The Divergent Trilogy: Katniss Everdeen, Meet Tris Prior!

May 7, 2012 by 10 Comments

Yesterday we discussed the many similarities between Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter novels and the first two books in Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. As remarkable as those parallels are, largely,I think, because Ms. Roth has been a serious reader of the Hogwarts Saga for the great majority of her life (remember, she’s only 23 — do the math!), these echoes are not what reviewers are noting in their write-ups of Insurgent this month. It’s the kinship between The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen and Divergent‘s heroine, Tris Prior, that I’m seeing everywhere.

What does the author think? In a USA Today interview she was asked about the comparisons being made:

Do the Hunger Games comparisons bother you?

The Hunger Games is pretty fantastic, so I always get a little scared when people make those comparisons because I think, “Well, I never tried to do that…” And it’s so good that it’s a little daunting to see those comparisons out there. But at the same time, it’s been pretty incredible what it’s done for the genre and for my book’s visibility. Also, if you’re going to be compared to something, it might as well be The Hunger Games because it’s really awesome. At least it’s not something I didn’t like.

Well, all right, then. The author says she’s on board with the comparisons, so let’s make a few of our own… I’ll go first, then you jump in! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Divergent, Hunger Games

Guest Post: ‘The Avengers’ Movie — What Did You See?

May 7, 2012 by 1 Comment

After my last stab at a movie review, the HogwartsProfessor faculty revoked my season viewing pass at Doc Films and asked me to refrain, please, from upsetting our readers who love, y’know, film. So, it’s a grand good thing that one of our All-Pros went to see The Avengers last weekend as did every other American (and a cousin), present company excluded not having a pass, and wrote something up about it.

This post  is from Susan Raab (SusanRaab.com), a marketing strategist, high-conversion copywriter and best selling ghostwriter who would really rather be reading — she tells me — the latest HogPro recommendation late into the night, or teaching another “Christian Content in Harry Potter” class for her contemplative prayer group, or writing her own book for Heaven’s sake.

The Avengers: Integral Alchemy

Mercy, the Deathly Hallows opening weekend record has been smashed by what, a mythic mash-up of comic book goons? How random is this?

Perhaps not very. HogPro trained to look for patterns, I was astonished to see one in this promo shot (below the jump!), and suddenly the whole phenomenon made sense. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Guest Posts

The Divergent Trilogy: Harry Potter Meets Beatrice Prior

May 6, 2012 by 14 Comments

Last May dear Deborah wrote me and Prof Baird-Hardy to urge us to read and then discuss Veronica Roth’s Divergent here at HogwartsProfessor. Lily the Librarian wrote us the same kind of recommendation not much later with a link to her intriguing review at The Hog’s Head’ and the kind note “I’m betting Roth has read your books, John.” I bought Divergent right away  — but, alas, in the move to Oklahoma and madness of a new job, it sat beneath the dust magnets on my crowded books-that-must-be-read shelf.

I finally read Divergent last week and I enjoyed it so much that I bought the second book of the Divergent trilogy, Insurgent, which was published 1 May, and read it, too. What a fun ride it was! As usual Deborah and Lily were right on in their recommendations.

To get the Divergent ball rolling here, I’ve decided to make next week ‘Beatrice Prior Week‘ at HogwartsProfessor. If you enjoyed Harry Potter, Twilight, and/or The Hunger Games, for reasons I explain below the jump, I’m pretty sure you’ll love these books.

I’m almost positive, as well, that we’ll be discussing them here at some length in anticipation of the series finale (due in 2013, a novel which the author says at her blog will be called Detergent, but I’m guessing will more likely be Convergent). You’re forewarned; the longer you take to buy and read the first two books, the more likely it is I will spoil them for you here.

When Publishers Weekly announced that HarperCollins had signed 21 year old Veronica Roth to a three book Divergent deal, the blurb closed with this from Ms. Roth’s agent: “the dystopian thrillers were pitched as The Hunger Games meets The Matrix.” I see that but let’s review the obvious influences of Harry Potter, Bella Swann, and Katniss Everdeen on this wow Bildungsroman. Today, Harry Potter, tomorrow Katniss, and then Bella. After that? I have some ideas after surfing through a pile of interviews with the author and her blog but I’m open to your suggestions! Fire away! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Divergent

Unintended Consequences: Hunger Games Hurts Television?

May 5, 2012 by 4 Comments

Forgive me the morning ‘grin and giggle’ here, but I had to chuckle at the Reuters report that ‘“Hunger Games” success spells trouble for TV ads.’ What’s so funny?

The books in the Panem Saga have teevee programming right in their target sites. Television is a means of the power holders and their Gamesmakers to bend and shape the thinking and will of the Capitol’s citizens and the enslaved Districts. If anything, the attacks are over-the-top in portraying the hijacking quality of screened images; no one, it seems, has the ability to resist the ‘Propos’ produced by either side so control of the air waves becomes the means to victory almost as much as armed conflict in the Mockingjay Rebellion,

The first movie, however, largely hijacked the hijacking, anti-teevee message of the books, which, sadly, had to be expected when the Gamesmakers are asked to make a film about the evils of Gamesmakers. Even many serious readers of the books have been hijacked by the movie’s counter-narrative message that it is government, not movie/teevee makers, that are the wrong-doers (in the cinematic Catching Fire look for Plutarch Heavensbee  joining the rebels in order to revenge the martyr Seneca Crane…), which, sadly, only makes the author’s point about the dangers of the medium.

Now we learn that the movie’s novel means of promoting itself = through fandom online promotions and word of mouth buzz rather than through saturation television advertising — may strike a real financial blow to the industry that even the books’ satirical acid couldn’t have hoped to work. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hunger Games

CFP: James Madison University, VA; October 11-13, 2012 Emerging From the Pensieve: A Decade of Potter Scholarship

May 3, 2012 by 6 Comments

I spoke at the James Madison University Harry Potter conference and it was an unadulterated pleasure! If you haven’t been, you should go this year; if you have been, you’re already itching to register; and, if you have a Hogwarts talk for serious readers you’ve been waiting for the perfect place to pitch it (not being a summer fandom gathering type?), then read the details below and submit your proposal for the JMU decision makers to ponder. See you there, DV!

Emerging From the Pensieve: A Decade of Harry Potter Scholarship

James Madison University, VA; October 11-13, 2012

“I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form.”

-Albus Dumbledore

Dumbledore’s pensieve is a place of examination and reflection created from his thoughts and memories.  Revisiting these memories reveals patterns and details that no other method would uncover and allows him to interact with, explore, and share his thoughts.

Over the past decade, readers from around the world have immersed themselves in a shared pensieve: the Harry Potter franchise.  They have explored the world of Harry Potter and shared the results of their inquiries and interpretations with each other.  Technology has given them the opportunity to construct a pensieve without boundaries.  Curiosity and an interdisciplinary spirit, made possible by enterprising scholars, have continually provided the material to add to the pensive.

Like the pensieve this symposium is an opportunity to reflect on the shared world that Harry Potter has created.  Last year’s theme, “Replacing Wands with Quills”, gathered scholars from many backgrounds to present their own unique research. This year, we seek to revisit past contributions to the pensieve and invite new ones, so that we can dive into and then emerge from our pensieve to share new insight.

We welcome programming on the following topic areas and beyond: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes