John and Nick discuss the ‘Deathly Hallows’ symbol, a triangulated and vertically bisected circle, from both its biographical point of inspiration to its anagogical or sublime depths. Nick reveals Rowling’s story about how she was watching the 1975 John Huston film ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ the night her mother died and that believes the “Masonic tag” of the story-line was her sub-conscious source for the Deathly Hallows ‘“triangular eye.” John thinks Rowling is really reaching here, akin to her claim that the name ‘Hogwarts’ came from a trip to a public garden rather than the Molesworth books. He reviews the five eyes of Deathly Hallows and explains how Rowling embeds both a key to the four-level interpretation of symbols in how characters respond to that image and a model of how we are to interpret and understand her ‘transformed vision’ mission as a writer.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

Nick reveals the real life model for Severus Snape, Rowling’s Chemistry teacher at Wydean Comprehensive, and his remarkable story and melancholy end. John reviews Rowling’s version of the so-called ‘Hero’s Journey,’ how she re-makes it into a life-after-death ‘Harry’s Journey’ ten step dance we see in every book — except for Half-Blood Prince with its two chapters before we begin at Privet Drive and its ending without a Dumbledore Denouement or trip to King’s Cross.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

Nick talks about the darkest period in Jo Rowling’s life, namely, her return to the UK from Portugal as a single mother in Edinburgh. With Order of the Phoenix in full nigredo mode John talks literary alchemy.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

Nick talks about the trip Rowling made as a teenager to Cornwall as a young woman in which some Quidditch World Cup camping may have been involved and about her core beliefs about bigotry and prejudice. John reviews Rowling’s tagging Goblet as a “crucial” and “pivotal” part of the seven book series and introduces how the ‘story turn’ in a ring composition reflects the beginning and end of the story.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!

Nick shares the London institution of the (k)night bus. Part drunk carriage, part dormitory for the homeless in foul weather, zig-zaging across London between midnight and five in the morning. John shares the Parallel Series Idea (PSI) and compare Prisoner of Azkaban with Robert Galbraith’s Career of Evil.

The original post for this episode at the Hogwarts Professor Substack site comes with notes for the program. The index to the 31 Kanreki posts for easy reference to all the posts can be found here. Enjoy!