Potter Watch 2013, UNC-Charlotte: Call For Papers!

January 10, 2013 by 7 Comments

Listen Up, Potter-philiacs! Important Announcement for those with Important Thoughts to Share on the Hogwarts Saga: UNC Charlotte’s Harry Potter club is sponsoring the second annual Potter watch this April and you need to send in your talk descriptions now… Here is the letter I received from Michael Burson, the head of the club:

Hi, Mr. Granger, and Happy New Year!

My name is Michael Burson and I would like to announce the second annual Potter Watch Conference, Potter Watch 2013, taking place at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on April 6, 2013! The conference is being put together by the members of Potter Watch, the Official Harry Potter Club of UNC Charlotte, and we are so happy to be able to hold our conference for the second year
running!

Potter Watch was founded in 2008 and is dedicated to bringing Harry Potter fans at UNC Charlotte together to celebrate the books and films, discuss theories, share news, and hold great events like our annual Deathday Party, Yule Ball, Triwizard Tournament, and End of Year Feast.

At our conference last year, we had participants come from 4 states and over 11 universities and we hope to increase that number this year. We were also fortunate to have Dr. Amy H Sturgis, noted Harry Potter scholar, as our Key Note Speaker. We are currently contacting individuals to be key note this year.

We are already in the process of accepting papers to be read by their authors at Potter Watch 2013. The main focus of the conference will be on ways the fandom has changed over the years and where we think it is moving in the future. However, we will accept papers from any area of discussion, from literary to sociological to religious.

The information about the conference, our Call for Papers, how to submit, and how to get to UNC Charlotte can all be found on our website: http://www.potterwatchconference.com/

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Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Mythic Scribes: ‘Secrets of Fantasy Literature’ Interview

January 9, 2013 by 2 Comments

I gave the Convocation Lecture last fall at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania. While there, I spoke in a public forum about the meaning of popular literature, to a group of English honors students, and to two Religious Studies classes taught by Dr. Anthony Dragani (largely about How Harry Cast His Spell). It was a full speaking agenda but the hospitality and the conversations there were first rate. I have nothing but happy memories of beautiful Mount Aloysius!

I promised Dr. Dragani that, when I got home, I’d gladly answer questions for a website run by fans and writers of fantasy literature that he enjoys, ‘Mythic Scribes.’ He sent those questions over the course of several weeks and let me know yesterday that the interview had been posted: Secrets of Fantasy Literature – Interview with Harry Potter Scholar John Granger.

If you’re looking for the short course on literary alchemy, ring composition, soul triptychs, and what I think makes a story work, this is the shortest possible treatment of those subjects. Let me know what you think!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Fire In Forks: Life Imitating Art Finale? Aro’s Revenge?

January 9, 2013 by 1 Comment

A good friend who lives on the Olympic Peninsula wrote me late last year that they had a fire in the city of Forks:

BTW, did you hear that a fire in Forks destroyed the Dazzled by Twilight store there a few weeks ago?  The store had already closed in January and its Port Angeles branch the month before:

Fire Closes Schools, Destroys Two Buildings
Page to Premiere: Dazzled by Twilight Destroyed by Fire
 Peninsula Daily News: Twilight Eatery Closes in Forks
 TwiFans: ‘Dazzled’ Shuttered

I hadn’t heard about the Forks fire; an apt metaphor, alas, for the peaking to diminishing ardor of the Twihards? Big flame-out at finale? Or is this the revenge of Aro? I visited Forks for the ‘Summer School’ FanCon that was held there when I was writing Spotlight: The Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight Saga and I confess there was an unreal air about the community’s identification with and excitement about Bella and Edward’s love story.

What are your thoughts? Should we expect the same sort of unhappy ending, albeit in less dramatic fashion, for the Twilight fan base? Is Fifty Shades its future? Or will it re-invent itself now that the movies are done as Harry Potter fandom has post-Deathly Hallows publication and cinema treatment (or as Trekkies did after the first series was cancelled)?

Filed Under: Twilight

Merry Christmas! HogwartsProfessor 2012 Year in Review

January 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

To all of you who celebrate the feasts of the Christian faith according to the calendar of the Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Councils, I wish you a merry first day of Christmas! The Grangers are just home from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church there , where we celebrated the Feast of the Nativity, and now we can begin our end of year review in preparation for civil New Year’s resolutions come January (fyi, the liturgical New Year is 1 September and the traditional New Year for the UK and her former colonies is Lady Day or Annunciation).

Our Christmas tree is up and lit, which mystifies the neighbors I’m sure, and I have scrolled through all the posts that the staff here and guest lecturers have put up in the last twelve months to find the real ‘keepers.’ Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Casual Vacancy, Divergent, Twilight, you name it — it’s quite the wide ranging collection. After the jump, you’ll find this Greatest Hits list organized by category and author. Please let me know your favorites, especially if it’s not listed, and what you’d like to discuss in 2013!

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Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

MuggleNet Academia 16: Lev Grossman about Harry Potter

January 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Lev Grossman joined the MuggleNet Academia crew to talk about his latest book, The Magician King, and the future of serious reading of the Hogwarts Saga. Here’s a synopsis of this wild and wide-ranging program:

‘Harry Potter and The Magicians with Lev Grossman’

Best selling author and noted literary critic Lev Grossman sits down with Keith, John, and students from the US and UK for a talk about the elephant still in the literary living room, the Harry Potter books of Joanne Rowling. Mr. Grossman shares his own encounter with the books (as well as a few notes from his 2005 TIME interview with the author), how his own view of what was possible in writing and what questions should be asked were affected by that reading, and how Rowling’s Hogwarts Saga has altered the expectations of readers and the ambitions of other writers. He answers questions about the remarkable literary fantasies, The Magicians and The Magician King, to include an explanation of how Lev’s magical Brakebills College resembles and differs with Hogwarts — and the idea that the magic of Lev’s world within a world is something of a parable about writers — to include a mage who seems a picture of Rowling the outlier. Lev shares his enthusiasm about Casual Vacancy and the MNetAc group discuss how Rowling’s “political fable” echoes Grossman’s cross genre artistry in its black comedy and implicit criticism of how we imagine the world. One of America’s leading novelists and top drawer literary critic talks about the books and writer that re-made our ideas of what reading was about — this is a show you don’t want to miss!

Check it out by clicking here and listening in! Many thanks to Mr. Grossman for the lively and challenging conversation!

For those interested in the Alan Jacobs piece about Tolkien criticism I mentioned in the discussion, it can be read here.

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Filed Under: MuggleNet Academia