John’s speaking schedule this week

September 25, 2007 by 11 Comments

Hi, all. John is busy this week speaking from coast to coast, so I’m filling in temporarily. My name is Bob Trexler – John’s publisher at Zossima Press. John leaves for California tomorrow for two lectures: one at Biola University and another at Pepperdine University. Then, on Sunday, September 30th he will be signing books at the “BIG E” New England State Fair in West Springfield, Massachusettes. He will be there from 3-9 PM in the Connecticut Building.

I’ll add more specifics later – and will try to figure out how to add photographs to the posts. If anybody can explain this to me you can email me at Robert@Zossima.com

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter

Pius Thicknesse = Pope Pius XII, “Hitler’s Pope”?

September 11, 2007 by 52 Comments

Does the takeover of the Ministry of Magic in the first chapters of Deathly Hallows include a passing swipe at the Catholic Church and the Vatican’s supposed complicity with Nazi Germany? I received a letter from a thoughtful reader who thinks this is a possibility. Let’s start with that letter and examine the evidence:

Hello John,

I’ve very much enjoyed following your work, although I’m not a signed-in blogger. A thought if you choose to respond to it. During Vold War II the Minister of Magic is Pius Thicknesse. Pius is a rather unusual name. Try this – Pius XII ” Hitler’s Pope.” Kind of fits – His Thickness(e) Pius XII. Anything linking to the number 12? Pius XII rather “thick” in not fully recognizing Hitler’s evil. I’ve followed the thread here on Deathly Hallows regarding Nazi Echoes but have not yet seen anything on this point.

My very best to you – keep up the excellent work.

Donn Allen

Before receiving this note I had read the name “Pius Thicknesse” as a throw-away swipe at politicians wearing religion on their sleeve and Culture Warriors who get sucked halo-deep into secular politics in the name of piety and do-gooding and holding-the-line against secular humanism.

But Pius may indeed be a specific reference to Pope Pius XII. This Pontiff was the leader of the Roman Catholic Church during WWII and the Cardinal who, before his elevation to the Papacy, negotiated one of the first treaties with Hitler’s Third Reich. Donn Allen’s suggestion merits some consideration, consequently, even if it gives the Catholic Unicorn Hunters and Harry Haters more grist for their mill. Though many of Ms. Rowling’s defenders biggest fans are Roman Catholic, we have little to no evidence that she has Catholic sympathies herself. [Read more…]

Filed Under: C. S. Lewis, Deathly Hallows Discussion Points, Unlocking Harry Potter

John’s Speaking Schedule: The HogPro Speaks!

September 10, 2007 by 21 Comments

Have you heard the song “Online” in which the geeky nerd puffs himself up into a virtual reality hunk on his MySpace page? I suspect folks who come to hear me speak after reading posts at Hogwarts Professor have something like a blind-date nightmare experience when they discover I’m a short man who looks a little too much like a house-elf with a mustache and bow-tie. Maybe one of the reasons people are so kind in saying I am a great speaker after I talk is that I greatly exceeded their expectations that had collapsed when they first saw me at the podium?

If you don’t want to risk that roller-coaster ride, you can hear me speak without the video element at Ancient Faith Radio’s Illumined Heart program. I did an interview there last month with Steve McMeans and two students at Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute that covered a lot of ground about the status of the Controversy in the Christian community concerning the Potter novels. The folks at Ancient Faith just posted it today as an audio file you can listen to from the Internet. Please give it a listen and post your review here. I haven’t heard it so I look forward to learning from y’all where I misspoke.

If you would like to hear me speak and aren’t afraid of the Dobby Effect, my dates for this month and next include: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter

Best Prognosticator before Deathly Hallows: Nominations, Please!

September 5, 2007 by 45 Comments

Now that the dust has settled, the children have torn and discarded the cover to your copy of Deathly Hallows, and the discussion has moved on to the literary merits and sources of the Harry Potter novels, let’s close the door on the speculative madness of the Interlibrum period with nominations for the Best Prognosticator, pre-Deathly Hallows. Millions of us thought and wrote for two years about what we thought had to happen in the series finale. Who do you think did the best job now that we have the real thing? I offer the following three categories for your nominations. Please write your arguments in support of your candidate(s) or some explanation:

(1) Best Speculator: Who stretched your thinking into areas you never expected to explore? Who consistently drove you back to the books for another look at the text because you couldn’t believe you missed the detail this writer thought was a telling one? So what if their theories proved not just wrong but absurdly wrong or just barely wrong; where did you go when you wanted to read something you knew would be based on clear thinking, an excellent grasp of canon, and a certain wildness?

(2) Biggest Bulls Eye: Who hit the nail on the head with a Deathly Hallows prediction? Extra points for being all alone with the theory, for being there first with a canon-proof argument, and for being considered way-out-in-left-field for the guess.

(3) Weirdest Speculation and Oddest Review: What was the strangest idea you read pre-Deathly Hallows of how the series would end? (No shipping, please; it’s a family site…) What idea before and review after Deathly Hallows made you pinch yourself and ask if you were living on the same planet and reading the same books as the speculator/reviewer?

HyperLinks, of course, are much appreciated so the HogPro All-Pro Panel of Judges can see the context of your nominations and verify the evidence of your arguments.

My nominations for your comments and corrections are: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points

“Judging Harry Potter” by Fr. Alfonso Aguilar, LC

August 30, 2007 by 43 Comments

The National Catholic Register has published an article about Harry Potter by a priest in the Legionary of Christ who teaches philosophy at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. “Judging Harry Potter” by Fr. Alfonso Aguilar, LC, takes a position much like Michael O’Brien’s with respect to Ms. Rowling’s novels; he believes they are essentially godless, beyond a pale pantheism, and that they foster a gnostic perspective on the world. He applauds certain values that can be found in the books but finds their worldview disturbing enough to say they would be dangerous for those not having a strong spiritual formation.

I do not doubt that Fr. Alfonso is a thoughtful, pious man. His recommendations show a great desire, even a zeal, to recommend the prudential course and to avoid the possibility that any potential harm be overlooked. His training as a scholastic philosopher is evident in the organization and flavor of his arguments.

He gives cause to wonder about the depth or quality of his thinking, even of his ability to discern the values and meaning of arguments, however, when he writes (after noting that the President of the International Association of Exorcists does not like the books): [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points