Three Good Reasons to Read Suzanne Collins’ Five Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander Meets Harry and Katniss

May 11, 2011 by 83 Comments

Since a reader here suggested long ago that I read Suzanne Collins’ first series of books, the five Gregor the Overlander novels, The Underland Chronicles, for a better idea of what she is up to as a writer in Hunger Games, this has been on my to-do list. I finished the fifth book, Gregor and the Code of the Claw, last night and offer these three good reasons for you to purchase the five books today and begin reading them.

(1) The series is never, ever going to be made into movies. It’s books or nothing, folks.

(2)  The Chronicles open up the core meaning of Hunger Games and the evolution of Collins’ artistry.

(3) They are page-turning, heart-engaging, “O, brave New World!” adventure yarns you will love.

In other words, “If you love Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, then….” For what are pretty much spoiler-free explanations of the three reasons, jump the jump.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hunger Games

Can you be a ‘Fundamentalist’ and ‘Sorcerer’ Simultaneously?

May 7, 2011 by 3 Comments

You can if you are the President of Iran. According to an article in The Guardian (UK), Ahmadinejad Allies Charged with Sorcery, the confrontational leader is under fire in his own country both because of his “fundamentalist” Shia beliefs in the imminent return of the Mahdi and because his personnel are “charged with being ‘magicians’ and invoking djinns (spirits).” Imagine being accused of being the ideological hermaphrodite of Harry Hating and the very things that Harry Haters condemn (falsely) in Harry.

To be caught between a Rock and a Sorcerer’s Stone! Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Uncategorized

New C. S. Lewis Work in Print: Aeneid Selections

May 4, 2011 by 2 Comments

This is exciting news. A. T. Reeves has edited C. S. Lewis’ translations of Virgil’s Aeneid, which consist of long passages from Books 1, 2, and 6. I assume these are the best known sections, most notably, the fall of Troy, the flight to Carthage, death of Dido, and the trip to the Underworld.

As eager as I am to read this work, about which I had never heard or read mention that I can recall, the book has already delivered edifying fruit. Prof. David Downing, C. S. Lewis scholar and accomplished novelist himself, has written a review of the Yale University Press title, a survey explaining CSL’s fascination with this poem and many of the correspondences existing between Lewis’ understanding of the Aeneid and my favorite adventure in the Narniad, The Silver Chair. Read that review here: ‘Journeys to the Underworld and the Silver Chair.’ H/T to Rev. David!

Filed Under: C. S. Lewis, Hero's Journey

HogPro Mailbag: Correspondence with Readers and Students

May 1, 2011 by 3 Comments

Yesterday I shared some exchanges I had with Augustana students last months after I spoke to their class at a weekend retreat, a retreat I should add whose three days quite deliberately and successfully mirrored the three stages of the alchemical work, and, incredibly, were something of a Ring Composition, too. Today I want to dump the April mailbag upside-down and share the exchanges I have had with virtual strangers, folks that write after reading something here at HogwartsProfessor.com, who have attended a lecture, or those who accept the invitation to write I make in each of my books.

That means this collection doesn’t include my almost daily exchanges with the other Hogwarts Professors and my longer if less frequent email to old friends and professional acquaintances (which categories tend to elide, praise God). My guess is that the ommitted writing of this sort out paces reader-audience mail at something like a 10:1 word count ratio.

I was startled when putting this together last night, though, by the number and variety of Christians who have written me and by the height and depth of the questions and comments. I note this here as fair warning to anyone not interested in Christian topics or who might be put off by Paschal greetings (Christ is Risen!) repeated frequently. So warned, please choose to peruse my April correspondence as you will. All names, of course, have been reduced to initials at the least and identities obscured as necessary. My thanks to those who write and to you for sharing your comments below.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Mailbag

HogPro Mailbag: Correspondence with Augustana Students

April 30, 2011 by 1 Comment

I get a lot of mail from readers and from folks who have heard my talks. I delight in that and its the reason I beg readers at the end of every book’s introduction to write and pass out my business card at lectures I give. Correspondence means a continued conversation and, inevitably, I learn more from those who write me than they get from me.

Tomorrow I will post a selection of letters I have received in the last month or so to give you a taste of what pops up in my inbox. It’s a full range — from the occasional nutter who thinks I’m not fit to kiss Ms. Rowling’s feet to the graduate student who thinks I am insensitive to the mentally handicapped. Today, though, I want to share the questions from one class of students at Augustana College. I was privileged to speak at their retreat held in the castle of Stronghold Conference Center (foto above) in Oregon, Illinois, earlier this month. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Mailbag