“It would have been a cop out to kill him,” J.K. Rowling says:
In many ways it would have been a neater ending to kill him. For sure, I knew that all along. felt that the books’ overriding message was that love is the most powerful force in this world. My model with Harry really was [...]

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Continue reading → Harry, War Hero

Today is the birthday of our favorite author and her story’s hero.  Happy Birthday to J.K. Rowling and to Harry Potter! 
Exciting news: Amazon is selling copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, available for pre-order!  (If you decide to order a copy, please do so by clicking to it from this site; that way, [...]

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Continue reading → Happy Birthday, Harry Potter & J.K. Rowling!

The morning after encountering the three headed dog, Ron & Harry were quite excited about their adventure. Neville, on the other hand, just wanted to stay away from them and the danger they seemed to bring along with them, and Hermione just wants to forget it ever happened. She decides that these are [...]

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Continue reading → Halloween: NR

by Dave
Jamie and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls Thursday night. I won’t linger over a review of the film — if you’ve read the criticism on the web, I would agree with some of the more moderate takes on the film. Not as good as [...]

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Continue reading → Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and the Adventure Story

This chapter is the first where we really see how much Professor Snape hates Harry. Harry gets a good sense of it by Snape’s look at him during the first banquet of the year, but here he gets hit by full force in class. Snape speaks to him with disdain, and treats him [...]

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Continue reading → The Potions Master: In Depth

As this chapter opens we find Harry struggling to find his classes while everyone at the school is trying their best to get a gander at him. The poor little guy just trying to get to his classes on time and rather than being helpful everyone’s trying to take a peek at the famous [...]

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Continue reading → The Potions Master: NR

by Dave
Last Wednesday, I found out my paternal grandfather passed away at the age of 88 at 7:30 that morning. My memories of him are sparse and fuzzy — tied to some history before my parents split. I have an odd affliction with memory; nothing serious mind you, just a strange dividing line [...]

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Continue reading → Family and Some Other Things…

So many new characters, so many new faces. Where to start?
How about with the Weasley family? In this chapter we meet a mere 4 Weasley brothers, and little sister Ginny. Dad must have been at work at the time because he’s not there seeing the boys off to school. Judging by [...]

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Continue reading → The Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters: In Depth

Upon reading again the Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters, I am tense with excitement for Harry. After his adventure in Diagon Alley with Hagrid, he recieves his train ticket. He spends the next month at home with the Dursleys who have taken to ignoring him completely. While this is a [...]

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Continue reading → The Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters: NR

When looking in depth at Diagon Alley, the thing that hits me is the description of Gringotts. The things that Hagrid tells Harry in this chapter lay silently in the back of our minds, waiting to strike. Hagrid tells Harry you’d be mad to try and rob Gringotts. That the bank extends [...]

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Continue reading → Diagon Alley: In Depth

Yes the read along is back on. To my faithful reader, whomever you might be, I am sorry for the delay. My persistent absences are inexcusable. And now, on with the story.

Chapter 5 begins with poor Harry thinking that all of last night was a dream. At insitant tapping, [...]

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Continue reading → Diagon Alley: NR

Probably the bit of fore-shadowing that screams right out at me here in chapter 4 is about Voldemort himself. Hagrid is describing how Voldemort disappeared, but that he doesn’t think that he’s dead. About how he doesn’t think there was enough human left in him to die. How very right [...]

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Continue reading → The Keeper of the Keys: In Depth

by Dave
A standard literary trope is to set characters against each other, playing one’s personna in relationship to another. Typically, we find the “arch”-nemesis, especially in adventure or heroic stories. The main character is opposed by a primary antagonist, and the juxtaposition of these characters reveals something about one or both to the [...]

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Continue reading → The Snaped Crusader (#2): The Rise and Fall of Harry’s Nemesis

By Matthew
Results:
What upcoming movie are you most looking forward to?
 

The Half-Blood Prince (49%)
Prince Caspian (15%)
The Hobbit (12%)

The Dark Knight (10%)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (6%)
X-Files 2 (2%)
The Screwtape Letters (2%)
Avatar (Last Airbender- M. Night Shaymalan) (2%)
Avatar (James Cameron director) (1%)
Halo (Directed by Peter Jackson) (1%)
Iron Man (0%)

Total Votes: 164
 
No surprises [...]

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Continue reading → Poll Results and New Poll (Shades of Good)

by Dave
Harry is a hero. That Harry Potter draws from long established literary heroic traditions is well documented. Nearly every book length treatment or anthology concerning the series addresses this subject and examines the link between Harry’s more traditional literary roots in alchemical and mythic-heroic traditions and his postmodern deconstruction of the hero [...]

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Continue reading → Our Hero Harry, the Snaped Crusader (Issue #1)

by Dave]
The heart of the classical Hero type drives towards some sacrifice — either in a quest for glory sometimes doomed from the start, or on the behalf of something judged “the greater good”. Classical epic heroes struggle against their humanity, often goaded by the self realization of their partial divinity. They hope [...]

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Continue reading → Voldemort and the Perversion of the Hero

This essay is also available in audio form in PubCast #33.
From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the question of death has been explored in the pages of literature, not least in mythological works. There is hardly a more universal human experience than death, and its chilling finality has caused [...]

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Continue reading → The Meaning of the Phoenix, Prophecy 2007 Version