‘Talking with Tim,’ with the thoughtful Tim O’Shea at the helm, is a website that features interviews with authors and Subject Matter Experts on Pop Culture. The interview Mr. O’Shea did with me a few weeks ago went up this morning and, if you’ve ever wondered about what I think of homeschoolers, when my books are coming out, or how I became the “alchemy guy” about Harry Potter, it’s all in there. I enjoyed my time with Mr. O’Shea tremendously and am pleased with the resulting interview (a real rarity). Your thoughts are coveted, as always!
Thoughts for the Serious Reader of Harry Potter
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Keys to Understanding J. K. Rowling’s Novels and Screenplays
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A very nice interview, indeed. Thank you for sharing.
pj
Great interview, Professor. I am delighted that I shall continue to have the very great pleasure of enjoying your edifying works (in revision) as well as the new ones. You have genuinely aided my appreciation of literature in general while on the via Harry Potteria (-um?, my Latin’s gone all rusty). Shall we be able to pre-order any or all of these?
I am truly grateful to JKR for my introduction to you! But, as in the way of most introductions, you have been a truly remarkable and enjoyable acquaintance and mentor! I look forward eagerly to our continued association by written word and blogging.
No need for extra humility in Lent, btw, as this is all true. Live with it!
Great interview! I’ll be sure to pass the word about it.
Good interview. I’d like to bring up some specific points.
You said: “Postmodernism, even in its anti-clericalism and denial of ideology and authority (which, as it has morphed into politically correct authority and ideology, is ironic; I mean how seriously can you take writers whose metanarrative is that there is no valid metanarrative?)…” How absoutely (ha!) true. Yes, everyone, go be different…but the difference just ends up a different same. Now those without tattoos are losers.
You said: “I’d never been confronted, chronological snob that I was, with the idea that another age, a previous age, could have had a coherent and more profound world view than my own.” I tried to convey this idea on another thread, that we tend to think previous generations were less advanced in their thinking. Doh!
Hannah said: “Sometimes your first impression isn’t what it’s always about….” Ah, if only more mature Christians thought like this.
Hannah said: “I am proud of [you]. Going against the grain. even when it’s your own grain that you’re going against….” It seems that if we want to be really mature Christians, we’ll not only go against our own grain so many times our heads spin, we’ll be like grains of brown rice with the hulls completely rubbed off by the time we’re done. I think it’s called “being perfected.”
You said: “I have quite a bit of the ‘English Major’s Guide to Harry Potter (aka Harry Meets Hamlet and Scrooge)’ written and I would like to get that finished….” Hurrah! I was afraid you’d dropped this, doing Unlocking instead.
Little Flako dropped his foam ball and Hairy Plotter swept it out from under him, talented little bugger…
I really enjoyed reading your responses to Tim O’Shea’s questions. Your reference to John Holt and “self-directed learners” intrigued me enough that I did a little research on the man and the concept. I’m a homeschooling mom who has tried to recreate a typical school curriculum and routine in my home, and I must admit that I’m utterly worn out by it. I might have to give the “self-directed learning” approach a try. Amazing, the things you can learn on a Harry Potter site!
Sue Boulais, Sort of Serious
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the interview you had with Tim O’Shea. I most particularly appreciated your acknowledgement that there are those of us “who are “”spiritual, not religious”. The “pronounced Christian elements” that you speak of that are so much a part of Rowling’s work certainly don’t detract from it, but it is also nice to know—witness her astounding popularity all over the world—that they do not stand in the way of enjoyment by those from very different cultures and belief systems. Which means that all peoples—not only Christians—hunger, if you will, for the right, the good, and triumph over evil.