Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

You know, I really like David Yates. I think that his movies feel more like HBO television shows at times, but what's wrong with that? And this movie is the perfect set-up for Deathly Hallows: Part I and Deathly Hallows: Part II.

I thought that the latest film installment of the Potter saga was beautifully executed. As John Noe said in a recent Pottercast podcast, "it felt like they took cameras into the wizarding world." He was absolutely correct. I loved the opening shot, loved it, loved it, loved it. Have I expressed that sentiment enough? Well, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my favorite book, so something hearkening back to the end of that film was bound to be awesome anyway. And it was so unexpected!

I loved Prof. Slughorn's story about Lily and charms.... and well, I don't want to give it away, but it was just a beautiful moment. And Harry drugged up on Felix Felicis! That was some perfect comedic acting on Daniel Radcliffe's part.

I know I heard some criticisms about there being no big battle at the end like in the book, but I like the way the Death Eaters and Snape and Draco very subtly left the castle, and Tom Felton did some major awesome acting in this movie. When the students and professors held up their wands with the tips lit up to get rid of the dark mark, I wanted so much to turn on my cell phone and hold it up in the air with them! (I wonder if some people in other theaters actually did something like this?) And most of all, I love the image of Fawkes flying off in the distance. What a great way to end movie six. I'm okay with no funeral, because there was no Rufus Scrimgeour in this movie. If there was, I would have wanted the funeral. But no Scrimgeour, no funeral = that makes sense.

All in all, this movie was a beautiful one, and not just for the Potter franchise, but for movies in general. I hope it is up for some awards now that the academy has 10 nominees for Best Picture. It could at least get acknowledged... set the stage for a win for Deathly Hallows: Part II perhaps? Well, that's wishful thinking. And one more thing: my theater at midnight was completely respectful and there were virtually no little kids in attendance. That was awesome. We go to watch the film uninterrupted and we got sucked into the world of magic on a beautiful night.

A Successful Presentation!

So, my lecture on "The Christian Elements of Harry Potter" was a success. I'm surprised that no one had to leave after it passed an hour (it went about an hour and twenty minutes), but that's the magic of the Potter series and the audience was extremely polite. There were about 20-25 people who attended. I do hope that they get some of the books I referenced which are critical to a literary analysis of the Potter series. But more importantly, I hope everyone had a good time. I think they did - I've heard some positive reviews.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens in theaters, and my family and I will be at the midnight release at our local theater on July 15th (if you recall that midnight belongs to the AM - that's so annoying). Even the theater says Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, to clear up any confusion (lol). Yesterday I was looking at www.fandango.com to look at tickets and saw that my local theater had two screens showing it at midnight, and one was sold out already. But then I thought "hey, that's okay, the other theater with 22 screens has seven showings and they haven't sold out yet." Not the case this morning. When my father and I logged on to purchase advance tickets for the other showing (we got them, thank goodness), can you believe that all seven showings were already sold out. That's the juggernaut that is the Potter films.

I can't believe I haven't blogged yet about "A Very Potter Musical." I've been singing along to the songs and enjoying this for the last few weeks (when it was initially posted and when it was re-posted), and it's just so good... I hope that everybody checks this awesome thing out on www.youtube.com. It's becoming its own phenomenon, a soundtrack should be released and another reviewer suggested the cast and crew go on tour with the show - I agree, I think they should as well.

If I don't post again until after the new movie comes out, I hope everyone who goes has a fun (and safe) time at the midnight releases or whenever you go to see the film. Thanks again to all who attended my presentation this morning.

Harry Potter Lecture: July 12th at 11:00 AM

I am quite delighted to have the honor of delivering a presentation on Harry Potter on July 12, 2009 at my church, three days before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released in theaters. The topic of the lecture (as it will be in a church) is "The Christian Elements of Harry Potter." I expect a decent-sized crowd will be there, as my town was the 9th Harry-est town in America (according to amazon.com), and I'm sure many of the churchgoers have read all of the books. (I have forewarned through the bulletins, etc. that there will be spoilers for those who haven't read the whole series).

I have prepared my notes that draw from my own thoughts and also what I've studied from various HP analysis books on the subject. Hopefully this will get some of the people who attend to read these wonderful works, and maybe even get the local library to stop stocking the companion guidebooks/encyclopedias of the series and turn to books that focus on academic analysis. One can only hope!

I've prepared this presentation for about a month, as it is not the easiest thing to explain the Christianity of a 4000+ page book series in an hour, but it is possible. I have the utmost respect for people like John Granger who manage to speak about alchemy, Christianity, the five keys to Potter and eyeballs in about an hour and a half (as I heard his last talk up in Forks at the Twilight conference? was).

I'm working some more on his some new essays and the continuation of my essay on the music of the Potter films (which I'm holding off on until I hear the score to Half-Blood Prince), so I hope to post on that soon. At any rate, I hope all is well!

New Book by John Granger!

Oh, I'm so excited! I just ordered John Granger's new book, Harry Potter's Bookshelf from BarnesandNoble.com, which has free expedited shipping this weekend! Hopefully that means it'll arrive on its official publication date, Tuesday the 7th, and I'll have it read before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released in theaters. Anyway, here's the specs. on that book:

ISBN: 0425229793

Publisher: Berkeley Trade

Page Count: 336! How freaking awesome is that?

Anyway, if you've read John Granger's books before, you know they're some of the the best Harry Potter critical analysis out there, and this is another priceless one to add to the collection.

The Music of the Potter Films: Introduction and Part 1: Williams' Wizarding World

THE CINEMATIC HARRY POTTER

A SYMPHONY IN SEVEN PARTS:
THE MUSIC OF THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

INTRODUCTION

Harry Potter has presented a unique dilemma for the film world which has seemingly flown under the radar and gone unnoticed for many years. One of the most important aspects of a movie experience is the original score that plays in the background as the audience watches the film. At points, the score may go unnoticed, but at key climactic elements of a story, the lack of a good score can make or break a film. The film’s score may also catapault what may be viewed as a decent film to the status of a superior one. Who would enjoy Disney’s Sleeping Beauty without its central element of Tchaikovsky’s themes remastered for a mass audience? What would Gone With the Wind be like without “Tara’s Theme” (otherwise known as the song, “My Own True Love”)? These things, though perhaps possible, would be unimaginable.

But what is the dilemma of scoring the Potter films? There are two main elements to this question. The first and most obvious element is the fact that the Potter films have become the largest film franchise (the biggest movie series) in the history of cinema. Each of the Potter films have made over $750 million in international box office receipts, and this is putting it lightly. The lowest grossing Potter film (globally) was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which made $795.5 million. The other four films have made over $870 million each, putting the grand total of the Potter film series to date at the box office over $4.48 billion worldwide. This does not even include the home video/DVD releases or merchandising.[1] As Susan Gunelius notes in her book, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon, this is “the top-grossing motion picture franchise in history, beating the totals of all 22 James Bond movies and all six Star Wars movies.”[2] One more fact to keep in mind: the franchise is not yet completed. There are still three films waiting in the wings to make their debut and join the other five. The pressure of anyone to be responsible for such a critical element of a series, the film score, is no longer at any rational boiling point – rather, it’s stewing somewhere inside of a volcano.

The second element of the scoring dilemma is the fact that it has already been established that all seven (in actuality, eight) film scores will not be completed by a single composer. The film series’ scores are, whether on purpose or not, a collaborative effort. The music all needs to work together, for as easily as scripts and direction need to be consistent, so does the music. The music needs to make sense the entire way through the series. If this can be achieved, it will be a hallmark for film composers that is unlike any other moment in the history of cinematic music. With the filming of the last Potter movie in motion, one is fully convinced that this hallmark has already been achieved. The musical albedo is complete, and the finale will be extraordinary.


