You Want Hunger Games Movie News? Check It Out

March 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

Melissa Anelli Surveys the First Reviews

Scholastic Shares Soar After Earnings Feast On ‘Hunger Games’

Not unrelated? Scholastic Store in NYC SoHo Hosts Free Movie Night Party

Jennifer Lawrence on Josh’s Kissing and Playing with Fire

Den of Geek: Hunger Games a Great Sci-Fi Flick!

Mockingjay.Net: Full Collection of Premiere Interviews with Cast (“It’s a War Movie!”)

The Hunger Games Movie Has Sold Out >1,000 Theatres a Week Before Release

Parade Interview: Jennifer Lawrence on How the Kardashians Are Like ‘The Hunger Games’

Jeanne Wolf’s Hollywood: Jennifer Lawrence Describes Herself as Having “Survival Skills of Poodle”

People magazine’s Cover story and multiple Features on The Hunger Games this week

Really, to keep abreast of this stuff, you need to use a Google news aggregator or, better, just stay tuned to Mockingjay.net, the Hunger Games fan site that never sleeps. I learned about all of the above Movie Madness stories from MJay… Back to the books!

Filed Under: Hunger Games

HogwartsProfessor on FaceBook and Twitter? Say it Ain’t So!

March 15, 2012 by 9 Comments

But it is! You can follow my thinkings, comings, and goings at ‘HogwartsProf’ on Twitter and at the Hogwarts Professor Facebook page! For those of you who have heard me joke that my wife and I agreed this wasn’t anything I should do because I’d wind up in a Social Media 12 Step Program in short order, I really wasn’t joking. Mary will be typing in all the tweets and FaceBook updates so those interested can hear about new posts at this site, of course, but also all about big Serious Reader gatherings, where and when I’ll be speaking, new ways of bringing me to your school, church, library, or bookclub, special offers on books, and video offerings at iTunes from my talks, interviews with other Potter Pundits, and lectures at conferences.

And did I mention the rumor of a new HogPro partnership with MuggleNet? See you over at the Twitter and Facebook pages!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Letter to a Friend: Coleridge Through Newman to Tolkien?

March 14, 2012 by 2 Comments

A letter I sent to a friend last year on the possible connection of Coleridge and J. R. R. Tolkien through Cardinal Newman:

Your prayers.

The Christianity Today article I forwarded last week on John Cardinal Newman’s literary imagination (‘Newman’s Unquiet Grave: A Biography that Stresses Newman’s Literary Imagination’) disappointed me in that the article didn’t mention Coleridge. It seemed to touch a nerve with you by asserting that “because of Newman’s particular blend of the literary and the theological, he may also be England’s greatest unread prose writer.” You wrote:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

What You Missed Last Night at the Capitol’s Movie Premiere

March 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Or was this session with Caesar Flickerman and the Celebrity Careers required viewing in Panem?

Filed Under: Hunger Games

Literary Alchemy and The Hunger Games: Three Podcasts

March 13, 2012 by 3 Comments

I spent a good deal of time in my talk about Catching Fire last night at Full Circle Books discussing the alchemical symbolism of that second novel in the Panem Saga — the Pearl imagery and references, especially, but also the novel as albedo in the series and its own three stage process in the Quell — and the questions afterwards were almost entirely on that subject. Which shouldn’t surprise me, especially inasmuch as the Ring Composition of the books augments the hermetic punch you never see coming in this wild reading experience.

‘A Different Drum Beat’ recently wrote a very kind post about my work (among others!) but especially concerning Travis Prinzi’s and my efforts to explain literary alchemy and its renaissance post Potter in popular literature like Twilight and The Hunger Games. She linked to three podcasts Mr. Prinzi and I did two years ago on the subject, and, though it couldn’t include discussion of Mockingjay, it is still a valuable look at the how’s and why’s of alchemical artistry.

So, if you want to get a grip on Hunger Games’ inner magic and meaning, check out those 2010 Hog’s Head Pubcasts about Literary Alchemy right here: parts I, II and III. The ‘Ring Composition supplement podcast can be heard here. And let me know what you think!

Filed Under: Hunger Games, Literary Alchemy