Twilight vs. Harry Potter: Follow the Money!

May 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Forgive me for loving this web page at money.co.uk, on which the Twilight and Harry Potter book and film franchises are compared strictly in light of money made and spent — by movie makers, by products, by authors and actors/actresses. I have been trying to think of a more senseless basis of comparison. Page counts? Number of translations? How about counting the number of Onion parody stories each mania has inspired?

I can see three points of value in money quantity comparisons:

  • I learned something: Hermione Granger is smarter, well, better at making money, than the whole lot of actors and actresses, i.e., life imitates art.
  • On this scale, at least, Harry Potter has at last vanquished The Lord of the Rings.
  • I think quantities of money is as valuable a measure as the usual literary taxonomy gauges and personal preference standards many readers and fans use to compare the two series.

Reading The Deathly Hallows Lectures and Spotlight: A Close-Up View of the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga is much better way to go about comparing the two series. Even just looking at these posts at Forks High School Professor makes more sense than the money measure — and it’s just as inexpensive! Ka Ching!

Two other links for serious readers to follow today: John Patrick Pazdziora on literary alchemy and fairy tales, Snow White and the Philosopher’s Stone, and an interview with the editor of a Tolkien essay collection focused on LOTR’s Christian content.

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

First Look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in The Hunger Games

May 18, 2011 by 3 Comments

Entertainment Weekly’s cover this week sports the first peek at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in the highly anticipated film adaptation of The Hunger Games being filmed here in lovely Western North Carolina, where it’s still rainy and 50 degrees today. How highly anticipated is this film?  The movie won’t be released until next spring, and filming doesn’t even start until next week, but the star is already featured on magazine covers, with her mockingay pin in place and her bow at the ready. Rather than an attempt to stir up hype–there’s already quite a bit of that, and the big press push will be closer to release time–this cover and the accompanying article appear geared toward readers who have been skeptical of Lawrence’s casting, despite the endorsement of author Suzanne Collins. In this piece of the interview in EW, Lawrence shares her experience of getting the starlet treatment, an expereince much like Katniss undergoes in the Remake Center. The reverse process seems to have been followed by her HG film handlers, who have dyed her hair, made her tan (though it looks much more beach than mountain-girl-in-the-woods tan), and pretty much taken her to “Beauty Base Zero.”  This cover shot, though, looks retouched, so it’s unclear if this is really the Katniss we’ll see on screen. We should know something more next week when filming starts. I hope to hear great details from my friendly extras on the set as they get started bringing this incredible story to the screen. If you haven’t yet, take a look back through our copious Hunger Games posts and join us in our lively conversation of the book and its most talked-about-yet-to-be-made movie!

Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games Tagged With: , ,

Woody Harrelson cast as Haymitch in The Hunger Games, all 24 Tributes in place, Filming Starts May 23 in NC

May 14, 2011 by 4 Comments

Since my regular professor job, unlike my beloved position here at Hogwarts, has the requirement that I evaluate reams of student work and turn in grades at semester’s end, I’ve been a little swamped this last week of the semester, and so I have not yet had the chance to post thoughts on the latest developments in the filming process with The Hunger Games. Now that I’ve sent all the owls on their way with everyone’s final scores (and no T for Troll grades this year, either!), it’s time to take a peek at developments.

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Filed Under: Elizabeth Baird Hardy, Hunger Games, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

On to Old Virginia! Hannah’s Graduation and HogPro Talks

May 13, 2011 by 7 Comments

I’m packing up and heading out to Lexington, Virginia, this weekend for my eldest daughter Hannah’s graduation from the Virginia Military Institute. Some of you have been around here long enough to remember her departure for ‘Rat Year’ back in the fall of 2007 and my request that you write her an encouraging note. She received more cards and letters that week than anyone else in her company and, she thought, perhaps more than everyone else in her company.

HogPro All-Pros have a special fondness for Hannah because she was the eleven year old girl who prompted me to read Harry Potter in the first place, albeit only so I could explain to her “why we don’t read trash like that.” She is a wonderful young woman, if I say so myself, and VMI has been very good to her. Read about her successes here and here so I don’t have to write it all out, shamelessly proud as I am. Lt. Granger is the centerpiece in the picture above.

And while I’m in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, I’ll be giving one formal talk, sitting in on one children’s literature class, and “leading a discussion” in a Rhetoric course on the state of Harry Potter criticism. For details about those events, at least one of which is open to the public, skip over the jump.

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Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Happy 400th Birthday, King James Version!

May 12, 2011 by 2 Comments

The West’s original and never to be supplanted Shared Text —

Filed Under: Shared Text