THE FIRST THREE FILMS, or WILLIAMS' WIZARDING WORLD

There is perhaps no more recognizable composer for blockbuster films in the present day than John Williams. The Internet Movie Database credits Williams with work on over one hundred and thirty films and television shows since 1952[3]; the most notorious of the list (in one’s opinion) being:

Jaws (1975) – Academy Award for Best Original Score
The Star Wars Saga (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005) – multiple Academy Award and Grammy nominations[4]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) – Academy Award nomination
Superman (1978) – Academy Award nomination / Grammy nominations
The Indiana Jones trilogy (1981, 1984, 1989) – all three Jones movies received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score[5]
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – Academy Award for Best Original Score
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler’s List (1993) – Academy Award for Best Original Score
Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Academy Award nomination

As mentioned previously, these are only a handful of the film score work for which John Williams is celebrated. One can add to this list the Olympic Fanfare and Theme, which can be heard almost every time Olympic-related information and coverage is done by NBC (as the “Fanfare” was replaced in 1996, having been played every two years since its inception in 1984 as the opening music)[6] and the musical score for the 1960s television show, Lost in Space. Most recently, Williams led professional musicians Anthony McGill, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Itzhak Perlman in his “Air and Simple Gifts” classical quartet piece at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009.

However, we must backtrack eight years from that event to November 2001, to the release of the first Potter film: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The haunting melody of the “Prologue” track of that first film soundtrack would become the “leitmotif” of the entire Potter series, later known as “Hedwig’s Theme.” “Leitmotif” means recurring, or leading theme that embodies the spirit of a character, location or notion (an idea). Of the classical composers, Richard Wagner is the most associated with using leitmotifs, and Williams is certainly a musical disciple of Wagner’s for this very reason (though this may not be exclusively so).

Famous leitmotifs in Williams’ work as listed above include the treacherous minor second interval (m2) work by the bass parts in Jaws, the Star Wars opening theme (which can be heard during the opening crawl of information before each film), the bellicose “Imperial March” theme from the Star Wars films, the exuberant brass work in Indiana Jones and the tragic violin solo which opens and closes Schindler’s List. “Hedwig’s Theme,” the leitmotif of the Potter series, however, is not performed by a usual instrument nor bass alone. It was written for the first Potter film for the celeste (or celesta), an instrument which sounds like a music-box with many octaves, and which has only been around for a little over a hundred years. Celestes were used most famously by late-Romantic and early twentieth-century classical composers, including Tchaikovsky, Holst and Bartok. Ironically, Gustav Holst employed the celeste in the final movement of his work, “The Planets” (1918) which was titled “Neptune, the Mystic.” This is ironic because the first movement of “The Planets” is “Mars, the Bringer of War” and in almost every serious discussion of Williams’ Star Wars music that one has had with music students and professional musicians alike, lines of comparison are drawn between Holst’s “Mars” and Williams’ “Imperial March.” If one does not believe this, stop reading this section right now and find a way to listen to both pieces. Anyway, it’s interesting that Holst’s first movement of “The Planets” relates so much to Williams’ Star Wars, and the last movement of “The Planets” relates so much to Williams’ Harry Potter leitmotif. Remember, the last movement of “The Planets” is called “Neptune, the Mystic.” How close in definition are Holst’s “mystics” to Rowling’s, and hence, Williams’ “wizards”?

John Williams would compose two others film scores for the Harry Potter film series to date. They are the scores for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Williams was used to composing scores for multiple films in a series: he had composed the Star Wars music, the music for Indiana Jones and the music for two of the Jurassic Park films. Writing music for a series would not be new to him. However, scoring Harry Potter would be a unique piece of work, just as it was a unique literary phenomenon and continues to be a unique film phenomenon. After all, the films have now overtaken the Star Wars saga in box office receipts.

Writing a film score is no easy task. It seems that it would be much like writing an orchestral symphony that can last anywhere from one to two or maybe even three hours long. Especially in Williams’ case, musical form had to be followed. The form of music has a large bearing on how music works to one’s ear and connects to one’s mind, though many who have not studied music may not realize what is going on at the time they hear it happen. A form can be as easy as “A” “B” and “C”. Literally. A musical piece takes theme “A” and then plays something related yet different in idea and calls it theme “B”. Then it reiterates theme “A” (which masquerades around as theme “C”) making some slight changes. One could almost say “the beginning is at the end” or “I open at the close” (to use famous Potter quotes inscribed on a certain golden snitch). It’s like the “Golden Rule” of music. If all else fails, take a theme, play a variation, and then reiterate the theme at the end.

This whole idea can be expanded upon in a trilogy of movies. Each movie becomes a movement of a musical piece. Irvin Kershner, the director of the second original Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, spoke in the documentary Empire of Dreams (2004) on the fact that he saw the second part of the film trilogy as akin to “the second part of a symphony.” In that documentary on the making of the Star Wars saga, Kershner stated, “I thought of the film as a second movement of a symphony. That’s why I wanted some of the things slower. And it- it ends in a way that you can’t wait to see, to hear, the next movement, the vivace, the allegretto. I didn’t have a climax at the end. I had an emotional climax.”[7] The music written by Williams in Star Wars Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back was written in a similar direction to match the wishes of its director. The “vivace” movement of the Star Wars symphony would occur in 1983 as the entire score of The Return of the Jedi.

But what was John Williams to do with the case of Harry Potter? It was pretty evident after the success of the first film that sequels would be produced by Warner Bros. Would Warner Bros. produce the entire Harry Potter series? Hypothetically, if Irvin Kershner were to comment on the Potter series like he did on Star Wars, where would the second movement of the symphony begin? Would Williams commit to writing possibly seven film scores for one series? There is no doubt in one’s mind that he would do it and he had the ability to do it. However, John Williams did not compose the music for the fourth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, or the fifth or sixth films, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, respectively. John Williams, did, however, one will argue here, set the stage for a collaborative effort on the part of all the Potter film composers to complete the Potter symphony correctly. Williams opened the second movement of the Potter symphony with the score to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and he left it in the second movement one-third of the way through.

Listen very carefully to the finale music in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The celebratory theme that plays where the film ends, with Hagrid’s standing ovation in the Great Hall, has the ability to move one to tears. It is triumphant and reminiscent of Williams’ other celebratory themes. Then listen very carefully to the final notes of the music in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The music is extremely different from what it was in the second film. And by “listen to the final notes” here I mean listen to the music being played as Sirius Black escapes the castle on Buckbeak the Hippogriff after having his final conversation with his godson, Harry, in that movie. The music that follows this scene is tag music: music that reiterates themes from the entire movie and drives the film to the end credits. Don’t be distracted by the tag: listen again to the score as Sirius flies away. This is somber, sad music. It foreshadows events in the future, and is ironically the reiteration of a theme on the official soundtrack known as “A Window to the Past.” In fact, the two most popular themes from that entire soundtrack are “A Window to the Past” and “Double Trouble.” (The reiteration of “Double Trouble” is the tag music that follows Sirius’ successful escape and which plays at the beginning of the credits.)

What did John Williams accomplish by leaving the main storyline of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on a somber note? Williams had effectively written the first part of the Potter symphony. However, that first part was finished with the ending of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He then began, and set the stage of, the second movement of the Potter symphony with his orchestral score for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. But then John Williams left the Potter scene, and the second movement a third-completed. How would the second movement of the Potter symphony be completed? This task was up to two men, Patrick Doyle and Nicholas Hooper, to complete before the vivace could be started. The scoring of the Potter films, be it either intended or not, had become a collaborative project.

