Rowling, Ring Writing, & Maternal Love

January 15, 2022 by Leave a Comment

In the review of what I’ve written about ring composition that I have done while writing the next post in my Perennialist series on Christmas Pig, I found this bon mot from Rowling about her writing to close a circle in her Harry Potter series with respect to a mother’s love.

It is on the DVD extra for The Deathly Hallows 2 titled ‘The Women of Harry Potter,’ text available at Hypable.com. Rowling made an extraordinary point about Narcissa Malfoy’s protecting Harry from the Dark Lord in the Forest being “the closing of a circle” in which, just as a mother’s love saved Harry from the Dark Lord at story’s start, so it did at story’s end.  This reprise she said was a “quite conscious echo.” 

Join me after the jump for all that. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Christmas Pig

New Year’s Day Request for Feedback

January 14, 2022 by 4 Comments

Happy Russian New Year! It is 1 January on the traditional Church Calendar, and though the liturgical New Year in the Orthodox Church is 1 September (old style) and until late in the 18th Century ‘Lady Day’ or Annunciation was the beginning of the new year in the UK and its colonies, many people, especially Slavs in my experience, celebrate today as the day of resolutions, inaugurated habits, and a personal dawn.

That being the case, despite my being anything but a Slavophile, I’d like to open the comment boxes to HogwartsProfessor readers to share their feedback about our posts, our formatting, our focus, our quirky lines of sight, whatever. Help us start the New Year with a better idea of what our readers want to read and hear about. I’m especially hopeful that one and all will share suggestions of topics, books, and authors you’d like us to explore — and if we could find a volunteer to help us pull together the pieces we have assembled for a podcast at long last, that would be the best.

So it’s ‘Open Microphone Night’ all day at HogwartsProfessor — How are we doing? What can we do better? What would you like to read more about? Less about? And, oh, yeah, who do we email to jumpstart our podcast adventure in the New Year? Thanks in advance for your feedback, requests, and help!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Evanna Lynch Denies “Rift” Between JK Rowling and Harry Potter Cast

January 13, 2022 by 1 Comment

Evanna Lynch, the actress J.K. Rowling said “was Luna Lovegood” spoke about the Harry Potter Reunion special, and rejected the idea that there was any major “rift” between the author and the actors that became stars in her work. She does, however, speak of “difficult conversations” between the cast and the author and expresses hope for “healing.”  I encourage readers to view her full statement. 

As someone who considers many of JKR’s tweets to be both misguided and hurtful to the transgender community, but who nonetheless appreciates the brilliance of her writing and intends to keep reading it, I find Ms. Lynch’s approach refreshing and comforting. It is not clear who the “us” is that she doesn’t want to “keep fighting”– her fellow cast members and JKR or JKR and the wider Twitter community, but she is clearly, as the anchor puts it, a peacemaker, who states that she, and her castmates have “great love and respect” for Ms. Rowling, despite disagreement with her views. 

Ms. Lynch is a woman of strong opinions herself, as a vegan and an animal activist. She has been open about how both correspondence with her favorite author and the Harry Potter books helped her recover from a serious eating disorder. I am happy to hear that she, at least, does not believe Ms. Rowling’s limited involvement with the reunion special is the result of any type of “cold shoulder.” If, as Ms. Lynch suggests, JKR is “busy writing books,” maybe we’ll have The Ink Black Heart in hand that much sooner. 

 

Filed Under: Louise Freeman, Movie Thoughts

Recent Christmas Pig Tweets

January 12, 2022 by Leave a Comment

I’m betting the “and that turned into the book!” is the keeper of this set.

Filed Under: Christmas Pig

Hogwarts Professor Christmas Pig Posts

January 11, 2022 by Leave a Comment

It’s  time to begin assembling a Pillar Post about J. K. Rowling’s latest work, The Christmas Pig, with all the work we have done here pre- and post publication to draw out its artistry and meaning.

There are three sections: the work we did from the announcement of the story last April (to include Nick Jeffery’s prediction the book existed) until its publication, the work we have done since its availability in October (special shout-outs to Evan Willis’ brilliant ‘First Notes,’ Elizabeth Baird-Hardy’s work with Spenser, and Bea Groves’ essay in The Rowling Library about Dickens and The Velveteen Rabbit), and my series in progress about reading this Christmas story as a spiritual allegory.

The listing of what I’ve found is after the jump, and, if I say so myself, it’s quite an impressive collection. Let me know what I’ve missed! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Christmas Pig