Patrick Goldstein on his L.A. Times ‘Big Picture’ weblog has written what really caused the fallout between Disney and Walden and the break-up of their partnership on the Chronicles of Narnia films. I thought there were three interesting points to Mr. Goldstein’s piece: [Read more…]
Taxonomy of Fantasy and Anne of Green Gables
January 26, 2009 by 24 Comments
Fascinating thought of the day for serious Harry Potter readers: is Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables “series” echoed in Ms. Rowling’s Harry Potter adventures? Bets over at The Anne of Green Gables and L.M.Montgomery Lexicon wrote me last week to say she thinks there are points of correspondence.
She wrote: [Read more…]
President Obama Is a Potter Man
January 25, 2009 by 9 Comments
And it shows, believe it or not, in his policy statements.
Read about how serious he is in following Potter stories in the Daily Telegraph story from 2007, Barack Obama Under the Harry Potter Spell. I’m pretty sure this is credible (as opposed to the campaign claim that President Garfield could write in Latin and Greek — simultaneously, using right and left hands for either language…).
Alison Williams, a friend of this blog, wrote at Harry Potter for Seekers (HT to RHT!) that we can see the Dumbledore influence in his comments about possibly closing the prisons at Gitmo:
“Sometimes we have to choose between what is right and what is easy.” – Albus Dumbledore
“We are willing to observe core standards, not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard.” – Obama on closing Guantanamo.
President Obama is not a Fabian Socialist a la Dumbledore, it’s fair to assume, but it’s nice to think we can play “spot the Rowling quote” for several years in the new President’s public statements. How many other authors do you think he has read aloud in the past few years? To the tune of 4100 pages? My bet is “not many.”
Are You Reading More Than You Did?
January 24, 2009 by 4 Comments
According to a new NEA study, we all are and it’s due to a rise in how much fiction we all read.
I know I’m reading a lot more fiction today than I was ten years ago and that this change is largely due to our favorite boy wizard and the Hogwarts adventures. Is this true of you, too? How has your reading changed, both in terms of what you are reading and how you read it?
Hogwarts Professor — in Argentina?
January 22, 2009 by 3 Comments
Well, I have a friend there! Patricio Tarantino, the webmaster at RedFlu ~ Noticias de Harry Potter, has written me a few times and yesterday posted a review of Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader at his beautiful and popular site. (Mr. Tarantino’s English is very good but the book review is in Spanish.) For all of you polygluts, please visit the site and let me know what you think.
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