Joyce Odell, also known as The Red Hen, is a Potter Pundit of the first order, who, for reasons of her own, all but disappeared from Harry Potter fandom after the publication of Deathly Hallows. Which was a real loss. Those of us who recall the years between the appearances of Order of the Phoenix and the series finale as the peak time of serious reader engagement with the books, we remember the quirky but remarkably prescient insights of the Red Hen whose spectacularly long and involved posts inevitable deepened our appreciation of what could be happening at Hogwarts. Only Brett Kendall, I think, understood the relationship of the books to one another as clearly as Ms Odell did and I’m guessing even Brett tips his hat in deference to the Red Hen.

All that only to say that I was delighted to hear from her earlier this week and to learn that she has completed a fascinating project, namely, a Harry Potter Tarot Deck. The images are delightful, challenging, and a real treat for Potter fans familiar with the Rider-Waite deck. The cards can be seen at the links below. Enjoy!

The Red Hen’s introduction to the set

Full Deck Overview

Individual cards in detail

Why do we care about the life histories of actors and actresses? This would have been an embarrassing conversation for all involved if you overheard it at a High School reunion or singles bar. That the audience laughs hysterically and applauds her most demeaning stories is common fare, I know, but it’s still eerily reminiscent of Caesar Flickerman’s annual Q&A with tributes morituri before the Capitol crowds, no?

File this, though, under “Shared Text.” The ‘face of Katniss Everdeen forever and ever’ talks about having read Harry Potter “three times” and, though she “outgrew” the series, about “screaming” when she first met “Harry Potter,” meaning, I assume, Daniel Radcliffe, the ‘face forever and ever of The Boy Who Lived.’

I’m guessing Mr Radcliffe, for all his failings, would not refer to Miss Lawrence as “Katniss Everdeen.” Like Peeta, he’s better than Katniss/JLawr at this kind of exchange. Life imitating art, again?

Ms Rowling entered into the Scottish Independence fray last week with another million pounds sterling donation to ‘Better Together’ and comments about the natives who think she is insufficiently Scot — about 25% through her Franco-Scot mother — to be offering guidance on this question. From the Christian Science Monitor article:

Rowling writes that “there is a fringe of nationalists who like to demonise anyone who is not blindly and unquestionably pro-independence and … they might judge me ‘insufficiently Scottish’ to have a valid view.” But she says that “when people try to make this debate about the purity of your lineage, things start getting a little Death Eaterish for my taste.” And she adds that “by residence, marriage, and out of gratitude for what this country has given me, my allegiance is wholly to Scotland.”

She goes on to explain her rationale for a “yes” vote: “My hesitance at embracing independence has nothing to do with lack of belief in Scotland’s remarkable people or its achievements,” she writes. “The simple truth is that Scotland is subject to the same 21st century pressures as the rest of the world. It must compete in the same global markets, defend itself from the same threats, and navigate what still feels like a fragile economic recovery.”

This kind of donation from a literary celebrity and the ancillary poisonous dismissal of the inevitably ‘lunatic fringe’ (which colors all those not of her camp with the Wizarding World equivalent of “Nazi pure-blood fanatic’) excited the Fleet Street minions and Muggle Rita Skeeters as clearly Ms Rowling knew the size of her donation and choice of words would.

If you doubt that, consider the likelihood that the author of the ‘Hermione-manipulates-Skeeter’ scenes in Order of the Phoenix does not calculate effects when giving away $1.67 million dollars. I’d put the odds of that at about zero.

Anyway, I was called by Justin Parkinson, a BBC reporter, for my thoughts and we talked about the meaning of ‘Death Eaterish’ to Harry Potter fandom, about the China-Japan invocation of Lord Voldemort in a recent dispute, and the Shared Text quality of the Hogwarts Saga — all of which points made it into his article. BBC Radio in Ulster called me while I was out for a bike ride for a drive time interview over there. Imagine me with goofy helmet sitting on an OKC side road’s curb talking via cell phone with Northern Ireland commuters about the ins and outs of UK politics and Rowling Studies.

Links after the jump. [Read more…]

A Harry Potter reader named (?) Cassidy posted a thought on @jkrowling social media that “I would give anything to read Harry Potter from Draco’s perspective.”

The Presence herself responded, believe it or not. Unlike other authors — Orson Scott Card and his disciple Stephenie Meyer come immediately to mind — Ms Rowling does not promise to re-tell the stories from another character’s point of view to re-invisage, reinvent, or critically review the first telling. She just shares a list of the book titles from Draco’s Hogwarts Saga.

• Draco Malfoy and the Rejected Handshake
• Draco Malfoy and the Better-Than-Potter’s Broomstick
• Draco Malfoy and Hagrid’s Bloody Chicken
• Draco Malfoy and the Year His Father Would Hear About
• Draco Malfoy and the Inquisitorial Squad
• Draco Malfoy and the Vanishing Cabinet
• Draco Malfoy and the Year He Realized He Had Been a Douchebag

Three notes:

(1) The ‘Douchebag’ final note indicates that Ms Rowling needs a social media handler or she should just say no to drinking and twittering.

(2) The idea that Draco and company think of Hippogriffs as “bloody chickens” really is funny. And, yes, I know that ‘bloody’ in the UK carries more weight on the playground than ‘douchebag’ or even the f-bomb. Not so in the US, so we can give it a pass. The note, funny as it is, however, reflects such a degraded mind and disenchanted workdview, that we can be grateful all we have is the titles.

(3) Books 1-2 reflect Draco’s Harry obsession, I confess to not ‘getting’ Book 4’s title (either just a note that the TriWizard Cup would be well publicized or an aside about Draco feeling neglected or… what?), and Books 5 and 6 actually sound interesting. Draco actually was a player in these two years. I can imagine reading and enjoying these two installments.

Link below the jump — comments and corrections, coveted as always! Hat tip to Ideal James.

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