On Critical Reception of Harry Potter and Twilight Part 9: What the Critics missed (C: Allegorical)

February 24, 2009 by 27 Comments

What allegories in Harry Potter and the Twilight Saga have the critics missed? Let’s make this simpler. You tell me the ones they have picked up. I’ll give you the three that come immediately to mind from each of these series while you search accio-quote, your news clippings file, and Potter commentary book shelf. As I discussed in Part 5, seeing the world as materialists (as we all do, like it or not), which is to say, “seeing surface reality as reality exclusive of all other understanding,” the idea of alieniloquium, one thing speaking of another thing, is in our postmodern blind spot.

Three Harry Potter allegories: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Beyond Hogwarts: The Only Online Conference

February 23, 2009 by 3 Comments

“Welcome to Beyond Hogwarts, the only ongoing online Harry Potter fan conference.

Beyond Hogwarts is an academic resource, unraveling and discussing the mysteries of the Harry Potter saga, and beyond the books, into the future of Harry’s Wizarding world.”

Internet Hermit that I am, I’d never heard of this site. I’m stumped about how it qualifies as “an academic resource” or even as “the only ongoing online fan conference,” but it looks friendly enough. Any HogPro All-Pros or Hog’s Head Tavern ever test the waters at Beyond Hogwarts? Let us know what you think of it — or if you know of other thoughtful Potter sites I should know about. Time for me to get out a bit…

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter

On Critical Reception of Harry Potter and Twilight Part 8: What the Critics missed (B: Moral)

February 22, 2009 by 8 Comments

The Potterdelphia Meet-Up Saturday was a blast — and it was especially good to catch-up with Debbie, a frequent correspondent, and Demarest, who blogs at ‘To Wander Diagon Alley’ (and knows my books and the many other commentaries on Ms. Rowling’s oeuvre better than anyone I know). I hope to get to their monthly meetings in the future for the Potter fellowship this big city group offers.

Back to our ten part series comparing the critical reception of Ms. Rowling’s Hogwarts Adventures and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga! When we last spoke, I tried to detail the several surface elements in each writer’s work that critics missed even though they usually restricted their comments to the narrative line. Today I want to discuss the moral level which is, as it is almost always, very much tied to the surface features of the story. First, though, to review some earlier posts, we have to note that much of the harshest criticism about these two series has been at the moral level — and almost uniformly wrong-headed. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

There’s a Logical Fallacy Here Somewhere…

February 21, 2009 by 3 Comments

It’s not quite Post hoc, propter hoc because it isn’t asserted that the historical event caused Ms. Rowling to write a story with hints of the event in her tale. We’re close, though, I think, in the suggestion that because she might have heard of it, might have visited this scene, and might have caught a glimpse of the tourist train that there is or almost certainly is a connection.

Anyway, a historical event in Scotland is tied to Harry’s adventures in Chamber of Secrets in this article. I’ll let you be the judge of the validity or strength of the argument. I’m left marveling at just the reach or stretch to make the connection… Probably because I have been accused of over reach a few times myself.

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter

Slate’s ‘Great Book, Bad Movie: How Hollywood Ruins Novels’ (Has Hollywood Ruined Harry?)

February 20, 2009 by 11 Comments

A quick break from the ten part series! I’ll be speaking tomorrow, Saturday, 21 February, to the Potterdelphians at 11 am; please join us at “Shops At Liberty Place, 1625 Chestnut St, Philadelphia PA 19103” (food court area at the top of the escalators) if you’re anywhere near Center City! I’ll be talking about the bag of eyeball marbles in Deathly Hallows — and the discussion with this group of very serious readers promises to be a lot of fun.

I saw the article on ‘Great Book, Bad Movie’ online and thought of the Potter film franchise. The author of this piece says that novels can be successfully translated into movies, especially “the kiddie franchises (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia)’ and “the airport bangers (Da Vinci Code, the Bourne etceteras)” because of their “ready-built brand appeal” and because “good plots and an epic dimension translate well from page to screen.”

The problem comes, according to Willing Davidson, when producers try to transform “literary novels” into “mid-size movies,” which effort, s/he says, “has been an ugly disaster.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter