• Is There Philosophical ‘Meat’ in Harry Potter? Yes and No

    ByJohn
    3 Comments

    I get email because I put my address in each of my books at both front and back. Frankly, outside of meeting readers at schools and conferences and the many friends I have made, this sort of correspondence is the best fun of living in Gilderoy-ville. Today’s note is from the UK where a student wanted my input on the philosophical side of Harry Potter. I hope you’ll chime in here as I am, as usual, way over my head in this subject area; I’m confident Ms. George would welcome your answers and expertise! The letter then my answers to her four questions —

    Dear Mr Granger,

    My name is Jenny George and I am a 6th form student at Priestley College, Warrington, England. I am currently completing an extended essay project titled What are the Philosophical and Religious themes within The Harry Potter Series and to what extent did they incite controversy?

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  • Survey Says — “Harry Potter Books Better than Movies!”

    ByJohn
    1 Comment

    Remember the scientific research that showed that breast milk was better for babies than infant formula? How about the inane questions on the teevee show, ‘Family Feud,’ the questions that gave us the prefacing statement before revelations of democratic truth-isms, ‘Survey says…’? What follows is a combination of both. The Wand Company took an unofficial poll of those fans who gathered pre-dawn outside Harrod’s for the first crack at the HP7B Blu-Ray disc offering (for some reason sale of this item was delayed in the UK). The results are almost exactly what you’d expect but are heartening nonetheless. Make the jump to read the press release, survey results, and Wand Company information!

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  • HogwartsProfessor Mailbag: The Super, the Silly, the Sublime

    ByJohn
    5 Comments

    The mailbag at HogwartsProfessor has been especially heavy the last few weeks and the variety of requests for help, notices of important events, and suggestions of topics for coverage here has been impressively diverse. How about a Post Potter Depression Clothing Line? George R. R. Martin’s Ice and Fire books? The link between the reading habits of Potter-philes and the greatest of all self-help mages, Dale Carnegie? A Canadian Hogwarts in revolt against its Slytherin-esque Ministry — a liberal Bishop? A skype HogPro interview with a Bogota teevee station — filmed at McDonalds? The forgotten ‘yellow’ stage of alchemy? Welcome to my world!

    Before I head out for the east coast for my second trip to Virginia in less than a fortnight, I thought I’d empty out the bag with my e-responses for your comment and correction. Let’s start with the letter cum request from Pakistan that I have to suspect is a hoax, if I have no reason beyond cynicism for believing it is.

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  • Mailbag: Why is the Magical World Invisible to Muggles?

    ByJohn
    10 Comments

    A note from Christopher De Morrow about seeing and not-seeing in the series:

    Dear John,

    I recently finished Order, and came across a passage that seems to make sense of an aspect of the series that I’ve been wondering about. Everyone in the parallel magical world is able to hide their great secret, although it seems pretty haphazzard. So many of the people, actions, and even buildings of the magical world intrude upon our own muggle world that it seems impossible that they aren’t more widely known. I think Rowling let us in on the principal reason why when the group visits Mr. Weasley at St. Mungo’s:

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