED AT SIXTH ANNUAL LEAKYCON FOR ONE OF FANDOM’S LARGEST CELEBRATIONS OF EVERYTHING GEEKY

Fantasy film, television and book convention to be held July 30-August 3 in Orlando

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 18, 2014 – If you know how to destroy a horcrux, what to do with a TARDIS and who Sam, Dean and Castiel are, then chances are you are headed to Orlando this summer for the sixth annual LeakyCon, one of the largest and most recognized conventions for fans of fantasy films, television shows and books. LeakyCon will be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida July 30-August 3. Tickets are on sale now at www.LeakyCon.com.

Attendees can participate in programming that caters specifically to them and meet a community of like-minded enthusiasts. LeakyCon includes a wide array of special events, panel discussions, Q&A sessions, workshops, live performances, music concerts, celebrity meet-and-greets and a marketplace with a variety of vendors. Attendees will get a chance to meet their favorite authors, take pictures with celebrities from film and television and have 5 days of nerdy fun.

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I am sent a good deal of link-age, most of it to very thoughtful online writing by serious readers about Harry Potter and kindred fiction. As often as not, I read the piece sent, thank you the sender, and decide not to write about it. It’s already been written well, after all, and my two bits of opinion mean what? Not so much.

I think, though, that I can do some good here for serious readers by acting on rare occasion, say ‘monthly,’ as an aggregator of sorts. Hence this Bulletin Board category to run in parallel with the Mailbag option. On to today’s six links!

(1) J. K. Rowling’s Brilliant World Building by Nathaniel Givens

The odd behavior of witches and wizards and the bizarre nature of their social institutions is not sloppy world-building. It’s brilliant world-building based on a keen observation of human nature. If a tiny cohort of humans were given incredible magical powers, this is pretty much the world that you would end up with. Parasitic, backwards, shallow, and reckless.

Givens argues cogently that what seem at first to be mistakes in world building turn out on reflection to be unavoidable effects of the demographics and powers that are the foundation of Ms. Rowling’s Wizarding World. The explanation of the disproportionate power of a group of teen wizards — relative to the British armed services! — is a keeper, for sure. Top flight thinking and writing. Hat-tip to Bruce.

(2) Should J. K. Rowling Stop Writing? by Jerry Bowyer at Forbes.com

No one sent me this url; I was notified of a ping-back that the article in question linked to this site. Jerry Bowyer is indeed an old friend and a smart one. I don’t doubt that he will be assaulted for his nuanced argument that, though Ms Rowling’s critic, a detective fiction writer who wants the elephant to leave her genre room, is Malthusian and boderline deranged, the critic also adheres to the exact sort of economic thinking that characterizes Ms Rowling’s work.

Mr Bowyer’s point and Mr Givens’ above are oddly complementary after a fashion. But I’ll let you work that out in the comment boxes.

Please note, as well, that any hope or thought that Ms Rowling will give up the mystery writing gig will have to wait until after the summer. The Cameron Strike novel, The Silkworm, will be published by Little, Brown on June 19th. Full article here, for which link, thank you, James!

Does anyone else think of Michael Jordan playing Quidditch, I mean, baseball, when reading Ms Rowling trying her hand under a pseudonym at the mystery game?

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