9/11/1857: The Mountain Meadows Massacre

September 13, 2010 by 1 Comment

It’s mid September, so our thoughts return to the events of 9/11 — and, if we’re serious Twilight readers, to the first 9/11 massacre, the unprovoked attack of Latter-day Saints on an Arkansas wagon train passing through Southern Utah in 1857 on that date, the so-called Mountain Meadows Massacre. If you wondered why Carlisle Cullen has a picture of a mountain meadow in his office and why every Twilight novel features a scene of revelation or conflict in a mountain meadow, the answer in large part comes back to this historical event and books about it published the year Mrs. Meyer had her vampire-with girlfriend-in-circular-meadow dream.

One of the more bizarre events in my Walter Mitty existence as an author happened this February in Oklahoma City. I was speaking at the C. S. Lewis conference there and spent the night in the home of a friend’s parents. The father was wonderfully hospitable, and, being a serious reader, our conversation on the drive to his house turned to talk about books and my work as a critic. I shared a copy of Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga with him and explained its two parts. I mentioned to him what I said above: that a large part of Twilight’s inspiration, Mrs. Meyer’s dream, is in the LDS community’s response to three histories of the Mountain Meadows Massacre that were published in the year she had her dream.

He held up his hand and said, kindly but firmly, as we pulled into his driveway, “Stop right there. Don’t say anything more about that.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Twilight

Daniel Radcliffe’s ‘Deathly Hallows’ Question: “Why Doesn’t Harry Turn Into Somebody Else?”

September 12, 2010 by 18 Comments

How about a Harry Potter Discussion Point for a change? Something about Deathly Hallows —

Here’s a question posed by Daniel Radcliffe from the set of the last movie being filmed. The Empire magazine reporter is talking about the great opening scene shot where there are seven Harry Potters, all of whom, of course, are played by Daniel Radcliffe; through the magic of 21st century movie cameras, the escape from Privet Drive’s Polyjuice moment only took 95 takes to get right.

Dan’s Question is something like “Why did the Order of the Phoenix bother with this involved charade?”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points

Hogwarts Professor Book Club: ‘Chaos Walking’ Followed by ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘The Eyre Affair’

September 11, 2010 by 8 Comments

We’ve had a great time here discussing Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books! Louise, Elizabeth, and I at our last Hogwarts Professor faculty ‘sit down’ and tea decided, consequently, to continue our ‘new book looks’ with a title just released or published in the last year alternating with a classic book with some tie-in.

Our first choice is Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy, the third book of which series will be published on 28 September. It’s a dark, violent dystopian piece and if you haven’t read the first two, you’ve got until the 28th to get up to speed. We’ll be posting ten threads again on the day after Monsters of Men‘s publication, the day of publication if we can manage a midnight-release purchase or review copy, and the week prior I hope to put up some speculative notes. Get reading, All-Pros, if you want to join in that conversation!

On 15 October, we’ll start our classics reading with Jane Eyre and on 1 November, as a fun follow-up, The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde’s wonderful ‘Thursday Next’ mystery novel that take place inside Jane Eyre (if you’ve got time, you might try to squeeze in Martin Chuzzlewit, too, before entering The Eyre Affair).

And we’ll be continuing our conversations about Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games! Stay tuned for some great reading and even better discussions about books we love, how they work, and why we love them.

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Unlocking Mockingjay: The Complete Set of Posts And a Round-up of the First 30 Discussion Points

September 10, 2010 by 17 Comments

HogwartsProfessor’s three mavens have devoted the better part of three weeks to discussion of  Mockingjay, the third Hunger Games novel and, now that we have reached 30 posts and I have completed the third and last part of my ‘Unlocking’ series on the more esoteric, allegorical meanings of the trilogy, it seems a good time to return to our regular programing. This is not the end of our Hunger Games conversation or even the beginning of the end, but just the end of the beginning.

To mark this transition and to provide a ‘one-stop’ location for the HogPro Mockingjay Discussion Collection, here are links to the complete ‘Unlocking’ set and, below the jump, the first 30 Discussion Threads as well as the pre-Mockingjay posts.  Thank you to everyone who has joined us these last three weeks, especially to our Guest Post writers; tomorrow I’ll be announcing our next HogwartsProfessor adventure. Stay Tuned!

‘Unlocking Mockingjay: The Spiritual Allegory’ On Katniss as a Soul Seeking Perfection and Iconological Reading

‘Unlocking Mockingjay: ‘The Literary Alchemy’ On Literary Alchemy and Peeta as Postmodern Christ

‘Unlocking Mockingjay: Katniss’ Apotheosis’ On the Alchemical Arena and Katniss’ Perfection in the Inner Sanctuary [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hunger Games

Guest Post: Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings Mockingjay Discussion Point 30

September 10, 2010 by 5 Comments

As a rule I break too often, I prefer not to say anything about J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The author’s fans are legion and notoriously contemptuous of anyone like me who cannot read, write, and speak Elvish. Forgive me, but, as magisterial as the work is, I feel about it the way Tolkien supposedly did about Shakespeare; the cultish fandom does not reflect well on the Bard himself or his work.

I posted on the Hogwarts and Forks Sagas’ shadows on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, consequently, but balked at making connections with Middle-Earth. Fortunately, a new HogPro All-Pro has appeared who has the requisite memorized knowledge of the Ring Fellowship’s journeys to make a credible comparison and I begged him to do the honors. Peter (PK9) has graciously agreed and his compare-and-contrast work below suggests that Ms. Collins, too, is a Tolkienite and her Hunger Games shows the influence of a work read and re-read on her creative imagination.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hunger Games