[1] as cited in Susan Gunelius’ book, table on p. 67.
[2] Gunelius, p. 68.
[3] www.imdb.com. Wikipedia credits Williams with 109 film scores / songs for film.
[4] Williams won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1977 for Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope, as well as a Golden Globe and BAFTA award. He was nominated again for the same category in 1980 by the Academy for The Empire Strikes Back and in 1983 for The Return of the Jedi. The Star Wars prequel films, The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith (Ep. I and III, respectively) both garnered Grammy nominations, the latter of which receiving two Grammy nods.
[5] Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) received multiple Grammy nominations, winning for the category of Best Instrumental Composition.
[6] Lesser known is the fact that Williams also composed the music for the NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press and The Early Show, as well as NBC Sunday Night Football
[7] Irvin Kirschner in Empire of Dreams (2004), at 1 hr., 54 min and 10 sec. to to 1 hr., 54 min. and 34 sec. (Chapter 7 in the Featurette on the DVD).

Sorry! An update post :)

Hey guys, I know I haven't updated in quite a while - I've just been busy job searching, etc., while doing my part-time work. (Isn't half the world doing that with the economy as such?) Anyway, with hard times come good friends (at least you know the friends you can count on), and the Harry Potter community is sticking together.

We're about two weeks away from the release of the sixth film, and I'll be giving a lecture titled "The Christian Elements of Harry Potter" at my church three days before the release of the film. Hopefully it'll persuade some more people to get on board with some of the work that some of our favorite scholars (Granger, etc.) have been doing for years.

I should be posting a new essay soon; or at least the first part, on the music of the Harry Potter films in time for the new movie. I hope you all enjoy it! :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey, everybody! I thought I'd share the interior message of the card I've desgined for Mother's Day based on Harry Potter. It reads as a poem (squee!). :)

Mothers in the Potter series stand for quite a lot,

There's Lily Potter, Molly Weasley and tragic Merope Gaunt.

Lily was the best of all, she gave her life away,

So that her son would master death and live to save the day.

Molly we know most about, the Weasley matriach,

We got a taste in second year when we heard her bark.

And her bite was powerful when in battle she,

Defeated cursed Bellatrix and set her family free.

Poor Merope Gaunt was abused - she had a cursed affair,

So she gave her son away and died in deep despair.

And yet we cannot fault her fully for the deed she'd done,

She suffered long and lost her will - she is a pitied one.

Women in this series are generally shown as good,

And from the evil ones we never see a glimpse of motherhood.

So it's said by some I know, that Rowling had her way,

The Potter series at its best is a gift for Mother's Day.

I hope you enjoy!

BOOK REVIEW #1: Harry Potter and the Order of the Court: The J. K. Rowling Copyright Case and the Question of Fair Use by Robert S. Want

Since I have been reading Steve Vander Ark's "The Lexicon" book and was intrigued by the discussion on the court case from a few archived PotterCast episodes, I thought it would be wise to understand (as completely as possibly) the nature of the case.

This book is a useful tool, in that it briefly summarizes both the plaintiff's (in this case J. K. Rowling with Warner Bros. involvement as her licensees) and the defendant's (RDR Books with Steve Vander Ark) positions as well as some background on the Judge hearing the case (Judge Patterson) and his decision, etc. The book then moved into how the fair use doctrine works and how it has applied to cases in the past. These passeges are also available online at Stanford's Fair Use Project website, as they were written by an author other than Want himself, who had the permission to reproduce them for his book.

Page forty-one on through to the last page contains important court documents (which are public material) including Patterson's decision. This makes up the majority of the book, but to Potter fans they are key as they contain the whole of Rowling's testimony. She is eloquent as ever.

Anyway, an interesting book and another one to be used while studying the history of the Harry Potter phenomenon as well as how Harry Potter has changed an aspect of society, in this case a legal proceeding.

The book is available, to my knowledge, through both Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, and I'm sure it's available elsewhere online. I wonder how many bookstore stocked this book.

A Successful Harry Potter Easter

So, the Harry Potter Easter bags were a success! I will include pictures in the next post, but the items in the bags included: a Harry Potter Easter card, a phoenix (with a tag explaining the relation of phoenixes to Christianity), the lily and cross w/rose candies (with another tag explaining the relation of these Christian symbols to Harry Potter) and a painted heart magnet that reads "The Weapon We Have is Love" and a citation of "Harry and the Potters", which on the back reads, "Check out: www.thehpalliance.org"

Some also got a card (that was too big to be a card) with some of the words from Dumbledore's scene in HBP which seems to relate to Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, which was rolled up as a scroll in their bags.

Anyway, again, I'll post pictures later, and to all: Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! squee :)

"A Bit of Light Reading"

Hello everybody! How are you all doing today? I've been looking through online book retailers, especially Amazon.com to find more Harry Potter analysis books and I've had a bit of success. For Easter, I think I'll be ordering Muggles, Monsters and Magicians: A Literary Analysis of the Harry Potter Series by Claudia Fenske (this being the priciest book: it's over $50 (but I bet she hasn't sold too many) and get this, it's nearly 500 pages long and published post-Deathly Hallows. That's my kind of cup of tea.

Another book I'm planning on reading is this one: Harry Potter and the Order of the Court: The J. K. Rowling Copyright Case and the Question of Fair Use by Robert S. Want. Now that's around $20 (I generally spend $15-30 for these books; lately as I've read more and more I've been going for the more unusual books or the ones with much less hype so I can gain the knowledge and insights therein, review the books online for the author and generally hope to give them more exposure). Anyway, I've been hearing more and more about the April 2008 court case and it would be nice to see an analysis of those court documents.

There seems to be a series of books written by Graeme Davis called Re-read Harry Potter and the... Today! An Unauthorized Guide. I'm curious as to the quality of the writing here, and the page numbers are short, but since it's under $20 a volume, I am tempted.

I eagerly await a number of books coming out in the coming months. That list includes the following:

Reading Harry Potter Again: New Critical Essays by Giselle Liza Anatol: Hardcover (that makes it pricey), ? pp., publish date 30 May 2009

Mugglenet.com's Unofficial, Unauthorized and Unequaled Harry Potter Debates by Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen, Paperback, $14.95, 180 pp., publish date 1 June 2009

Re-Reading Harry Potter by Suman Gupta: Hardcover (again, pricey-ness), 240 pp., publish date 7 July 2009

Harry Potter's Bookshelf by John Granger: Paperback, $15, 336 pp., publish date 7 July 2009

The Politics of Harry Potter by Bethany Barratt: Paperback, $24.95, 288 pp., 24 November 2009 (though I saw a May 2009 release date for this on another website - the Nov. date is from Amazon.com)

The two books coming out on July 7 are released on the same day that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows debuts as a paperback novel, so market-wise, that makes a lot of sense. So, it seems to be one book each month. Except April, which is why I'll probably get the books I mentioned above over the Easter Holiday. I'm sure there's books coming out August-December 2009, but I just don't know the information yet about them as Amazon.com probably doesn't have all of their pages up yet. I hope to see something about Hog's Head Conversations edited by Travis Prinzi and Does Hary Potter Tickle Waking Dragons? (Book 2 in the Harry Potter Tickle... Trilogy) by Nancy S. Villaluz, but Prinzi hasn't said anything yet on his website, and the Ramance Press website for Villaluz's book is not yet operational.

Oh well, there's some happy reading. And there's a few others not on that list that were published pre- and post-Deathly Hallows that I have not resolved to look into yet.

Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon

I just received in the mail yesterday a new Potter analysis book, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon by Susan Gunelius. I've read about a third of the book at the moment, and I can say that this is a well-edited book and an interesting read from the business-perspective of the marketing strategy of the Potter series. The author can be seen on youtube.com (by searching under her name), speaking about her book; she seems slightly nervous, however, by the end of the video. Gunelius will be speaking off-site as part of the Azkatraz Conference in July of this year.

The book is 194 pages long, but the text itself only runs for 163 pages. The remaining pages are bibliographic entries (always useful in Potter books to find more sources to read) and index. To be honest, though it's worth my reading this book as I have a collection of Potter analysis books and like to keep current with what's out there, I'm not sure if this a book worth the $35 price tag for people who like general books on Potter. I can see this book being used as a text in a marketing course with an emphasis on the Potter phenomenon - it would be great for that, and it's published by palgrave macmillan, which is a publishing company that does a lot of textbooks. In fact, this book probably is intended for or will be used for that purpose. In that light, it's price tag makes sense (if you know about college textbook costs, you know what I mean). At the least, it is a hardcover book.

