Our Mailbag collection this week features inquiries from Serbia, Poland (“a country in central Europe”), Australia, and Planet California!

Dear Professor Granger,

I am a doctoral candidate in my second year of studies at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, Serbia. I obtained an MA in English Language and Literature and at present my field of research is Cultural Studies. I applied for participation in an academic conference which is to be held in October this year in Winnipeg, Canada, at the University of Manitoba.

Conference’s topic is “A matter of life and death”; and I sent an abstract on the themes of life, death, Christianity, liminality etc. in the Harry Potter series. The abstract has been accepted and the organisers are willing to provide me with a 450 CAD travel grant. However, the airplane ticket solely would cost me about 1300 CAD.

Having read your Harry Potter’s Bookshelf, which was a source of valuable information for my paper, I decided to write to you and ask for some suggestions or guidelines as to which organisation I could address that could perhaps give me any financial subsidy. Are there any associations or institutions that are especially supportive of research on J.K. Rowling? I would appreciate it if you could help me regarding the matter.

Best regards,

Andrea Stojilkov

I’ve written several friends and the best advice they’ve given is that Ms Stojilkov contact the University of Manitoba again, as well as her own university to see if they cannot help her make up the difference. She has given me permission to post this here to ask for more helpful guidance or even to accept contributions for her travel to Winnipeg. Leave advice in the comment boxes below; if you’d like to help pay for her flight, contact me at john@HogwartsProfessor.com and I’ll put you in touch with our Serbian friend.

Over to E–, writing from Poland: [Read more…]

Dear Mr. Granger,

I heard you speak at Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute back in September 2008; I’m sorry it took me so long to write as you requested. I read How Harry Cast his Spell twice and the Harry Potter series once in the meantime. Having heard your lecture on “The Eyes of Harry Potter” and read the book, book 7 made much more sense to me. Thank you for putting in the work to help us understand the story better.

I like what you say in the introduction about how the books are not meant to be used merely as Christian propaganda. As people who dwell in a universe that God made beautiful, we don’t have to force everything to be utilitarian, because beauty itself is good for our souls. I have one question: Would it be a misuse of the text to discuss its Christian content with the purpose of evangelizing?

You said that the reason the evil characters of Harry Potter can use invocational magic is basically that all of us can choose to serve Satan with our talents. But if this power is harmony with God’s good Word, I don’t understand how it can be twisted to evil. The only way I can harmonize it is that magic is seen within the story as merely a technology, not a subcreative act.

In regards to the body-mind-spirit trinity of Ron, Hermione, and Harry, are there any times when Harry is wrong and one or both of them should legitimately take precedence?

Your arguments on Harry as both Christ symbol and Christian Everyman are cogent and convincing. They helped me define what I felt about the books.

Thank you again for your book. I plan to review it many more times and to make use of the themes you helped me discover in my own writing.

Yours,

(Name withheld) [Read more…]