Literary Alchemy at a Virginia Library

I spoke at the library in beautiful Christiansburg, Virginia, earlier this month to help them launch their activities around the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine.” They were more than gracious hosts to me and Mary while we came south to visit our VMI daughter in Lexington. Pamela Hale, the library director, sent us this review of my literary alchemy talk, a review written by Timothy Scripa. Please feel free to share it with your local librarian if you want me to come and give a talk out your way!

Timothy Scripa, a library staff member and graduate student at Radnor University, wrote:

You’ll probably have heard of John Granger long before you meet him. When you do meet him, though, he’ll probably not be what you would have expected. A former classicist and an ex-marine, Mr. Granger, who refers to himself as “the Hogwarts Professor” with only partial irony, is the author of at least seven books that explore the artistry, influences, and, in his opinion, the Christian subtext of the Harry Potter books. He has shared his literary discoveries at some of our nation’s premiere universities, including Yale, Princeton, and his own alma mater, the University of Chicago. He has given countless keynote addresses at Harry Potter conventions and conferences. He blogs continually at hogwartsprofessor.com, and he’s been interviewed as a Harry Potter expert on radio, TV, and the Internet. Time magazine even named him “the Dean of Harry Potter Scholars.” So, in short, John Granger is a big deal.

Which is why meeting him in person can come as a mild shock. You might expect this ex-marine and literary savant to be somewhat larger-than-life. Nothing is further from reality. Although he has commandeered the attention of crowds numbering in the thousands, he is actually rather diminutive physically. And although he has schooled Ivy League communities in literary criticism, he is graciously humble. An expert in the esoteric symbolism of literary alchemy, Mr. Granger is remarkably down-to-earth. And as a speaker, he is engaging, entertaining, and electrifying—at least as electrifying as an arresting and profound literary scholar can be.

When Mr. Granger and his wife Mary arrived on July 10 [to speak at the reception for the National Library of Medicine’s acclaimed traveling exhibit “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science Magic, and Medicine,”] they came a few minutes before the reception started. They used that time to check out the exhibit—which they had seen only once before—and only in passing at a Harry Potter conference— and to meet and greet our staff and our patrons. Needless to say, he and Mary charmed all of us with their wit and candor.

Unlike some speakers, whose wit and candor vanish before an audience, Mr. Granger’s only intensified. He set his presentation’s warm and inviting tone by relating an amusing and somewhat self-deprecating anecdote about his own aversion toward, then ardor for, Harry Potter.

As he continued, he held us—if you’ll forgive me for saying—spellbound. Even though the magic in the Harry Potter books is based on the practice of alchemy, contrary to popular belief, he told us, the actual practice of alchemy was not a form of medieval voodoo; we were astonished. In fact, he added, practice of alchemy had been held in such high esteem that many of English literature’s greatest authors, from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Charles Dickens and C. S. Lewis employed a form of literary alchemy in their greatest works; we were fascinated. Furthermore, he added, J. K. Rowling has followed in the footsteps of these literary giants by also employing an alchemical scheme throughout the Harry Potter series; we were dumbstruck.

Listening to Mr. Granger’s presentation was like watching a master craftsman disassemble an exquisite piece of machinery, explain the significance of each individual part, then fit the entire apparatus together again to show how it works. And rather than sucking the life out of an exciting story, as so many literary critics are wont to do, Mr. Granger breathed even more life into it. He was the teacher we all wish we had had.

Even though everyone in the audience had read the Harry Potter books at least once, none of us could believe we had overlooked so much of the beauty, the brilliance, and, yes, the magic of Harry Potter. Few, if any of us, had ever heard of literary alchemy, yet that day we all became believers, eager to rediscover it in the pages of not only Harry Potter, but also The Canterbury Tales, Romeo and Juliet, and A Tale of Two Cities.

By the end of Mr. Granger’s visit, it came as no surprise to any of us that despite his less-than-imposing stature, his uncanny genius, and his bookish subject matter, this man was, in fact, as engaging, entertaining, and electrifying as anyone could be. From start to finish, he held his audience enchanted. His easygoing style and his down-to-earth demeanor suggested that we, too, could understand literary alchemy, and his explanations, lucid and fascinating, made the esoteric obvious. He enflamed all of us with a desire to read and reread Harry Potter and the entire line of great literature from which Harry Potter is descended.

Pamela Hale added as a footnote to Mr. Scripa’s very kind review:

Perhaps the greatest compliment we can pay Mr. Granger is to say that his presentation left all of us wanting more and that our only disappointment was that his presentation had to end and he and his wife Mary had to go home to Pennsylvania.

The folks in Christiansburg were as generous and hospitable as they could be; Mary and I hope to go back soon to talk about Twilight or C. S. Lewis’ Narniad. I’d love to come to your library, school, or bookstore, too, to talk about the 21st Century’s Shared Text and a host of other books. Write me at john at HogwartsProfessor dot com to receive a menu of lecture topics and to schedule the date!