Shared Text: Does This Product Exist Except for Harry Potter?

March 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

If you have to have a ‘Kymera Magic Wand Remote Control,’ I’m told they’re only $75.95 during today’s “flash” sale. Enter this under “You know you’re an Adult Fan of the Hogwarts Saga, when… you turn on your toaster with a wand from across the room.”

I suppose it’s possible that the inventor could have pursued this idea in a world without Harry Potter fans with disposable income (or friends of fans trying to find the magic gift). But I’m confident whoever has the patent on this beautie was able to sell it to investors for production and marketing money on the strength of Harry’s popularity and over-sized space in our imaginations. Your thoughts?

Filed Under: Shared Text

Harry Potter Research Assistance Needed

February 23, 2012 by 7 Comments

Friend of this blog, Dr, Joel Hunter of the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University, is conducting some research and would like input from the serious readers here. In his paper for an upcoming conference, Dr. Hunter was going to mention the preferences readers have for some of the Hogwarts Adventures, and while we’ve all heard anecdotes about which books are readers’ least/most favorites, he wanted a more thoughtful study. So he created this very simple survey for readers to rank the books from most to least favorite (it’s great if you love them all; just decide which ones you are more likely to crawl back into when you re-visit Harry). If you have read all seven books at least once, please participate in the survey and feel free to pass it along to others who would like to participate. Please only take the survey once (I know some of you want to make Chamber of Secrets number 1 at all costs–restrain yourselves!). Thanks so much for your feedback and for taking part in our on-going goals of research and scholarship!

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Shared Text Tagged With:

Theophany Sermon: Stags As Serpent Killers

February 12, 2012 by 5 Comments

Who doesn’t love the White Stag? Majestic, noble, and pure, it is the traditional, powerful symbol of Christ, the Peace and Power of the Father. We meet it (him?) not only in Western tapestry and iconographic tradition — alongside, notably, St. Godric — but in popular fantasy as well. Readers of this site are familiar enough with the appearance of the White Stag at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as well as in the Harry Potter stories, especially in the climax of Prisoner of Azkaban and, his mate, the cervus fugitivus, in the pivotal Forest of Dean scene of Deathly Hallows, that I don’t need to explain his importance in great story telling.

What I learned recently, though, is that the stag is known in the Orthodox Church at least as the great enemy of serpents. The stag likes to lunch on the low-crawlers. This was revealed to me in that most unexpected of places, a sermon, at the Feast of Theophany. With the Deacon’s permission, I share that exploration of the meaning of Theophany (represented, I think, in the Ron the Baptist scene alluded to above) in which the stag symbolism is explained. Enjoy!

Saturday Vespers, January 7, 2012 – Isaiah 35:1-10 – St. George the Chozebite

Fr. Deacon Theophan Warren, All Saints Orthodox Church, Chicago, Illinois

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As we continue our celebration of the glorious feast of Christ’s baptism in the Jordan, and the revelation of the worship of the Holy Trinity this evening, my brothers and sisters in Christ, I thought it fitting to preach on this passage from the thirty-fifth chapter of the Prophet Isaiah.  I would contend that in this one single chapter of Holy Scripture, the whole of salvation history is contained, along with the prophetic vision of the eschatological end of this world, and the beginning of the next.  Of course, I do not mean to say that every detail of the history of salvation is contained herein, but let us briefly examine this passage tonight under three headings:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Shared Text, Traditional Symbolism

Shared Text: Nerds and Geometry Exams

January 26, 2012 by 9 Comments

Filed Under: Shared Text

Hedwig Mania Over Influx of Snowy White Owls in US

January 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I confess the story here about the great number of Great White Owl sightings in the United States didn’t really excite me. I’m not a ‘birder’ with a life list so the possibility of seeing birds that are a relatively rare sight in the lower 48 didn’t stir me to reschedule vacations so I could get to Hawaii (!) in order to see the bird there.

On the other hand, the ‘Shared Text’ aspect of this news is ‘in your face.’ Why does anyone care about Great White Owls now a days, beyond the hard-to-miss angelic symbolism? You got it: Hedwig.

People have always had a fascination with owls, but the book and 2001 film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” in which a snowy owl named Hedwig first appeared as Harry’s companion and mail courier, thrust the species in the spotlight. Holt said the movie series helped land the winged creature a December 2002 National Geographic cover story.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes, Shared Text