PodCast at Sword of Gryffindor, Nativity, coming posts

January 8, 2007 by 1 Comment

Sorry about the absence from the weBlog this last week! End of term duties here at Valley Forge and our celebrations of Nativity on Sunday, not to mention re-organizing and re-writing Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader for the wizard at Zossima Press to send off to the printers, have kept me from the fun here! God allowing, I’ll post something brief more often as we prep for exams at school.

Today’s exciting news is that Travis Prinzi edited his podCast interview with Wendy B. Harte and myself that we did on western New Year’s Day. I hope I didn’t say anything especially bone-headed or, if I did, that Travis was able to cut it out during the edit. Please write out below all the mistakes you think I made!

I drove to Boston this weekend for Nativity services at the St. John Chrysostomos Mission in Saugus (if you live up that way, you really should go). My daughter Hannah drove the minivan with my wife co-piloting, so I was in the back with the other six children. What a hoot! We listened to Order of the Phoenix tapes (Scholastic, Jim Dale) and I was delighted by several inspirations about the Disillusionment Charm (and postmodernism), the Thestrals (and existential epistemology), and Voldemort’s narrative misdirection (and Rowling’s much bigger twist) that I look forward to sharing with you at HogPro.

Thank you for stopping by — and Merry Christmas!

Post-posting: If you haven’t been following the comment boxes on Dragon’s blood, you’ve missed a few more references from canon. Fascinating that Dragon’s steak has healing properties, no?

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Dragon’s Blood, Wand-Cores, and 3 of the 5 Keys

December 31, 2006 by 6 Comments
Filed Under: Literary Alchemy, Postmodern Polly, Traditional Symbolism

Question: How does Fawkes “Apparate” Inside Hogwarts?

December 31, 2006 by 8 Comments

Thoughtful Question from a Hogwarts Professor season-ticket holder:

John,

Not sure where I could’ve asked this question, but I do have one. Have you done any writing on how Fawkes the Phoenix can “apparate” inside Hogwarts? What is it about Fawkes, and Dumbledore, that seem to transcend the “normal” rules for such things? I’m thinking here in reference to Dumbledore being able to become invisible without a cloak. Appreciate any insight.

Dn Kevin

I have a pretty involved answer about the special abilities of the Headmaster and his familiar but I hope someone has a clear and direct answer before I unload my suspicions and try way too hard to get at Dn Kevin’s question.

An official HogPro Best-Guess Prize will be emailed express to the Associate Hogwarts Professor who writes the most cogent response to this fascinating question.

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter

Reflections on the Death of Saddam and the Dark Lord’s Blindspot

December 31, 2006 by 3 Comments

Saddam Hussein was hanged at year’s end, 2006, and, though this gives me no satisfaction or reason by itself to cheer in the New Year, I have not lost any sleep over the execution, either. Those who want to see historical analogies hidden in the Harry Potter stories – and they are legion, I’m afraid – most often make the equation of Lord Voldemort and Adolph Hitler (with Cornelius Fudge and bowler hat playing Neville Chamberlain, Dumbledore and the Order standing in for Churchill and the gang, etc.). I have also heard mention that, though it wasn’t possible at story’s inception, the Dark Lord seems to be picking up characteristics of America’s favorite, mysterious bad guys; I have heard both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein mentioned in this regard.

An article at Arthur Silber’s Sacred Moment weBlog that attempts to explain the origin of Saddam’s “malignant narcissism” mentions bin Laden and Hitler, too, struck me as relevant to our discussions here because of the following passages: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Literary Alchemy

Euro Muslims: Alienated “Other” and Pained “Hermaphrodites”?

December 29, 2006 by 1 Comment


European Minorities Torn Between Worlds

I post the story above in case you sometimes wonder if the discussion in the previous posts about the “Constitutive ‘Other'” in postmodern thinking is just a head game or if the idea of a Gryffindor/Slytherin Hermaphrodite who can bridge the chasm created by cultural metanarratives is silly beyond words. The agony of “home grown” Muslims in Europe unable to assimilate because of their beliefs and the beliefs of their host countries puts a “real life” face on this discussion and highlights both the relevance and the urgency of a “metanarrative of love.”

I would say, too, that this theme of painful duality needing resolution strikes home in our hearts both because we are all the victims of faction or “misfit toys” to some degree and because, as psychosomatic life, just by being human, we are a joining of contrary physical and spiritual tendencies. Our outsides and our insides, the external social environment and our interior life, then, resonate with the alchemical action of this story.

This isn’t kid stuff, however edifying the experience of this story is for the open-hearted, young or old

Filed Under: Literary Alchemy, Postmodern Polly