• Mailbag: Questions About Literary Alchemy

    ByJohn
    6 Comments

    I have been writing John Patrick Pazdziora the past two or three weeks on Narniad subjects and the last few days he has been peppering me with questions about literary alchemy. If you don’t know who Mr. Pazdziora is, stay tuned, because I hope he will be introducing himself soon enough. Though this exchange does not constitute anything like an introduction to the topic of literary alchemy as tradition and reader experience, I do think it is a helpful addition to the discussion of hermetic artistry in The Deathly Hallows Lectures. For those of you already familiar enough with the colors, sequences, and principal figures of alchemy, e.g., the Quarreling Couple, Philosophical Orphan, Alchemical Wedding, etc. from that and posts here, this Q&A back and forth between John Patrick in Scotland and John in Syracuse may help you grasp the sudden ubiquity of alchemy in today’s best sellers in the wake of Ms. Rowling’s juggernaut Hogwarts Saga.

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  • Mailbag: Hunger Games Movie, Lots of Links!

    ByJohn
    4 Comments

    Stand by for The Hunger Games movie casting call! Suzanne Collins braced to just “let it go.” There’s a lot to let go, alas! H/T Arabella

    You like YA Dystopian Novels? Dr. Amy H. Sturgis lists every one of note in the last fifty years — yow!

    Quidditch World Cup pictures — check out the NYC games! H/T Toni G

    Calgary Salvation Army: No Harry! No Edward! No Kidding! H/T  Marsha

    Liam Neeson: “Aslan not a Christ figure but a multi-cultural, spiritual-not-religious icon.” Who knew? H/T RevGeorge

    LA Times says a Harry Potter OSCAR is way overdue. Really? H/T Candice

    And the same paper does a Luna Lovegood profile: ‘Actress says She was Born for Loopy Role’ Definitely.

    Gamecock Fight in South Carolina about Harry Potter’s value as literature:

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  • Call For Papers: ‘The Power to Imagine Better’

    ByJohn
    2 Comments

    There will be an academic conference at which serious readers of Harry Potter are welcome in late October next year on the campus of Marymount Manhattan College (Upper East Side, NYC). The aim is to foster discussion of the “philosophical themes” of the Hogwarts Saga but it is interdisciplinary in the sense that “submissions are welcome on any philosophical theme or issue arising in the Harry Potter corpus that intersects with metaphysics, ethics, religion, literature, and/or politics.” The premise, dear to readers of this site I think, is that this is a justified exercise both in light of the value of the work itself and because of its pervaviseness in the global culture, i.e., that Harry is our “Shared Text,” like it or not.

    I’ve already checked my calendar to be sure I can go and blocked out the dates. I hope to see you all there! [The complete ‘Call For Papers’ with proposal, location, date, and contact specifics is below the jump.]

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  • Mailbag: Why is the Latin in Harry Potter So Bad?

    ByJohn
    6 Comments

    Next question from the Contact tab Mailbox:

    Dear Mr. Granger,

    My parents and I saw The Deathly Hallows film last night. My dad (who has seen the movies but not read the books) had a comment. He is a little annoyed by the “obvious” or clunky use of Latin for all of the spells. To him, it sounds cutesy, as if kids are pretending to put together enchantments from little bits of pseudo-Latin roots. And why does it sound so, in a word, dumb?

    Not being a Latin-speaker myself, I gave it my best shot and answered his complaint as well as I could. As you are a Latin teacher, however, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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  • Mailbag: Harry Potter’s Spotted Dick!

    ByJohn
    1 Comment

    I learned last week that the ‘contact’ tab at HogwartsProfessor.com was broken and, hurrah, the web guru who maintains the site was able to fix it quickly. The good news is that I’ve been receiving on average one note a day from readers and speaking venues. The bad news, alas, is that I’ll never know how many folks, libraries, churches, and schools wrote to me here in the past year and whose notes I cannot recover.

    Most of these contacts have questions or invitations even the most devoted All-Pro would not be interested in, but some are treasures. The stand-out for sheer self-promotion is this one, from a YouTube cook and Harry Potter fan:

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