I’ll be speaking today and tomorrow at the Queen City Mischief and Magic Festival (QCMM) in beautiful Staunton, Virginia, nestled in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.
My four, count ’em, four talks will be:
- ‘Why We Love Harry Potter’ Saturday morning at 10:30 on the Festival’s main stage,
- ‘Harry Potter and the Ring Composition’ at 2:00 this afternoon at Mary Baldwin University’s venue,
- Sunday at 1:00 PM I will be talking at The Wharf about the Christian content of the Hogwarts Saga, and
- I may be speaking again on the main stage Sunday morning as well. If I do, I think I’ll try out something knew: ‘Everything I Needed to Know about Shakespeare I Learned from Harry Potter.’
And there is a panel discussion at 5:00 today at which Prof Louise Freeman and I will answer questions from all-comers from the main stage.
If you can make it to Staunton this weekend, please be sure to introduce yourself as a HogwartsProfessor reader. There will be thousands of people, I know, but I really look forward at these live events to meeting my virtual friends with whom I spend so much time during the year. I hope to see you there, especially if you’re going to see Antony and Cleopatra as I did last night at the American Shakespeare Center’s magnificent Blackfriar’s Theater.
He knows the structure is a ring,
It’s literary alchemy,
He will not miss a single thing,
Granger is our king!
Haha Tyler Brown!!
John, for those of us who weren’t able to make it to QCMM, might we be able to get copies of your talks? They’re always enlightening and uplifting, King Granger!
You’re very kind! I don’t write up my talks as a rule born of sloth and we didn’t think to record any of them.
‘Why We Love Harry Potter,’ though, was a new version of my Seven Keys talk, ‘Ring Composition’ was the usual fire hose with a few new Cormoran Strike references, and ‘Christian Content’ was an updated edition of a talk I’ve given almost every year since 2002.
The only completely new piece was the ‘Everything I Needed to Know about Shakespeare I learned from Harry Potter’ and I may write that up someday. It is fun and needs a few more practice rounds before I take it to Broadway (or the Leaky Cauldron in Orlando…).
Thank you for asking. God willing and finances allowing, I will return to QCMM next year to take in next Year’s offerings at the American Shakespeare Center and enjoy much more of the Festival than I was able to this year. I hope to see you there!