I love reading the interpretations of Ms. Rowling’s books and Potter mania as a cultural phenomenon that are posted at Travis Prinzi’s Sword of Gryffindor website. I always learn something new about postmodernism, for example, and thinking about thinking, even when I disagree with Travis or one of his stable of writers. Their latest essay, ‘Sharing Our Entertainer: Rowling, Shared Books, and Pop Culture,’ is another winner. Dave, the author, closes with a Dante-esque suggestion that we need a guide to get us through the dark forest Ms. Rowling has chosen to leave us in about the specific meanings of her books. I nominate Travis Prinzi’s troop as the guides I’d follow, if only for sentences like this: [Read more…]

In the right hand column of this weBlog, right underneath “Recent Comments,” is a handy set of links to “HogPro’s Greatest Hits.” The HogPro house-elves put this up at my request in June because I was asked about four or five posts on a regular basis — “Rita Skeeter Covers the Vatican” was probably the single biggest request when the site went down in May for almost a month — so I put together this short list from the old HogPro for newcomers to browse through without endless scrolling through pages.

The list hasn’t been updated, though, since the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s time for a new set of Greatest Hits, right? We have room for ten. Please vote for your ten favorites in the cut-and-paste ballot below by writing in the letter next to the number in order of preference and putting the completed ballot in the comment box. If your favorite post isn’t listed, write it in. If you only like one or two, vote for them. I’ll see if I can get the new list up in the next week. Thank you in advance for voting — and have fun!

(A) The Thirty Deathly Hallows Threads

(B) A Rainbow of Gold, Black, White, and Red: The Alchemical Artistry of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ (A)
[Read more…]

Rowling Dubbed Entertainer of the Year
Friday, November 23, 2007 5:07 PM EST
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — J.K. Rowling’s magical, Midas touch has landed her on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as the magazine’s entertainer of the year. [Read more…]

How was your Turkey Day? I spent mine giving thanks for a wonderful wife and family and for all the guests who joined us for a remarkable dinner (and long walk afterwards around the West Allentown neighborhood where we live). My brother Steve from Philadelphia, my good friend Bob Trexler, my niece Victoria Work from Colby College, and my sister-in-law Gretchen Jahr from Portland, OR, not to mention daughter/cadet Hannah, home from the Post in Lexington, made our family feast especially joyful.

The morning after this celebration (in which “stuffing” was a substantive participle for what was cooked in the birds and what all my children seemed to be doing with the bird, the potatoes, and the squash pie), I turned on my computer to moderate your posts. This usually means just cutting out the wall of spam that comes in with your brilliant notes. I also try to check out the sites that have linked to HogPro in the night. Today, there was a review of Looking for God in Harry Potter by ‘Pete The Elder‘ with special emphasis on the Deathly Hallows predictions I made in it way back in October, 2005. [Read more…]