Doxacon 2015: John Talks in DC about the Ring Structure of Harry Potter on Saturday 14 November – See You There?

What a month! I’ve been to Youngstown, Chestnut Hill, and Phoenix in October and November features trips to Jonesboro, Arkansas, and to the District of Columbia. I’ve been looking forward to the DC date for almost a year because it is the Doxacon Conference, a gathering of traditional Christians to talk about the ins and outs, the fronts and backs of popular literature. Read all about it here and in the flyer below. This is the last week of registration for the conference which is Friday and Saturday, 13-14 November. I hope to see you there!

Two quick comments:

(1) Yes, the photo on the flyer is indeed an old picture! It was taken by Tyndale, believe it or not, in 2004 for the release of Looking for God in Harry Potter. Lest you be shocked when you see what I really look like, here is a snapshot taken by a friend a few days ago.

(2) The flyer doesn’t say what I’m talking about (see the website!). The title of the talk is Harry Potter’s Magic Ring: The Traditional and Biblical Story Scaffolding of the Hogwarts Saga and of Every Book in the Series. In an hour, I’ll try to introduce the idea of chiasmus or ring-writing as we have it in Scripture and Western literary tradition, explain parallelism in Harry Potter, and then try to answer the big question, namely, ‘So What?’

I’ll also be moderating a panel ‘On Discernment.’ I think I was asked to do this on the principle that the moderator should be the person least knowledgeable with respect to the subject and most in need of an education about same. The panel is a wow group and I am delighted to have (and not a little embarrassed about) my front row seat to their discussions.

Again — I’m looking forward to seeing you there! It promises to be a blast.