I would love to see Gunelius condense the information she presents here as an essay in a collection of Potter analysis essays. She repeats herself a lot while she talks about different marketing strategies and tactics. Again, this is good for a college course in marketing, but not too great for a general book on Harry Potter.

The other thing about this book is that I wish that she had had the time to read Melissa Anelli's book, Harry, A History prior to publishing this one. She gets the information right, but Melissa's interviews with Rowling, Bloomsbury exec.'s and Scholastic exec.'s tell the same story in a much better way. It would have been great if she'd had that book to reference, but Gunelius' book was publsihed prior to Anelli's.

I agree with her opening: it's nice to write a book on the things you love and bring them all together as one. Gunelius likes business, marketing and Harry Potter. I like history and Central and Eastern European studies, music and Harry Potter. But it's not like I'm planning on writing a book...

Anyway, good read if you're a dork for all things Potter analysis like myself, to Potter fans this would have been better as a condensed essay - I think she could pack a marketing punch in a 30 page chapter on Potter marketing in a general Potter phenomenon book, and an excellent book for a college-level business course with an emphasis on Potter.

I'll update my blog for a complete review of this book when I'm finished reading the remaining hundred pages or so. Until then, keep safe and keep faith!

A Harry Potter Easter, Part I

Hey, I'm still working on the essays on Harry Potter and its Slavic elements, but in the meantime, I thought I'd update everyone on some of the work I've been doing at home.

I've decided to remind (or introduce) people of (to) the Christian elements in the Potter series by making all of my Easter baskets on a Harry Potter theme. Instead of Peeps or other baby chicks as the bird element, I'm making styrofoam phoenixes, using molds to create candies (lilies and crosses), and creating Harry Potter Easter cards.

I have one phoenix done and a card ready, and a picture below to delight you with:

And here's a close-up of the phoenix. I think I'm going to use it as my avatar on MyLeaky (lol)

I hope to update my blog with pictures of the finished Easter baskets, but if I forget to (which I probably won't), or I don't get to update it sooner, Happy Easter everyone! (And if you don't practice Christianity), happy springtime and April-ness. squee!

Analysis Post #3: Eastern European Elements in Harry Potter: Part I: Introduction

This is the first of a series of posts (which may not appear sequentially) on those elements in the Potter books which, in one's opinion, seem to be directly inspired by the culture and history of Eastern Europe. Before beginning, however, a general definition of Eastern Europe should be given. When one refers to Eastern Europe on this post and on subsequent postings, one is referring to all those inhabited lands which stretch from Germany's eastern border to the Russian Federation, but which ends at the Ural Mountains. All inhabited lands to the east of the Urals, is, to this author, considered to be of Asiatic heritage, although some of it is the sovereign territory of Russia. Eastern Europe is bordered on the north by the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and in the south by Turkey and Greece. (One does not consider Turkey and Greece part of Eastern Europe). Furthermore, all lands that had once belonged to the former Yugoslavia, though also being a part of Eastern Europe, will frequently be referred to as Southeastern Europe.

Both of the prior analysis posts on this blog have mentioned some of the Eastern European elements which need not be repeated here. The first analysis essay on Ravenclaw's Diadem focused on Helena Ravenclaw's flight to Albania (Southeastern Europe) and the second analysis essay disucssed the possibilities of Fyodor Dostoevsky's influence on J. K. Rowling through two of her characters: Dolores Umbridge and Hepzibah Smith.

The Eastern European elements of the Potter series that one would like to tackle in subsequent essays include but are not limited to:

1. Viktor Krum and the Bulgarians (with a side note on "Veela")
2. Igor Karkaroff
3. Slytherins and Scythians
4. Gregorovitch and the Elder Wand
5. Ruling through Fear: Voldemort as Stalinist
6. Grindelwald in Nurmengard: German History in Harry Potter
7. Ideas about Durmstrang and the School's Ship (Germans, Vikings (Varingians), etc.)

The last two ideas on the list are related to Germany, which may be on a technical level considered Central Europe, but Central and Eastern Europe are so culturally and historically interrelated that these essays should be presented in the context of the others.

Pennsylvania Loves Harry Potter

This is perhaps old news, but I love the fact that the town in which I live is in the top ten of Amazon.com's "Harry-est" towns in America. Amazon apparently used the data from the U.S. census (town population) versus the number of pre-orders of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows per capita (per person). The 2007 population estimate at the website of the U.S. Census Bureau for Doylestown, PA is 8,149. In 2000, the U.S. census revealed the population in Doylestown to be only slightly higher (~8,200), of which nearly 14% were those under 18 years of age.

Now, the "Harry-est" town in America was Falls Church, VA, which in 2000 had a population of 10,377 people (according the U.S. census), and which steadily rose through the year 2007 (the U.S. Census Bureau reports this info as a 10,948 population estimate). The second "Harry-est" town was Gig Harbor, WA, and this is impressive - they only had as their population estimate in 2007 by the Census Bureau, 6, 621. So Falls Church was the "Harry-est", but had over 3,000 more people living there than the second "Harry-est" town, and over 2,000 more people than my hometown, which was the 9th "Harry-est" town. Are you confused yet? The point is this. There were less people in Gig Harbor and in Doylestown, which means that there were probably more Potter books in Gig Harbor per square mile than in Falls Church, VA, and you can be sure that there were many Potter books in households per square mile in Doylestown, PA. Of course, this doesn't account for all the books sold by the local bookstores and the chain bookstores (Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.). I had reserved my book at the local Doylestown Bookshop, and picked it up at midnight on July 21st. I luckily got about fifth place in line - the line itself went around the block outside and I heard that the cashiers were in place until after 2 AM.

At any rate, why do I find this so fascinating? People sometimes smile awkwardly when I talk about Harry Potter analysis in Doylestown, acting as if this is a foreign subject, but let's get some things straight. We were the 9th "Harry-est" town in America for that last book, and while some of the people here might be closet Harry readers, the books certainly aren't gathering any dust.

As a side note, the "Top 100 Harry-est Towns" list includes some other towns in Pennsylvania. I will bold the towns that I've visited in the past.

6. Media (this is west of Doylestown; dang, they beat us on the list)
14. West Chester (I went to college here)
20. Downingtown (15 mins. from West Chester)
24. Mechanicsburg
35. Collegeville (between Doylestown and West Chester)
51. Kennett Square (15 mins. from West Chester)
82. Ambler (on the way to Philly from Doylestown, about 40 mins. away)
89. Lewisburg
97. Stroudsburg (WCU marching band was better than East Stroudsburg's, sorry East Stroudsburg, the truth hurts)

The majority of these locations are Philadelphia suburbs, and Mechanicsburg and Lewisburg are closer to the center of the state, but not quite the center. Mechanicsburg is in the south of Pennsylvania and Lewisburg is further north. So, Pennsylvania did have nine towns out of a hundred as the "Harry-est" in the nation according to Amazon.com. Whew! Alas, Pennsylvania was the 23rd "Harry-est" state in the nation according to Amazon.com's ranking of the states. But I guess we Pennsylvanians can content ourselves with the fact that one of the two epithets in Deathly Hallows that Rowling selected was by William Penn, after whom Pennsylvania is named. So, take that, capital of the nation, Washington, D.C. (who is the "Harry-est" state - which is not a state). Or take that, Vermont, who is actually a state and is the "Harr-est" after D.C. HAH!

Oh, and don't forget that Amazon.com's list doesn't include the free-loaders at the library. lol.

A Meet-Up with John Granger!

