MuggleNet ran an interview with me yesterday and, while writing a ‘welcome’ post for Muggletonians that drop by via the article’s link to this site, I found a bunch of YouTube promotional videos of me from other web sites as well as me talking at various conferences and schools. Here below, as an example, is an excerpt from my Rings talk at LeakyCon 2 in Orlando last summer. After the jump, check out the Eyes of Deathly Hallows talk I gave to ‘The Group That Shall Not Be Named’.
The Host: Filming to Start Soon, Sequels on the Way
December 30, 2011 by 1 Comment
Twilight expert and HogPro adjunct faculty member (only ‘adjunct’ until we can find the extra keys to the Admin Loo here) James, web master at TwilightNewsSite.com, has written today about Stephenie Meyer’s latest film and book projects, both being adaptations or extensions of her sci-fi book, The Host. Yes, They are Making “The Host” into a Movie, and It is Part of a 3-Book/Film series.
I learned a lot there and encourage you to read the whole bit but here was the meat for this carnivore:
I assume that Stephenie is producing, and that the film will wind up at Summit, but I don’t know that. And with the Summit studio itself in play and up for sale, things may change.
But what should prove interesting is that Niccol is known for these very overt metaphorical films. Incredibly so. And we know Stephenie is loathe to defend, or even discuss, her works’ along those lines, even when the symbology is quite straightforward.
I’m with James in thinking the metaphors in play in Mrs. Meyer’s books, especially those involving spiritual takeovers, cults, and the place of women in both resisting and propogating this sort of thing, is a huge part of what her Twilight books, especially Bree Tanner, and her first Host novel are all about. For that, be sure to read Why Repress Discussion of Mormon Content in Twilight? Mrs. Meyer’s Anti-Cult Feminism or just The Host paragraphs excerpted from that longer post here:
Touchstone: Anagogical Reading of ‘To Build a Fire’
December 28, 2011 by 6 Comments
Touchstone is a great magazine, period, and if you don’t subscribe, you really should. I read every issue cover to cover and always find something to make me think and re-think what I’ve thought. For example, where else but Touchstone can you read a critique of Jack London’s short story ‘To Build a Fire’ from the traditional lens revealing the four layers of meaning? David Haddon’s purpose in ‘Never Absolute Zero’ isn’t to advocate that lens — he works pretty hard to make the point that London transcends his atheism in his art — but he opens his critique with a short review of its value:
Dr. Louise Cowan, longtime professor of literature at the University of Dallas, taught that an analysis of a work of literature is not complete until the critic has evaluated it not only at the literal, allegorical, and moral levels, but also at the anagogic level—the critic must evaluate the work’s relation to ultimate spiritual reality. Thus, at the two highest levels, we must compare the morality and metaphysics discernable in an artist’s narrative with the moral order discernible in what C. S. Lewis called the Tao (or Natural Law) and with the order of creation revealed in Scripture.
Those of you who have Spotlight or Harry Potter’s Bookshelf or even just the posts here at HogwartsProfessor know that this sort of reading, what we call iconological criticism after Northrup Frye, is a large part of what I’m after in writing for ‘serious readers’ of popular fiction. As such Mr. Haddon’s article was a delight to read and I encourage you to read it in full. He makes his point about London’s story being evidence of a perspective greater than the materialism of his professed politics and offers a different perspective on the anagogical than I have.
Just to show I read it closely, though, I’d make two points.
Harry Potter Alliance Comes of Age: ‘Not in Harry’s Name’
December 28, 2011 by 2 Comments
Some of the best conversations I have been part of at Harry Potter conventions the past few years have been with Andrew Slack, the head of the Harry Potter Alliance, and Travis Prinzi, author and fellow Potter Pundit, on the spiritual dimensions of the Hogwarts Saga. The details of these exchanges are all over the map but the insights and engagements of Messrs Prinzi and Slack have stretched most of my ideas of how to understand our favorite boy wizard’s adventures.
As much as I enjoy Mr. Slack’s company and admire the intentions of his Harry Potter Alliance’s book drives among other things, however, I haven’t been a big fan of the giants they labored to slay or admired the way they chose to demonize folks who disagree with them.
I was delighted, consequently, to learn that HPA has decided to “speak truth to power” to a foe that not only lives in the Harry Potter fandom house, but one that you could say owns the house fandom lives in, namely, Warner Brothers. This is a Goliath that could conceivably hurt the Alliance and its leaders.
E-Mailbag: Islamic Influence, Industry Internships, Leather!
December 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Subject: Classical education, Harry Potter, non-Western influences?
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Greetings John,
I do have a few questions that I hope you would take the time to answer.
1. After reading through “Harry Potter’s Bookshelf” (which really gave me a renewed appreciation of Western literature), I was wondering what you have to say about JK Rowling’s relationship with what we might call a “classical education” ( Trivium and Quadrivium) and its effect (if any) on Harry Potter. I assume that this is a tradition that you are intimately familiar with, thus I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
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