The hot spots nation wide for serious study of Harry Potter, in my experience talking on campuses the last ten years, are places where a Professor is a Potter Pundit — think Pepperdine with James Thomas, Lawrence University with Edmund Kern — or where a class offered on the Hogwarts Saga has achieved something like cult status. Richard Priggie’s ‘The Soul of Harry Potter‘ course on Deathly Hallows at Augustana College is one of these and it has been my great pleasure to speak with this group (and other students at Augustana) more than once, always learning more from our exchanges than they could from me. Today I want to share an essay from one of these students, Mara Cantrell-Paulson, about Neville as Sidekick as a guest post. Let me know what you think! [Read more…]

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island: An Exploration of its Possible Ring Composition Story Scaffolding

by Michael Murray

I would like to heartily thank Professor John Granger for drawing my attention to this book.

If any reader has not read it, or not read it recently then I urge them to do so; I have greatly enjoyed re-reading the book. The book was published in 1885, after having been serialised in the magazine Young Folks, between 1881 to 1882.

The scenes, characters, events are all very well realised; the seaman’s language is always used to great expressive effect, and never sounds unnatural, obscure or artificial.

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The story is told wholly as narrative by the central character, young Jim Hawkins. The only times Hawkins is not the narrator are chapters sixteen, seventeen and eighteen when the narrative is supplied by Doctor Livesey.

The story is told in retrospect. It opens by explaining that the following is a record of the events and circumstances consequent upon the discovery of the treasure map of a notorious privateer/pirate Captain Flint.

For those unsure of the story by now, allow me a brief run-through. [Read more…]

Melancholy Poetry as Inoculation, a Hogwarts Professor guest post from Prof. Josh Richards

Today, we examine my previous, curious assertion [in ‘The Congealed Fire of Poetry‘] that sad poetry is, indeed, a comfort for the hurting. At first, this may seem counter-intuitive but it is, in fact, quite well-attested. So much so, in fact, that I will merely bring you A. E. Housman’s take on the matter. I won’t even pretend to be a wiser man than he, so let me walk you through his discussion found in the poem “Terence, this is stupid stuff” instead of bloviating myself.

The poem is found here.

And I would encourage you to open the link in a new window, read it aloud, and return afterward.

Now, most objections to poetry, especially of the melancholy sort, are little different than the first stanza of Housman’s poem—allowing for the usual convention of using musical terms and language to refer to poetry.

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One of the many treats of my brief stay at St. Andrews in May was meeting Josh Richards, Assistant Professor of English at Palm Beach Atlantic University and a doctoral candidate at the University of St Andrews. We met quite a few brilliant and eccentric (usually Christocentric, curiously) characters in Scotland, most of whom I hope very much will be lifelong friends. I said to my wife Mary, though, that I suspect Josh Richards, with whom we shared a few memorable meals and scintillating conversations, will be the person we tell our grandchildren about.

I have asked him to write about poetry because it is the great lacuna or emptiness in my education and current reading. His time allowing, I hope very much Prof Richards will write a general introduction to the subject for Unlocking Press in addition to poems and critical essays already in the queue for publication. Without further ado, then, a brief piece about reading poetry that he calls:

A Diversified Diet

Today, I write to you to suggest that you broaden your reading diet to include poetry. Before you roll your eyes and click off to other worlds, let me clear up a few things, and I think my request will seem quite reasonable.

[Read more…]