This past Saturday, February 21st, I had the opportunity to meet (for the second time) John Granger and discuss the Harry Potter books. The HP discussion was hosted by Potterdelphia, a group of which I am now a member. They had a general Potterdelphia meeting the following day, but I fell ill overnight and so could not attend. There were only five people in attendance, but this didn't depress John; he gave a wonderful lecture called "The Eyes of Deathly Hallows" in which he explained that the last Harry Potter installment was all about eyeballs. (Really all about the logos, and to understand that you should really read his book, The Deathly Hallows Lectures in which this particular lecture is a chapter).

We also got to hear his interesting story of how his first Potter-analysis book was published, and some other experiences in the Potter-world he'd had over the years. When I asked him if he'd read logospilgrim's bring forth the best robes (lower-case letters are intended here), he stated that he knew logospilgrim, herself. This was a delight to me, as I loved that small work. And I also asked him what he thought about Nancy S. Villacruz's new book, Does Harry Potter Tickle Sleeping Dragons? I told John that I thought her book was intriguing, but entirely too arrogant in either disregarding or merely waving away other Potter analysis books. Villacruz then says that her book is unique (you can find this phrase firstly on the dust jacked back flap). But she hasn't quite proved this, because she hasn't compared herself to any of the other books (ex. Granger's, Prinzi's, Thomas', Neal's, Heilman's, etc.). Please don't take this as a message not to read her book. No, no. Not at all. To me, all Potter-analysis is intriguing. Just as a person holding a BA in History, I know that in any analysis, while we are supposed to rely on primary sources (in this case, Harry Potter canon and all the other canon pieces that Villacruz mentions in a nice three-way definition - props to her here), we are supposed to acknowledge secondary sources. And if we don't agree with them, we are supposed to take them on and contest their points. Anyway, I think John Granger found my analysis of her book interesting.

I can't wait for John Granger's new book, Harry Potter's Bookshelf, to become available this summer, and apparently he speaks in Princeton, NJ next month. I wish I could be there! It was, as a whole, a delightful early afternoon in Philadelphia.

As a side note, I had a long discussion with Skott of Potterdelphia after John had left. We spoke on a whole bunch of Potter topics including Nurmengard (of which I hope to post an essay shortly) and the splitting of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (questioning where the split would occur).

Claymation Deathly Hallows!

Everybody who is a fan of Harry Potter needs to head over to YouTube, big time. A fan of the series, and apparently a film student to boot, has posted in 26 parts a four hour and twenty minute film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is in claymation, and while it is an amateur work, the whole thing is unique and inspiring. There are even special effects.

The artist has an amazing talent, and I really hope PotterCast interviews this person.

Here's a link to the first part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvUCJU1a7dI

Enjoy!

Analysis Post #2: The Two Wicked Hufflepuffs... and Some Who Aren't So Wicked

The inspiration for this posting came from two sources: a "Canon Conundrum" in PotterCast 142: "British Dogs and Fuzzy Hats" and John Granger's essay "High Inquisitor = Grand Inquisitor," posted at his website on April 8, 2008, and still available online at http://hogwartsprofessor.com/?p=363#more-363. Oh, and various fans of Hufflepuff out there, before you "badger" me for writing the following, please make it through all of the essay. I have no specific biases against Hufflepuff House. In fact, I think they're responsible for the Pittsburgh Steelers winning the 2009 SuperBowl. But that's just mere conjecture.

On to the subject at hand. Let me make a blatant statement, which will send yellow and black badgers forever flying my way: Dolores Umbridge and Hepzibah Smith were Hufflepuffs. Yes, I did say Umbridge's name. Ouch. ::flying badger smacks me in the face::

Let's start with Hepzibah, because I believe that her placement in Hufflepuff House seems the most likely. She's a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff; this much we know. She has Hufflepuff's Cup and is murdered for it (as well as for Slytherin's locket that she bought from Caractacus Burke). Her last name is Smith, which alludes to Zacharias Smith, and I think Rowling is leading us to believe that the two characters are relatives.

Dolores Umbridge is harder to see as a Hufflepuff; even the majority of PotterCast thought that she was a Slytherin. But I believe that she is a Hufflepuff with Slytherin characteristics; that Slytherin is her sub-house. This idea I read about in Geo Athena Trevarthen's book, The Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter. In the third chapter, "Four Houses, Four Elements," Trevarthen explains that there is a balance to the houses, that there can be an "admixture" of the different houses (p. 81). As she explains in her book for example, the four Gryffindor characters, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville each exhibit, besides their dominant Gryffindor characteristics, the characteristics of another house, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, respectively.

Now what are the qualities of a Hufflepuff as described by Professor Trevarthen? That they are loyal and hard-working. In her chart under "Magical Precepts," she writes that they "keep silent" and while describing the badger totem, she writes "the term 'badgering' comes from the badger's savage and persistently determined quality" (p. 77).

All of these qualities, however, can be turned to evil purposes, and are done so by both Hepzibah and Dolores. Furthermore, their characters seem to parody two other characters in two other famous works of literature by a single author.

John Granger writes in his essay, "High Inquisitor = Grand Inquisitor?" of the connection between the Harry Potter series and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, regarded by some as one of the best, if not the best piece of literature in the history of the world. The tale of "The Grand Inquisitor," a part of the story, is even sold separately, just because of its extreme resonance. But as Granger points out, "Inquisitor" is a pretty unique word, barring its historical references to the Spanish Inquisition. Granger sums up the link between the Grand Inquisitor and Dolores Umbridge, Hogwarts High Inquisitor as such, that

"Both... are convinced that they are performing heroic service for their
organizations, and, through this organization, for the people who are best off
not knowing what is done in their name or enjoying real freedom. Dolores and the
Grand Inquisitor do not hesitate to act boldly and independently for what they
believe is best for the Ministry/Church; one arrests and plans to execute Christ
(again), the other looses Dementors on Harry, tortures him and other students
“for their own good,” and is even willing to use Unforgivable Curses if the
situation justifies those means."

Granger then later goes on to say that "for his several, superficial differences with the High Inquisitor, the Grand Inquisitor is her [Rowling's] original. Both insist on the silence of the unwelcome Savior in the name of protecting the innocent from a truth which they “cannot handle” and, in that process, to safeguard the authority of the regime." Granger also goes on to contrast the differences in the situation between Dostoevsky's novel and Rowling's series, so you really should get on over to hogwartsprofessor.com and read the whole essay (it's so marvelous), but this is enough for now.

Hepzibah, however, I believe can be compared to a character from one of Dostoevsky's other great pieces of literature, Crime and Punishment, in which the old-woman money-lender (virutally a pawnbrokeress) is murdered by the main character, Raskolnikov (who is himself used in comparison to elements of the Potter series in other articles) as he believes that committing this single act of murder is for "the greater good." Sound familiar? Unfortunately, he also murders the woman's half-sister, Lizaveta, who stumbles in on the murder (bad timing for her). The rest of the book is a look at Raskolnikov's shambling soul. But you should really read that classic - I can't give the whole plot away here.

At any rate, yes, Hepzibah Smith is very like the old woman in Crime and Punishment. It's easy to imagine Voldemort thinking about stealing Hufflepuff's Cup and Slytherin's Locket from her and murdering her "for the greater good" - at least the "greater good" that he imagines making Horcruxes and "purifying" the Wizarding World to be.

But let's look at the two characters and bring this back to a discussion of Hufflepuff characteristics: one is extremely loyal to the wealthy and one is extremely loyal to the letter of the law (even if the government is bankrupt). After all, what exactly was Umbridge's role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince during Rufus Scrimgeour's time as Minister of Magic? She certainly did not have a big one. But she did during Fudge's reign as Minister, especially in Order of the Phoenix, and during Pius Thicknesse's reign as puppet Minister in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We know that in Voldy-War I, as it's come to be known in the fandom, that Scrimgeour used extra-legal means with Barty Crouch, Sr. at hand to hold down the ministry. I'm not sure that "loyal to the law" Umbridge would have agreed with that.

