Mail Bag: Love vs Death or Love vs Violence?

September 4, 2011 by 7 Comments

A note with follow-up from Peter Barber about the core issue and victory depicted as story transparency in the Hogwarts Saga (shared with his permission):

Dear Dr. Granger,

I’ve a problem with your reading of Harry Potter which I hope you will consider.  I notice you make great moment of the binary love versus death, whilst I’m convinced you’ve missed Rowling’s intended binary of love versus violence – the refusal of reciprocity (turning the other cheek) – which is indispensible to our Lord’s manifestation of love, and is that which conquers death.  I feel you’ve left a critical piece out of the puzzle in this regard, amounting to a misrepresentation of the essential theme of this narrative which ties it most directly to the Love of the Father in the Gospels, in Jesus Christ.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Mailbag

Shared Text: Doonesbury and the New Potter

September 4, 2011 by 1 Comment



Filed Under: Shared Text

YouTube: How Harry Potter Should Have Ended

August 24, 2011 by 12 Comments

Filed Under: Movie Thoughts

Virginia Church’s Harry Potter Vacation Bible School a Wow!

August 21, 2011 by 5 Comments

I spoke at the Church of the Holy Comforter (EC-USA) in Vienna, Virginia, last year where I met Leslie Barnhart, with whom I had been corresponding since she read How Harry Cast His Spell. Her big idea was a Vacation Bible School that turned on the Christian Content of the Hogwarts Saga. I knew that the Rev. Debbie Hough at Derry Presbyterian Church in Hershey, Pennsylvania, had tried to do much the same thing (with great success) but Mrs. Barnhart was talking about an entirely different scale and length of program. She let me see the curriculum for this five day event with 155 campers (!) when we met again at Leaky Con last month and I was astonished at the breadth and depth of what she had planned.

And it worked.

Please read below (after the jump) both her short overview and her detailed account of a VBS program I suspect parishes around the country will be running for years to come. Congratulations, Leslie, on a super job, conception to execution!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Guest Post: The Connection of Ring Composition and Literary Alchemy in the Layout of the Seven Book Harry Potter Series

August 20, 2011 by 21 Comments

The Granger family has almost settled its home into a new house (new to us; it’s a bungalow closer to 100, I’m guessing, than 75 years old) in Oklahoma City. I’ve started a new job — reading Kidnapped and learning Latin fundamentals with nine young friends — and have hopes of one day returning to writing here more than once a month. Right now, still spinning in the learning curve and re-location maelstrom, those seem to be vain hopes, but we’ll see what God and my commitments here allow. Building and putting up a yurt is pretty time intensive, I’m learning.

Fortunately, I have an email inbox full of Guest Posts that serious readers from around fandom have been sending me, all of which are better than anything I might be writing in the distracted state I am in. I will be sharing these over the next two weeks for your comment and consideration.

The first is from William Sprague and touches on two subjects close to HogPro All-Pro hearts, namely, Ring Composition and Literary Alchemy. Mr. Sprague makes the argument that the front and back of the series ring is a set of parallel analogies with the front being a reverse alchemical process (i.e., rubedo, albedo, nigredo) to match the return trip’s proper order. I confess to being intrigued by the idea — and delighted by his exposition. I trust you will be as well. Take it away, Mr. Sprague!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Literary Alchemy, Ring Composition