Entries from September 2006

A Question

September 30th, 2006 · 17 Comments · Gryffindor Common Room

This is a question for all my readers that I’ll leave up for a week, and then take down once I’ve heard from you. I really need input here.
I’ve obtained the rights to the domain name, hogsheadpub.com. If you put that into the URL block, you’ll get this blog. After [...]

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Jesus Camp vs. Harry Potter

September 30th, 2006 · 3 Comments · Defense Against the Harry Haters

Another example of the mess called American evangelicalism can be found in the new, controversial film Jesus Camp.  I just started doing some reading on it, having seen it on the news at work, and the first article I came across mentioned Harry Potter.
At Kids on Fire [Christian camp], it’s all Christian values, all the [...]

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Hog’s Head PubCast #4

September 30th, 2006 · 4 Comments · Podcasts

My invisibility cloak theory demolished; upcoming Harry Potter conferences and books
Show Notes:

Janet Batchler’s blog - Keep looking for her book!
Hogwarts Professor - JG has two new books coming out
Conference links on sidebar

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icon for podpress  Hog's Head PubCast #4 [12:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1548)

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Banned Books Week

September 26th, 2006 · 2 Comments · Harry News and Commentary, Hogwarts School of Literature

HPANA:  This week, September 23-30, marks the 25th anniversary of “Banned Books Week.”  The Harry Potter series ranks as the most challenged book(s) in the last five years.  The American Library Association (ALA) put together the top ten.  Here are the other nine:

2. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
3. Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. [...]

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No Podcast This Weekend

September 23rd, 2006 · 1 Comment · Gryffindor Common Room

I planned a podcast for this weekend on the Invisibility Cloak issue, but my dog chewed through MacBook power cord.  I doubt I’ll have time just tomorrow to get a whole recording done, so look for pubCast #4 by next weekend.

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DailyLit.com

September 18th, 2006 · 1 Comment · Hogwarts School of Literature

I’ve emphasized here the importance (and the joy!) of discovering and reading great literature of the past that influenced J.K. Rowling as a writer.  Sounds like a daunting task, though, to begin up Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and plugging through them.  Even though they’re great books, they’re not what many of us are used [...]

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Hog’s Head PubCast #3: Hogwarts vs. Narnia, part 2

September 17th, 2006 · 1 Comment · Podcasts

Bad news: I had some quirky editing issues with this one.  You’ll hear me cut myself off a few times.  Good news: podcast files are much smaller now.
This is part 2 of 2 in the series.

Segment #1: Narnia Good, Hogwarts Bad?
Segment #2: Magic in Prince Caspian
Segment #3: Rowling vs. Lewis on Susan Pevensie
Segment #4: News [...]

 
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Around the Common Room

September 15th, 2006 · 7 Comments · Gryffindor Common Room

Hogwarts made of matchsticks!  This is fascinating. (HT to Blogging Harry Potter).
A Lutheran is after Harry now.  Another school mom is working on a Harry Potter ban.  Among her many predictable, but abysmally wrong, assertions:
She doesn’t object to other magical stories, such as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Snow White,” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.” She [...]

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Sword of Gryffindor Gets a Nod!

September 14th, 2006 · 2 Comments · Gryffindor Common Room, Harry News and Commentary

Sword of Gryffindor has been mentioned in a Terry Mattingly column (quoted by Amy Wellborn) alongside The Leaky Cauldron (HT to Felicity):
[Father Jonathan] Tobias is one voice in a global digital chorus debating this issue at myriad Web sites with names like SwordOfGryffindor.com and The-Leaky-Cauldron.org. Potter fans have, after all, purchased more than 300 million [...]

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James Potter’s Invisibility Cloak, Take Two

September 14th, 2006 · 34 Comments · Book 7 Speculations, James and Lily Potter, Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), Severus Snape

Update: Move along to another essay. JKR destroyed this theory a couple days ago. So much for my attempts at predicting things!  Rowling’s statement doesn’t entirely annihilate the theory, since my particular version of the theory doesn’t have Snape hiding under the cloak at the house while the Potters were killed, but I’m [...]

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James Potter’s Invisibility Cloak

September 13th, 2006 · 23 Comments · Book 7 Speculations, Gryffindor Common Room, James and Lily Potter, Severus Snape

Rowling has given a belated answer to a query about which question she’s never been asked but wished she was asked:
Why did Dumbledore have James’ invisibility cloak at the time of James’ death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?
Prior to posting this I had a quick look on-line, and realised that [...]

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750 Pages Rumor Debunked

September 11th, 2006 · 1 Comment · Harry News and Commentary

I reported in the “news and commentary” section of the last podcast that there was a rumor floating around that Rowling had completed 750 pages of Book 7.  HPANA reports that Rowling debunked that rumor:
JKR has written 750 pages of book 7, and told a journalist this at the tea party for ‘Driving Lessons’.
Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease. [...]

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Hog’s Head PubCast #2: Hogwarts and Narnia, part 1

September 10th, 2006 · 6 Comments · Podcasts

PubCast #2: Hogwarts and Narnia, part 1: The Lion and the Stag.
You can subscribe to Hog’s Head at the iTunes music store now. [Update: There's some kind of error in the iTunes music store...I can't find it there. I'll look into it. At the same time, following the instructions for subscribing through [...]

 
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The Last Horcrux: Harry’s Scar or Nagini?

September 9th, 2006 · 17 Comments · Book 7 Speculations, Harry, Voldemort

My post, Is Harry a Horcrux, which I wrote in haste two months after HBP was released, has generated 441 comments, and counting. It’s quite an issue! Personally, I’ve been back and forth on it. When I initially posted on the topic, I was against it. After a lot of reading [...]

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Snape Saves

September 8th, 2006 · 11 Comments · Severus Snape

Posting over at HP Essays is always interesting, and it generates some good discussion. I posted the Life Debts essay over there, and though the discussion was not anywhere near as lengthy as some other posts, one interesting point did arise: Snape does a lot more saving in the series than I realized.  Let’s [...]

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