But she could agree with Fudge. She could be loyal to Fudge. And in fact, she was placed as the Defense Against the Dark Arts intructor at Hogwarts because of her loyalty to Cornelius Fudge. Sure, she had some Slytherin ambition, as I believe Hepizbah, who we know much less about, also probably did, in her dealings with both Caractacus Burke and Tom Riddle, Jr. (the latter of which got her killed). Did Cornelius Fudge really go against the letter of the law and try to be above it? Quite frankly, I don't think he did. That doesn't mean that he's a real idiot and didn't have any ambition himself.

And look closely in Deathly Hallows at Umbridge's role in the Ministry. She was too low on Voldemort's radar, as PotterCast 142 rightly pointed out, to be in direct dealings with Voldemort. After all, how would Voldemort react if he'd met her and seen his Horcrux around the neck? For all the foreshadowings of decapitation in the Harry Potter series up to Book 7, I would not be surprised in hindsight for her to lose her head, walking around with that around her neck. (It also proves Voldemort's trust in his followers - I do imagine that Bellatrix, Lucius and Severus Snape would have seen Umbridge once with that necklace during their relations with the ministry and in the Wizarding World, and none of them apparently did anything about that fact). So what is Umbridge doing in the Ministry in Deathly Hallows besides executing the law in the lower levels? She's making law leaflets and pamphlets. Why did Rowling show us this? Yes, she's loyal to the government now that it's the law that has changed. Remember, she's for theory, not for practicality. We know this from the fifth book.

But these two characters have opposites in the series as well, examples of good Hufflepuffs. Their opposites help to resolve, in a sense, their wicked characters.

Amelia Susan Bones was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and participated in Harry's trial in book five as a member of the Wizengamot. She was killed by Voldemort in the summer prior to the start of Harry's sixth school year. Now, we don't know for certain her Hogwarts House, but I think we're very easily led to believe that she was a Hufflepuff due to her niece, Susan Bones, in Harry's year at Hogwarts, who is a Hufflepuff. She is quintessentially Umbridge's opposite. After all, the word "umbrage," which many agree is the word from which Dolores' name is taken, means shade or shadow. Your bones, on the other hand, are an essential element of your body, your essence and your core, and bone is used to describe a light beige color (this is opposed to shadow as darkness).

Hepzibah Smith finds her opposite in Cedric Diggory. Hepzibah held on to her treasures and acquired them through wicked means. Through them, she exhibited the sin of pride and of greed. Diggory offered the cup to Harry, and offered up what would have been a big win for Hufflepuff House, a treasure all it's own. He gave it all up. In the end, Diggory let go of pride and of greed (for there was a thousand Galleons on the line to the winner of tournament). He was also murdered by Lord Voldemort, just like Amelia Bones.

What do the four characters teach us? That loyalty and determination is a good thing, but it can serve evil purposes as well. But by acting like Bones and Diggory, both remembered as symbols of Hufflepuff qualities, the world can be a better place.

extra: Umbridge looks like a toad. Neville, the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff, has a pet toad. Something to think about.

The Two Wicked Hufflepuffs - or So I Believe...

I will soon be posting a new essay, inspired in part by previous held beliefs about a certain character introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and another certain (major) character introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The other part of inspiration for this upcoming essay is from listening to The Leaky Cauldron's archived PotterCast episode #142. Can you guess the two characters I am writing about?

Hepzibah Smith

and

Dolores Umbridge.

Dun Dun DUN!!!

Hiding the Diadem - Extra Piece

As an addendum to my first post entitled "Hiding the Diadem," I recently noted this from http://www.jkrowling.com/. In the "Wizard of the Month" archive, no. 40/42 is Hogwarts founder, Rowena Ravenclaw. Her description reads:

"Medieval (precise dates unknown). One of the four famous Founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rowena Ravenclaw was the most brilliant witch of her time, though legend has it that a broken heart - cause unknown - contributed to her early demise." [emphasis added]

Now, that information was added to the website on 8 January 2007, seven months before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Who could have guessed how significant that little piece of information would be. I think we now know exactly why Rowena had a broken heart - this was over her daughter Helena. Just how early her demise was, we may never know.

Analysis Post #1: Hiding the Diadem

Perhaps it would be strange to ponder over particular elements of the Harry Potter series (and not write of my general understanding of Rowling's themes and seeming philosophy) at the beginning of my positing on this blog. However, particular questions seem to pop up in my mind more frequently than the former; perhaps after reading much Potter analysis myself, I take some of it for granted, and will have to explore the larger issues with more time and reflection. As such, the reader will have to bear with me as subsequent posts become a crash course in Harry Potter analysis, from the smallest elements to the larger themes. My first post is one that I believe led to some of the motivation to start this blog, and it is a question that I only could have developed after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So if you have not read Book 7, I suggest that you stop following this blog, because spoilers will abound ahead.

In Book Seven, Harry is on his quest to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes and one of the Horcruxes turns out to be Ravenclaw's Diadem, hidden at Hogwarts in the Room of Hidden Things (a.k.a. the Room of Requirement). Tom Riddle, Jr. (a.k.a. Lord Voldemort) had hidden the Diadem there, believing that nobody else would know where to find it. But until very near the end of the story, Harry doesn't even know that the Horcrux in question was Ravenclaw's Diadem. Speaking during the Battle of Hogwarts with the Gray Lady, the Ghost of Ravenclaw, Harry figures out that the Diadem is in fact one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and that he had retrieved it from its legendary hiding place and hidden it in Hogwarts during his request for employment from Dumbledore.

But during the few pages in which Harry figures this out, we get the interesting side story of the Gray Lady herself, Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena Ravenclaw, and, by consequence, the story of Slytherin House's ghost, the Bloody Baron. As for the other ghosts at Hogwarts, we know some things about Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (a.k.a. "Nearly Headless Nick"), the Gryffindor House ghost, especially from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the JKR.com website (the ballad of his nearly-headless history), and The Tales of Beedle the Bard, where a footnote indicates that in the fifteenth century, Nick had been killed by Muggle persecution, after having once been a member of the Royal Court) (Beedle 12). We don't really know that much about the Fat Friar (the Ghost of Hufflepuff House). The question I wish to ponder today is a small one, but may relate to a larger theme in the Potter series, and that question is the following:

Why did the Gray Lady, Helena Ravenclaw, hide the Ravenclaw Diadem in a hollow tree in Albania?

Why the hollow tree?
Why did she (and J. K. Rowling for her story) choose Albania?

First of all, we must backtrack and find out what Helena did tell Harry in those hectic moments during the Battle of Hogwarts. That information is located on pages 615-617 in the American hardcover edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To summarize, the Gray Lady's story goes like this:

1. The Ravenclaw Diadem originally belonged to Helena's mother, Rowena. (p.
615)

2. "...the diadem bestows wisdom..." (p. 615)

3. Helena had stolen the diadem from her mother out of jealousy. "I
sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother." (p.
616)

4. Helena ran away from her mother, Rowena. Rowena Ravenclaw,
herself, pretended that the diadem was not missing, and none of the other
founders knew this. (p. 616)

5. Rowena Ravenclaw, on her deathbed, wished to see her daughter one more
time and sent the Bloody Baron (the Slytherin House ghost) to find Helena. (p.
616)

6. The baron was obsessed with Helena (unrequited love) for some time;
Rowena knew this. (p. 616)

7. Helena is found by the Baron, refuses him, and is stabbed by him to
death. "He tracked me to the forest where I was hiding. When I
refused to return with him, he became violent. The Baron was always a
hot-tempered man. Furious at my refusal, jealous of my freedom, he stabbed
me." (p. 616)

8. The Baron then committed suicide, and his ghost wears chains as
penitence for his actions in life. "When he saw what he had done, he was
overcome with remorse. He took the weapon that had claimed my life, and
used it to kill himself. All these centuries later, he wears his chains as
an act of penitence... as he should." (p. 616)

9. Helena had hidden the diadem in a hollow tree when she heard the Baron coming towards her. "[The diadem] remained where I had hidden it when I heard the Baron blundering through the forest toward me. Concealed inside a hollow tree." (p. 617) This implies that the diadem did not usually remain hidden, or she did not have the time to retrieve it, or that she chose to conceal it.

