Hogwarts Professor

From today’s mailbag:

Dear Mr. Granger,

I had gone to your lecture you gave at Moravian College and was fascinated by your insight into the knowledge behind the series. You had written your email address when you had signed your book for me and I have a question now. I have now been beginning to read your book on “Looking for God in Harry Potter” and I was wondering about something. In the beginning you mention how Harry potter is not invocational magic or socery and never does it call in evil spirits but rather uses incantational magic. While for the most part I can agree with you there are a couple parts in the series where the characters may have used actual sorcery. [Read more…]

If you know WordPress blogging and WYSIWYG html work as well as you know Harry Potter (or better), and could help us out here at HogwartsProfessor and Zossima.com, please give a shout to me at john at zossima dot com or to Bob Trexler at robert at zossima dot com. We have a bunch of ideas we want to try here but keep running into the walls we couldn’t see. There has to be a light switch around here somewhere; thanks in advance if you can help us find it!

Here’s hoping she releases a cheap edition (sans precious stones) post-auction for us groundlings!

Rowling Completes Post-Harry Potter Book
Thursday, November 1, 2007 5:43 AM EDT
The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — J.K. Rowling has completed her first post-Harry Potter book, a collection of wizarding fairytales titled “The Tales of Beedle the Bard.”

“‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” Rowling said. [Read more…]

What a great weekend in Wake Forest, North Carolina! The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture sponsored a magnificent C. S. Lewis seminar with scholars from around the world discussing Lewis’ books, thoughts, and legacy.

Robert Trexler at Zossima Press and the designated hitter here at Hogwarts Professor convinced me I would get a lot out of it. Once again by disregarding my “better judgment” and heeding Bob’s advice I was well served. It would take longer than a weekend to share what I heard and learned there, but three things come immediately to mind.

(1) I learned from a Lewis scholar what C. S. Lewis might have said about Ms. Rowling’s Carnegie Hall comments;

(2) I heard a mind-blowing lecture by Penn State’s Sanford Schwartz on Lewis’ Space Trilogy (sometimes called The Ransom Novels) and, in discussion with him and others later, realized what Michael Wards’ Narnia thesis may mean in the academic world’s appreciation of Harry Potter and Ms. Rowling’s alchemical artistry; and
[Read more…]