Lorrie Kim, author of Snape: A Definitive Reading, gave a talk at this year’s Leaky Con on the relationship of Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore, perhaps the two must idiosyncratic and powerful wizards ever to be Headmasters at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If, like me, you were unable to weekend in Boston this year and missed the talk, Ms Kim has generously posted her notes for this talk at her website. Enjoy ‘And My Soul, Dumbledore? The Dumbledore-Snape Relationship’!

Hat-tip to Kelly for the great find.

 

I have chosen not to comment publicly about the controversy in Tennessee about a priest who pulled the Harry Potter novels from the library of his parish’s school. David Martin, though, long time friend of this blog, put together something of interest, I think, that is of ‘Shared Text’ interest, namely, the responses to the priest’s decision in the letters page of the New York Times, America’s ‘paper of record.’ Enjoy!

On September 23rd, the New York Times published an opinion piece entitled “Harry Potter and the Poorly-Read Exorcists.” (The piece can be seen here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/opinion/banned-books-harry-potter.html ) This piece noted that it was then Banned Books Week (see https://bannedbooksweek.org/ ) and expended a fair amount of ink criticizing the Catholic priest Fr Reehil in Nashville who in August banned the Harry Potter books from a Catholic school where he worked. (Sigh. To quote a Sunday school lesson of my youth, “Not all the servants of the great King are as wise as the great King Himself.)

The coverage given to this unusual bit of censorship – and the failure to note that such censorship of Harry Potter is unusual (now) – gave the article an anti-Catholic tone. Or perhaps even an anti-religion in general tone. Those of us who find faith both in the Bible and in Harry Potter can be glad that some of the comments by the readers have a different orientation. What follows is a selection of readers’ comments on the original New York Times article. These comments represent an admittedly minority view among the comments, but let us be glad that the other side of the issue is being expressed.

(To see all the comments on the original article, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/opinion/banned-books-harry-potter.html#commentsContainer and then, when the comments column appears on the right side of the screen, click on the word “All” at the beginning of the comments.)

Peace,
David Martin of Hufflepuff

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From: Andrew Parker
In: Houston

I am an Episcopal priest and a huge Harry Potter fan. I read the books to my children and have three times led a vacation Bible School based on the books (Wizard and Wonders by leaderresources.org) I also recommend “God and Harry Potter at Yale” by the Rev. Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio. To quote an old Episcopal ad “Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind.”

More after the jump!

[Read more…]

Pratibha Rai is an Oxford University graduate and she has been a Harry Potter partisan since 2001. Her research today mostly concerns the sociology of collecting in early modern Europe. She enjoys finding parallels between Harry Potter and history of art — and you will enjoy reading what she has discovered about that life-saving short-cut antidote, the Bezoar!

Bezoar: the Princely Stone

For today’s lesson, we descend to the shadowy dungeons of Hogwarts to “learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making”. As Philosopher’s Stone describes, it is “colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy”. Among its steaming cauldrons and apothecary jars, Harry Potter learnt of the power of potions under the watchful eye of Professor Snape. In the first ever Potions class in chapter 8 of Philosopher’s Stone, Snape teaches the class about the unusual Bezoar stone, which has the ability to cure the victim of almost any poison (except Basilisk venom). In order to chastise Harry for not paying attention in class, Snape quizzes Harry: “where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” Only to answer the question himself: “A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons.” We know that bezoars were stocked in the Potions classroom cupboard and in the hospital wing of Hogwarts (both mentioned in chapter 18, Half-Blood Prince). The Potions textbook Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger also contains a recipe called ‘The Antidote to Common Poisons’, which uses ingredients such as Bezoars, mistletoe berries, and ground unicorn horn. Though Harry had not shrugged off the mysterious antidote in his first Potions class, his life at Hogwarts was to be particularly shaped by it. [Read more…]