10. Helena reveals that the hollow tree was in a forest in Albania, a place in her words which was "a lonely place I thought was far beyond my mother's reach." (p. 617)

There are very big themes in this small passage that Rowling is sharing with her readers through Helena's story. Themes of jealousy, love, passion, betrayal, penitence, the power of will and of knowledge, depression and loneliness. One has to read between the lines here: what was Rowling asking us, as readers, to really ponder here?

We have to deal with the major points of this story, the first two points of which is that the Ravenclaw Diadem had belonged to one of the Four Founders of Hogwarts, and was rumored to "bestow wisdom." In Geo Athena Trevarthen's book, The Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter, there is a discussion on the Hogwarts Houses in the third chapter, entitled "Four Houses, Four Elements." Professor Trevarthen discusses the totemic animal, of Ravenclaw, the eagle, and the raven (from the name of the house) and their traditional meanings in various folk cultures. She then begins a discussion of Ravenclaw house and its key characters in the books, notably Cho, Luna and Professor Flitwick. She doesn't really mention Helena, or Rowena, the founder. But what she does say about Ravenclaw relates to Ravenclaw's motto engraved on the diadem, "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure." Her explanation of Ravenclaw's house qualities and magical precept is this:

"Wizards must know themselves, know magic, and know the world. Their
knowledge must encompass the unpleasant curses they may be hit with 'out there'
and other unsavory information, like their own deepest fears... What's
more, the knowledge must be of a specific kind, personal and practical..."
(Trevarthen 65).

Professor Trevarthen later goes on to say that to be a wizard means "someone who has personal knowledge, often, knowledge of the sacred. A wizard is a person who can see spiritual reality personally and vividly and who is informed by this experience, so that he becomes wise." (Trevarthen 66).

An object, like the Ravenclaw diadem, that bestows consciousness of oneself so that they become wise, instead of the person themselves journeying through life to become wise (and so not needing such an object), is both a symbol of power and beauty and on a practical level, a dangerous object indeed. To bestow wisdom... perhaps before a person is ready for that kind of understanding? In the summary of the story, point three (above) reminds us that Helena had stolen the diadem from her mother out of jealousy. What stopped her from wearing it? And as noted above, Rowling's words imply that the diadem may not have always been hidden. Why did Helena really flee? Was she fleeing her mother's anger at her thievery? This seems improbable; Rowena never made any mention of it being missing (point four).

And then Helena fled to a lonely place. The diadem had bestowed wisdom upon Helena of, as Prof. Trevarthen noted, "knowledge of the sacred... to see spiritual reality personally and vividly and who is informed by this experience." But Helena didn't become wise by figuring this out herself. She was granted wisdom, and hence learned this about herself. What was her spiritual reality on a personal level? Out of jealousy (greed and envy come to mind) she stole from her own mother a great item so that she could become better than her mother. Her want of knowledge stemmed directly from the will to be better, more clever, more powerful than her own family.

So why did she flee? She fled to a lonely place, where she thought the diadem could be hidden, where she could hide. I believe that she fled because upon learning so much, so quickly about herself, she was ashamed, and depressed, and her penitence was to spend the remainder of her life alone in that forest in Albania.

For how do you stumble upon a hollow tree? You don't. Helena spent a long time hiding there.

Her mother, on the other hand, became wise through the course of her long life. She didn't send the Baron to find her daughter in any immediate time after the diadem was stolen (though of course, we don't know how much time elapsed between the thievery and Rowena's fatal illness). But I believe that the writing implies that much time had passed. She only sent the Baron when she was on her deathbed and wished to see her daughter. She had, no doubt, become wise without the aid of the diadem, figured out what her daughter had done, and figured the one place on the earth (note Prof. Trevarthen's words "know the world") where her daughter would be.

So the question is mostly answered about "why the hollow tree?" Helena had been in that forest for quite a while. And the symbolism of a hollow tree is also a big point here - Helena, upon being granted wisdom from the diadem knew herself to be shallow and empty for the deed she had done - she herself was hollow. Trees can certainly symbolize natural life and knowledge; for a tree to be hollow... I am sure you will like to ponder this point for yourself. But to understand why Rowling chose Albania as the location of the forest, we have to "know the world." What do we know about Albania?

I read in an essay entitled "The Peasant, the Tramp and Hepzibah Smith: A Horcrux Cas Study" by WaggaWaggaWerewolf (available at http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/essays/issue22/HorcruxCaseStudy) that "[t]he Sorting Hat gives some clues when it associates Ravenclaw with mountains and eagles. Albania is a small, isolated, and rather poor country, named for its mountainous terrain, which is heavily forested in places. The people who live there speak a language similar to the one spoken by hardworking Ancient Trojans, and in that language, Albania... translates as the Land of the Eagles. Albanian members of the cult of the snake consider it an important household benefactor." The author then goes on to ponder whether or not this is where the idea for the snake nailed to the door at the Gaunt house came from and what exactly drew Voldemort to stay there in isolation for ten years.

Rowena, becoming wise on her deathbed, no doubt knew that her "wise" daughter would go to the "Land of the Eagles." It is also no wonder why her daughter, then, is named Helena. The story of "Helen of Troy" comes to mind here. And in the Gray Lady's story, Rowena may have considered "the snake" a.k.a. the Bloody Baron, a "household benefactor," whom she hoped to use to repair her household, alas to no avail.

But to bring us back to the original question? Why did the Gray Lady hide the Ravenclaw Diadem in a hollow tree in Albania? Because she was ashamed of herself, and what she had done. She had gained this personal knowledge by becoming wise, and fled to the ancient "Land of the Eagles" to repent her sin. Later, upon forgiving her daughter, Rowena (at the end of her life) sent the Baron (the "household benefactor" snake) to retrieve her daughter, for she had become wise as to the same premature knowledge Helena had gained of the "Land of the Eagles." She probably also fully understood, at that point in her life, the words "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Didn't Rowling state that out of the two biblical passages she presents in Deathly Hallows, that one sums up about half of the whole story?

This doesn't even skim the surface, though, of the whole story between the Baron and the Gray Lady, of which I haven't even begun to analyze, and I won't do right now. But I do believe that there are parallels, and very obvious ones here, between the character of the Bloody Baron and Severus Snape. With the exception that Snape, I believe, "will have gone on" in Nick's words (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). I'll leave that discussion for another time.

I hope you've enjoyed my efforts at analysis. :)

"Potter Analysis" Books: A List of References

The following is a list of "Potter Analysis" books that I have read and intend to refer to in subsequent blog postings. I will provide as much publishing information (as well as cover art) as I can about each so that others may look to reading these fine works of writing and hence further their understanding of the Potter series. I hope to update this list as accurately as possible. Of the titles listed below, I believe that most are not officially authorized by J. K. Rowling or Warner Bros., except perhaps Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli, as it contains a foreward by Rowling. Also, I believe all of the titles are only available as paperback editions, with the exception of Logospilgrim's work, bring forth the best robes.

