Philosopher’s Stone ‘Trigger Warning’

February 7, 2022 by Leave a Comment

I’ve been looking for the right time to post this and yesterday’s charting of parallels between the first Harry Potter novel and the first Cormoran Strike mystery seems as good a prompt for a Philosopher’s Stone news story as I’ll get anytime soon.

The word is that the University of Chester, the “fifth oldest higher education establishment in the United Kingdom” (not as impressive as you might think with their start being 1839 rather than the Middle Ages…), offers a course called ‘Approaches to Literature’ for first year students. According to this piece in The Daily MailOnline, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is one of the course’s three set literary texts alongside Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights.”

That college students were being taught KidLit as their introduction to literature might have been newsworthy twenty years ago. Today the headline is that the course listing for this module of ‘Approaches to Literature’ comes with a trigger warning, that is, a notice that the content of the text may be disturbing to some readers. It reads:

Although we are studying a selection of Young Adult texts on this Module, the nature of the theories we apply to them can lead to some difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class, and identity. These topics will be treated objectively, critically, and most crucially, with respect. If anyone has any issues with the content, please get in touch with the Module Leader to make them aware.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Rowling Tweets Potter Fandom, Ickabog

February 3, 2022 by 1 Comment

I’m pretty sure Rowling, literally married as she is to conventional allopathic medicine, holds diametrically different views than I do on the cause-and-effect realities in play with respect to the “social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.” Even without knowing the beliefs and work of the “70 UK and international charities” to whom Volant Charitable Trust has donated just shy of $11 million, however, a gift made by Rowling from proceeds of Ickabog sales, one is obliged to acknowledge The Presence’s generous philanthropy.

Her continued cash-support and concern for “vulnerable groups” and funding charitable “projects” for “the alleviation of social deprivation” shows once again that she puts her money where her mouth is as well as where it counts. The Fund’s determination to fund “the purchase of medical equipment or PPE in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic”? Not so much ‘Volant’ as ‘Murray’ there, I’d guess, but it serves as a reminder that Rowling-Galbraith is a Murray in the end. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, The Ickabog, Twitter

A Key to Maternal Love in Harry Potter? Mum Crouch’s Sacrifice in Goblet of Fire

February 1, 2022 by 13 Comments

There is a fascinating conversation taking place today on a HogwartsProfessor comment thread that I want to bump to a post of its own, both because it’s only tangentially related to the original post and because the conversation deserves highlighting and a place of its own lest it be difficult to find and cite in the future. The conversation is about the death of Mrs. Crouch, the wife of Bartimeus Crouch and mother of his namesake (her first and maiden names are never given and she is only described as “wispy” in her Goblet appearance [595]).

After the jump I’ll review Mrs. Crouch’s death and the conversation about her on the other thread, explain its importance for understanding the Hogwarts Saga (with my own late-to-the-party contribution to the conversation), and invite, as always, your further comment. See you there! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Ring Composition

The Sword Hidden in a Frozen Pond ‘Dissolution’ and ‘Deathly Hallows:’ Literary Allusion and Reinvention?

January 24, 2022 by 10 Comments

I gave a talk to students at the University of Louisville last week in which, almost as an aside, I asserted that the pivotal chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, ‘The Silver Doe,’ was the best and most important chapter in the Hogwarts Saga. The Arthurian, alchemical, and Estecean Christian symbolism make it a one-stop introduction to everything brilliant in the series; that it is the story-turn in the series finale’s meaning-laden ring structure is just an ‘extra.’

My favorite part of the chapter is Ron Weasley’s description of how Dumbledore’s Deluminator enabled him to find Harry and Hermione on the run. The combination of light, heart, Christmas, and name tokens here and their deployment as set-up to Ron’s victory over the two-eyed Locket Horcrux (and his own transformed vision, cf. Matthew 6:21-23) reveals Rowling as a traditional allegorist in the tradition of Spenser, Shakespeare, Bunyan, Coleridge, and the Inklings.

I suspect, though, that others think of Harry’s descent into the pool to get the Sword of Gryffindor, the Locket’s attempt to strangle him, and Ron the Baptist appearing ex machina to raise the Boy Who Lived from a near-certain death by drowning as ‘The Silver Doe’s defining moment. (Did I mention the albedo-photismos qualities of this chapter?) I get that choice. High drama, plenty of action, a real Big Screen life-saving sequence. The Lady in the Lake sword-deliverer story in a snow-scape. This chapter has it all.

That being said, I want to share a passage from a 2003 novel that was a very big hit in the UK, one I think it more than credible that Rowling read at the time of its publication. If you don’t see the parallels with ‘The Silver Doe’ chapter’s sword in the frozen pond scene, I think you’ll need to read it again. It’s nothing like plagiarism or theft but a brilliant re-invention and re-purposing of another writer’s work, even perhaps a hat-tip to a like-minded author. The book is C. J. Sansom’s Dissolution, the connection with Rowling is through P. D. James, and the parallel scene and compare-and-contrast discussion with Deathly Hallows’ pivotal chapter are all to be found after the jump! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points, Deathly Hallows Lectures, Hog Pro Notes

The PotterMore Collection: Bootleg JKR

January 21, 2022 by Leave a Comment

From our friends at The Rowling Library, the book you wish you had received in your stocking: a published compilation of the PotterMore articles in alphabetical order.

The Pottermore Collection is an unofficial bootleg book, made by fans to collect all J.K. Rowling’s writings that have been published on [her] Pottermore website. It is the closest we have to a Harry Potter Encyclopedia.

The book is not an official book and it is not for sale.

Is it perfect? Of course it isn’t; it’s a bootleg book created from online material. And all the chapters that begin with ‘The’ are listed as a ‘T’ entry there rather than, say, as ‘Hogwarts Express.’ Just the glitch needed to make it authentically amateur.

I don’t know about you, but I hope this publicly clandestine effort becomes a gift that The Rowling Library sends those patrons who pay $X per month. Sign me up!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes