Ms. Rowling Talks about The Veil

September 25, 2008 by 20 Comments

From Melissa Anelli’s weBlog, an excerpt from her new book, Harry, a History:

JKR: Everyone wanted to go beyond the veil.

MA: This is very canon-based, but there are some things that as a fan, there are things I just gotta know. A lot of fans see the veil as that separation –

JKR: It’s the divide between life and death. I tried to do a nod to that in the Tale of Three Brothers – she was separate from them as though through a veil. You can’t go back if you pass through that veil, you cannot come back. Or you can’t come back in any form that will make either person happy anyway. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

On to Baylor and Yale!

September 20, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I’m home for a day from a wonderful tour of California before heading out to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Yale in Connecticut.

Many thanks to Michael at the Torrey Honors Institute, Nicholas at St. Luke’s, and James, Kanet, and Carrie at Pepperdine for making my wife’s and my time on the left coast a delight from beginning to end!

Please check out the beautiful new Zossima Press website — and don’t hesitate to order autographed copies of The Deathly Hallows Lectures. I look forward to returning from this concentrated bunch of speaking dates and sharing with you what I’ve been talking about and learning on the campuses where I’ve been invited to lecture.

Sometime while I’m gone, a set of podcasts I did while at Biola with John Mark Reynolds and Paul Speers may go up at Scriptorium Daily’s Middlebrow site. Let me know what you think if you catch it (a little easier, I hope, than tuning in PotterWatch).

See you Thursday!

John, out the door for the puddle jumper to Waco

UPDATE: Here is the link to the Yale Daily News story about my talk.

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Lectures

John Granger Talks at Biola University! New Book ‘Deathly Hallows Lectures’ On Sale Now!

September 13, 2008 by 7 Comments

Update: The Hog’s Head’s latest PodCast is an interview with me about The Deathly Hallows Lectures. Please tune in and share what you think!

If you live in southern California, I am coming your way next Monday as a Torrey Honors Institute Distinguished Lecturer at Biola University. In my two days there, I’ll be responsible for a talk to the Biola University community, a 3 hour seminar for selected students, a podCast with the Torrey Scriptorium gentlemen, and another talk, this one just for the Torrey students. Only the first talk is open to all comers; please join the community of scholars and friends at Biola that night if you can and introduce yourself afterwards.

I’ll be talking about the “new stuff” from my latest book, The Deathly Hallows Lectures, namely, the meaning of the many eyes in the series finale and the help it gives us in turning what Ms. Rowling has said is “the key” opening up the seven books. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Lectures

The House of Gaunt: Is it from ‘Vanity Fair’?

September 12, 2008 by 9 Comments

This morning I received a note from Mr. Jerry Bowyer, a long time correspondent on Harry Potter subjects. Mr. Bowyer is a remarkable man, who, at the height of the Witchcraft Controversy, said publicly and without hedge in his newspaper columns and television and radio shows that Ms. Rowling’s books were the gateway to English Literature rather than to the occult. This took no little prescience and courage when his readers and listeners were those least disposed at the time to hear that sort of thing.

He wrote today on another matter but mentioned in an aside that “Susan and I just had an interesting conversation about ‘the dark mark’ which is found in the Gaunt family in William Thackerey’s Vanity Fair.” I am not a Thackeray reader, alas, but thought HogPro readers might be as interested as I was in this potential hat-tip and key to the Gaunt family cryptonym as well as a pointer to the ‘Dark Mark’ of Voldemort. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Plot Points

Question About Fidelius Charm

September 12, 2008 by 55 Comments

I received a list of questions this morning from a reader in Germany, Bernhard Nowak. Herr Nowak was disappointed in what he felt was the inconsistency of Deathly Hallows with the previous books of the series and Ms. Rowling’s comments on her web site. He wrote a polite letter to Christopher Little, Ms. Rowling’s literary agent, and to Bloomsbury, in which letter he detailed ten specific points that he thought didn’t line up, points that the Continuity Editor, if not Ms. Rowling herself, should have caught.

He has not received a response. Having just finished reading my The Deathly Hallows Lectures in which I discuss the questions I would ask Ms. Rowling in an interview, he sent his questions to me on the unlikely chance Ms. Rowling and I ever have tea.

I post the best of Herr Nowak’s ten questions here, one about the Fidelius Charm, with his permission. Is this a continuity gaffe? Can it be explained logically within canon? Or do we need an ex machina explanation? What, for example, does the inability of Death Eaters to enter 12 Grimmauld Place in Deathly Hallows tell us about the continuing effect of the Fidelius Charm? Are they only there because Harry and friends continuously break the Name Taboo?

Herr Nowak’s question for your consideration: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points