I’ll admit from the start, I’m not one for the “shipping” debates (which student should date which). Nevertheless, there is some importance to the whole dating scene, not least the fact that Rowling’s a big fan of Austen’s novels, so romance will undoubtedly play a part.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the shipping debates, there [...]

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Despite my previous adamant assertion that Dumbledore is dead, I’ve been forced, reluctantly, to reconsider the issue. After reading two lengthy essays, I am forced to at least conclude that the option is very much available: Dumbledore may not be dead.

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There’s a buzz in fandom this morning (HT to Glenn Lucke, who tried to make me and La Shawn “twitch” with this story): J.K. Rowling said in an interview that two characters will die in Book 7, and she’s included some intriguing comments about Harry’s fate:

“I have never been tempted to kill him off before [...]

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One of the sad things about the continual habit of fundamentalist Christianity to entirely misunderstand the Harry Potter series and engage in book banning is the incredible window it opens for teaching children and teens to love literature.

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I promised some posts on alchemy. I’m getting there.  I’ve been working with a Jungian view, but this weekend I’ll be picking up Titus Burckhardt’s book on alchemy, and I want to work a bit with both views before post significantly on that topic.
Until then, brush up a bit on literary alchemy as [...]

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Most of my Harry Potter work of late has been spent on a paper on Voldemort, something that I plan to submit to a few HP conferences (which is why it’s not appearing here presently).  I’ve said all I want to on Dumbledore at the moment, and I plan to move on to a series [...]

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Just prior to the release of Book 7, I plan to post at great length my predictions (read: wild guesses) for the book, many of which are not formed yet.  This is entirely for fun, of course, and my disclaimer about Narrative Misdirection should always be understood as a caveat to all my predictions.
That said, another [...]

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And you thought Laura Mallory’s attempt to getting Harry Potter banned in Gwinnet County, Georgia was over.  She’s actually taking her case to the state.

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An interesting perspective on Snape has been posted by Jeremy at his new Eating Words blog.
It occurred to me last night that it might not be possible for Snape to use Avada Kedavra without malicious intent. I’m working from memory so correct me if I am wrong. When pseudo-Mad-Eye was teaching the class about the [...]

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David Colbert’s The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter is a far better accomplishment than his similar book on Narnia. While still lacking in some respects, it is nevertheless a helpful guide to many of the background myths and legends of the Harry Potter series. The topics are arranged alphabetically, and what you learn [...]

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My decision to begin some in-depth work on Albus Dumbledore was inspired by an article on the Headmaster at Red-Hen Publications which has, in my opinion, a combination of excellent insights and a few mistakes. Here is where I take issue:

Albus Dumbledore is one of the very biggest (non-chocolate!) frogs in the very small puddle [...]

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Just a quick update on the technical progress and whether or not I’ll write anything interesting anytime soon.
I’m about half-way through a lengthy post on Dumbledore which will probably appear later today, tomorrow at the latest. 
I finished Colbert’s The Magical Worlds of Narnia last night and will write a review in the next couple of [...]

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If you use Bloglines or some other blog aggregator client, just be aware that you’re about to get a large influx of posts from SoG - I’m uploading ALL pictures to wordpress, since I previously hosted them at Typepad and will be eliminating my Typepad account in the next month. 

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The Royal Society of Literature asked J.K. Rowling and other authors to name their top 10 books that schoolchildren should read (read article).  Basically, this is what JKR thinks you should have read by the time you graduated high school:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
David [...]

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On a bus ride to Albany and back, I was able to read David Colbert’s The Magical Worlds of Narnia: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts. He has written a similar book on Harry Potter, which I will tackle soon. For now, a few brief thoughts on how Colbert handles Narnia.
Taking [...]

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