Stratford Caldecott, author of Secret Fire: The Spiritual Vision of J. R. R. Tolkien, provides the perfect antidote to the excesses of Michael O’Brien in his explanation of “Finding the Wise Imagination in Children’s Literature.” It speaks a Thomistic and Aristotelian language where I prefer Coleridge but it is about the Imagination as an edifying human faculty when oriented to the spiritual and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Q&A on “Who is the MockingJay?” Part 3 Corrections and Comments from Hunger GamesTrilogy.com and MockingJay.net
February 17, 2010 by 51 Comments
Back into the mailbag! The feedback to “Who is Mockingjay?” we’ll be looking at today, though, wasn’t sent to HogwartsProfessor (except for the opener that came in after I posted Part 2). It’s almost all from the two threads on this theory posted at HungerGamesTrilogy.com and MockingJay.net, two of the busier Hunger Games fandom sites with large forums. You have your SPOILER WArning and my advice to read the Hunger Games, Catching Fire, the Pearl Theory thread, and my responses, Part 1 and Part 2, before entering here. Good? Great.
First, though, this note from the HogPro comment boxes after the Pearl Theory post: [Read more…]
‘Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture’
February 17, 2010 by
That is the sub-title to the new book by Michael ‘Culture Warrior’ O’Brien, Twilight of the West.
If you want a quick look at the Catholic version of prelest or spiritual delusion consequent to Phariseeism, the preface to O’Brien’s Twilight — complete with his experience of God instructing him to read Harry Potter and write about him — can be found here.
A blessed Ash Wednesday to you all. H/T to Perelandra and Sean.
Q&A on “Who is the Mockingjay?” Part 2 HogwartsProfessor Reader Questions
February 17, 2010 by 13 Comments
Right into the mailbag, then; HogPro comments and questions first! SPOILER ALERT — stay away if you haven’t read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.
Hello, John!
I love your reasoning and the points that you have made here. However, I have one question, about this point:
“We learn from Madge that even the Mayor’s wife, her mother, cannot travel to the Capitol for medical treatment and medicines without special permission. Obviously, though, Mrs. Undersee does get this kind of allowance.”
This does not necessarily hold true. I had always assumed that the trip to the Capitol would cure Ms. Undersee’s illness completely, whereas the pain medication simply keeps it at bay. So, couldn’t the pain medication simply have been shipped from the Capitol to District 12? If the Capitol can create mutant wolves out of the body of dead tributes, they would have to be able to cure depression.
However, this can be favorable towards your opinion. Perhaps the Capitol does not allow Ms. Undersee into its city because they suspect her, or at least are wary of her connection to Maysilee Donner.
Thank you for a wonderful article,
Sanna Sharp, HungerGamesTrilogy.com [Read more…]
Give-and-Take on ‘Who is the Mockingjay?’ Part 1
February 16, 2010 by 6 Comments
Wow.
I posted my preliminary thoughts on Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games in a post here on Sunday called “Who is the Mockingjay?” It’s received quite the response in Hunger Games fandom with dedicated posts on Hunger Games.net, Boy With the Bread.com, JabberJays.com, and Team Peeta and has threads devoted to the Pearl Theory I brought up on forums at Hunger Games Trilogy.com and MockingJay.net. It has been a mixed response and at many sites (to include this one), so I’ll try to respond to the criticism, suggestions, and questions in one spot to focus discussion.
Before I jump into the mailbag and respond to the feedback, though, I feel obliged to sort the retorts into three piles: [Read more…]
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