Thoughts for the Serious Reader of Harry Potter
I’d love to hear some responses to this recent column in The Chronicle of Higher Education. I expect our Headmaster has a different take on the Twilight series.
I will be the first to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of Twilight… my main motivation for reading it was to appreciate John’s Spotlight book more. And unlike Harry, Hunger Games and Divergent (all of which get a mention in the Chron article as well!) I never felt a need to re-visit Bella’s tale.
But the column is well worth discussing.
Twilight, Chastity, and Kristen Stewart: Wars and rumors of war and love and rumors of love
by joel emmett
The Internet imploded this past week when news leaked that Kristen “Bella Swan” Stewart, the highest paid actress in human history and girlfriend of her Twilight co-star, “sexiest man alive” Robert Pattinson, had a fling with her 41-year old, married, director of her recent “Snow White” film.
The public reaction was extreme, heated, and profuse. This is significant not only because of the human drama, but because of how and why this situation was so loaded by the themes of the Twilight Saga itself.
First, here’s what actually happened.
[Read more…]
Wednesday was the first day of summer (well, technically Thursday was the first full day), and, for those of us who have been to Forks as many times as the young lady in the hilarious Time Warner television commercial, it was also Edward Cullen’s 111th birthday (and he doesn’t even need a magic ring to stay looking 17)! In honor of that auspicious occasion, Summit treated us with the “theatrical trailer” for Breaking Dawn part 2.
Check it out in the first comment box below if you haven’t seen it already. The trailer is widely available online (good thing, too, as the only movie I’ll be seeing in theaters for a while is probably one made by Pixar), and, as promised earlier this week, here are my thoughts, nit-picky and literary as they may be, on what we see, what we don’t see, and what we should be expecting.
[Read more…]
Stand by for Professor Baird-Hardy’s scene by scene analysis!
Sadly, Forks High School Professor was knocked for a loop last month when Hogwarts Professor and The Hog’s Head went offline for a day to facilitate repairs. I’m assured the posts there weren’t lost and will be available again soon.
As part of today’s Twilight set, I wanted to share an idea posted as a comment to the ‘Anne of Green Gables and Twilight‘ discussion over at the comatose FHS Professor. [For a similar, shorter discussion, see ‘Anne of Green Gables and Harry Potter‘ at this site.] The question and wonderful answer are from Caroline at the challenging and fun Briarfield Chronicles weblog:
I just discovered your post [on Anne and Twilight], and I’m struck by the parallels between Anne Shirley and Bella Swan. Especially Gilbert/Edward. What I’m wondering is, is Alice Cullen the true Mary Sue instead of Bella? Also have you noticed the similarities between the Twilight Saga and Keats’ The Eve of St Agnes?
No, I really hadn’t thought of Alice as the true author-in-the-story and I missed the Eve of St. Agnes parallel, too. But I should have picked that up, right? I wrote to Caroline:
Recent Conversation