Post-Deathly Hallows publications:

How Harry Cast His Spell

by John Granger

Published in September 2008 by Tyndale House Publishers.
Available through Zossima Press, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com to name a few. It is 302 pages long. This is without a doubt the best book that I have read on the subject matter. Of course, I am biased as having met the author, lol.
ISBN: 1414321880

The Deathly Hallows Lectures
by John Granger

Published in July 2008 by Zossima Press.
Available through Zossima Press, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com to name a few. It is 312 pages long. This is, to date, the only book I know of which focuses exclusively on the final installment of the Potter series. It is absolutely superb.
ISBN: 0972322175

The Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter
by Geo Athena Trevarthen

Published in March 2008 by National Book Network.
I know that this book is available through both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com to name a couple of ways to get it. It is decently lengthy. I found this to be an intersting read. I especially loved her elemental descriptions of the four houses and notes on the more villainous characters of the series. I believe she is a professor in the United Kingdom; I wish I could have attended one of her classes.
ISBN: 1846940931



Harry Potter & Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds

by Travis Prinzi

Published in December 2008 by Zossima Press.
I know that this book is available through both Amazon.com and the Zossima Press website to name a couple of ways to get it. I believe that I heard Prinzi speak at a lecture at my university; it was excellent. Although some of it could have been better edited (grammatically) and it takes a few chapters to really get into the book after having read John Granger's works, Chapter Three, "Hogwarts, A (Haunted) History" seals the deal in this book being necessary to those who read "Potter analysis." The subsequent chapters are excellent.
ISBN: 0982238517



Harry, A History
by Melissa Anelli (Foreward by J. K. Rowling)

Published in November 2008, published by Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book, and I couldn't put it down. I read it in a few days, and her treatment of the history not as a biography of Rowling or of the publications of the books, but as a general global phenomenon is well thought-out and felt complete. I am sure we will see more books on the Harry Potter phenomenon in general, but this book just feels right. At the end of Anelli's book, it was as if I was again at the bookstore at 10 PM on July the 20th, 2007, anticipating the release of the final installment, and hoping against hope that "all would be well." On a side note, this book did make it, at one point, to the New York Times bestseller list of paperback non-fiction. It is also being published in German in May 2009.
ISBN: 1416554955


bring forth the best robes
by Logospilgrim

Published in September 2008 by Lulu.com
Available on Amazon.com and Lulu.com, to name a couple of places. I had been searching for more Potter analysis books on Amazon.com and stumbled upon this little book (it is about 100 pages long) on Severus Snape. Not only did I quickly order it because of its subject, but because I recognized the author's pseudonym from a website visited. Plus the book had also garnered some favorable reviews from others, which are all correct in what they state. This "Spiritual Understanding of Severus Snape" is exactly what it portends to be, and it is an uplifting little book to read. I eagerly await the publication of her second book on Snape's character. On a side note, the layout of the book is also intriguing - the topic of the spiritual lessons and themes are arranged by the ordering of the Harry Potter books themselves. In some ways, it adds to the character of the book. The editing was also well done, which is unexpectedly admirable for a small publication.
ISBN: 1435736532


The Gospel According to Harry Potter (Revised and Expanded Edition):
The Spiritual Journey of the World's Greatest Seeker
by Connie Neal

Published in February 2008 by Westminster.
Available on Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.com to name a couple of places. At 305 pages long, this is a delightful little book and it is useful in the fact that it recognizes its writing as being reductionist, mostly in response to other anti-Potter books that are reductionist in their own way. In this sense it is objective, but the content is subjective itself. This is a well-written, easily read bok on some of the Christian content of the Potter series, but probably not as complex as some of the themes tackled by John Granger or Logospilgrim's work. However, this is not to its detriment. It would probably be a useful introductory work, prior to reading the other two authors.
ISBN: 0664231233


Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter (2nd Edition)
by Elizabeth Heilman (editor)

Published in August 2008 by Taylor & Francis Inc.
Available on Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.com, to name a couple of places, this is an excellent compilation of essays well-arranged and ordered to get multiple perspectives on the themes in and utilization of the Potter series in general. The essays, however, read at a college level, so this book may be more difficult to digest for anyone who is not at least in high school (but it would be a good challenge for developing minds). The essays I have read in this book have opened up in my mind discussions on how to view and use the Potter series, especially from an educational standpoint. To those who are teachers (or would be teachers) and also parents who wish to use the Potter books as a bridge to discussions of other subjects, I suppose that this book would be a useful guide. On a side note, I much enjoyed Peter Applebaum's essay on "The Great Snape Debate." The book is 356 pages long.
ISBN: 0415964849



Prejudice in Harry Potter's World
by Karen A. Brown


Published in March 2008 by Virtualbookworm.com.
This is one of the socio-political study books that I am sure will not be the last of its kind, dealing with a specific issue that runs throughout the Potter series. In its short 300 pages, the author analyzes prejudice and discrimination in the "wizarding world" and links it to real-world issues on the same subject. Well-written and decently edited, it is a nice little book on one very relevant subject.
ISBN: 1602641536

Pre-Deathly Hallows publications:

The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius, and Popularity of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter Novels
by John Granger

Published in November 2002 by Zossima Press.
I know that this book is still currently available through Amazon.com's used book service, and may be available at other websites. Please note that this book does not include any information and analysis from Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince or Deathly Hallows, but its essays can still be well appreciated. I especially enjoy in this book Granger's argument about Quidditch, especially when he analyzes Goblet of Fire. I do not recall reading this point in his How Harry Cast His Spell (2008). The predictions are also startling. Granger did manage, in this book, to almost perfectly predict the fates of at least two characters: Neville Longbottom and Severus Snape.
ISBN: 0972322108

Potter Analysis Books that I have ordered and intend to examine next:

Repotting Harry Potter: A Professor's Book-by-Book Guide for the Serious Re-Reader

by James W. Thomas

Published in January 2009 by Zossima Press.

Available through Zossima Press and Amazon.com, at the very least.

It is 376 pages long.

ISBN: 0982238525

The Great Snape Debate

by Amy Berner, Orson Scott Card and Joyce Millman

Published in January 2007 by Benbella Books.

Available through Amazon.com used books and probably other used book retailers.

It is 192 pages long.

ISBN: 1933771356

The Reason for Writing and a Tribute to John Granger

I honestly would not have even considered writing this blog if it were not for the inspiring lecture delivered by John Granger (which I had the pleasure of attending at my graduate school, La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA) entitled "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?" in the early spring of 2007. Though already having been a fan of the series, my admiration of the books as great works only began in the months that followed and was decided by the final installment of Rowling's masterpiece, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I have read a number of Granger's books, including The Hidden Key to Harry Potter (2002), How Harry Cast His Spell (2008) and The Deathly Hallows Lectures (2008). I eagerly anticipate his publication of Harry Potter's Bookshelf, forthcoming for this year.

John Granger's thoughts on Potter set the gears in my brain into motion. This is not to say that they were not already in full-swing; at the time of his lecture, I was preparing to begin my Master's Thesis and a summer of historical research. "Potter Analysis" (as I've come to call it) was merely a worthy distraction from everday life. An intellectual debate over a fun subject which I could look at for free at hogwartsprofessor.com.

And then Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on July 21st, 2007, and everything changed. I went back to my second year of graduate school, and while working on my thesis, debated Potter with some undergraduate friends. I argued over the virtues of several of the characters. And I watched as another friend in late November read the last chapters of Deathly Hallows in the graduate work-study office for the first time. I knew that she was reading the chapter entitled "The Forest Again" as did everyone else in the office; for once, it was absolutely silent out of pure respect for the literature.

I continued to debate Potter, but again, I had other pressing matters to finish. This was wise - I completed my Master's Thesis with flying colors and a second research project over the summer. When I returned home from graduate school and finally had some time to myself, I got to read John Granger's 2008 publications.

And again, I was blown away. I've come to read a lot of "Potter analysis" books and articles in the recent past, and I've found that I cannot continue my admiration for the series without giving something back to the phenomenon. And so I am beginning this blog, partially in tribute to the others who have gone before me in their efforts, so as to join this great discussion of what I truly believe is the best literature of the turn of the 21st century.