Ok, this will be my last post before Prophecy 2007.
Something struck me as I was listening to the audio version of Deathly Hallows: Auntie Muriel, 107 years old, speaks of Dumbledore’s past and the mystery of Kendra’s hiding Ariana as though she were present for the whole thing. Rowling said twice, last time in [...]

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This will probably be my last post before Prophecy 2007.  I’ll be live-blogging from there, of course, and hopefully getting some good interview material for upcoming podcasts.
John Granger has started the conversation on Rowling’s first mention of faith since the release of Deathly Hallows. Here’s the quote:
Young voice: Harry’s also referred to as [...]

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The comments sections are filling up with thoughts on Rowling’s two recent interviews.  Here are transcripts and video:

Bloomsbury Chat transcript at Leaky (this has some transcription errors, but you can sort through most of it)
Transcript and video of Dateline interview linked from HPANA

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Spoiler Alert!

It’s interesting to note that a “hallow” seems to be a magically-powerful object that was created by a powerful wizard. When speculating on the meaning of Deathly Hallows after the title release, we spent time here at this site analyzing Arthurian legend. I wrote this at the time in relation to Hallows [...]

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It’s been one week since the release of Deathly Hallows, and there’s still so much to process. I think we’ve gotten off to a fairly good start here at SoG, and other sites have done so as well (there are now 25 topics of discussion running simultaneously at HogPro). I have much more [...]

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Spoiler Alert!

Harry took down Voldemort. A massive defeat against the Dark Lord was won. But what of the other issues raised by Rowling throughout the series? What of the social evils she addressed? Some will be disturbed that house-elves are still enslaved at the end of Book 7. What of [...]

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I wrote a short review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for our local paper, the Democrat and Chronicle, and it was published today in the opinion section:

Harry Potter message is biblical: Love can oust evil

Thankfully, the online version does not have the mugshot of a picture I sent to the paper which appears [...]

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Rowling is giving answers!  Highlights:

Harry and Ron are aurors and have revolutionized the department
Hermione works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement
Neville/Luna is a possibility
The Ministry is a much better place
She meant to write a vague, non-descript Epilogue, because the detailed one she had written was too cluttered - “it didn’t work well as a [...]

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Spoiler Alert: The post below and many of the links contain spoilers.

Updates:  I got a little behind on getting the post on Evil and the post on Snape up (Prophecy 2007 work took over), but I’m hoping to get at least one of the two up later today or tonight.  Also, we’ve had quite the [...]

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Spoiler Alert!

“[Harry] recoiled. He had spotted the thing that was making the noises. It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath…. ‘You [...]

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Spoiler Alert!

The most disturbing part of Deathly Hallows is the use of Unforgivable Curses by the Good Guys. This seemed incredibly inconsistent with previous books for several reasons.

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Spoiler Alert!

If you’ve been following this blog over the past year, you probably thought I’d really hate what Rowling did with Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows. I don’t. I hate what I know Fandom is about to do to him, but I’m quite pleased with what we learned in Book 7.
The Dumbledore backstory [...]

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Spoiler Alert!

Of course it was bound to happen: there are people who are quite disappointed in Deathly Hallows, for various reasons. I am not one of them, and I admit to being quite discouraged at some of the negative reactions. Knowing this about myself, I want to try to be as fair as [...]

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Spoiler Alert! 

Alastair, who regularly blogs here, has left a fascinating comment under the Initial Reactions post, and it’s worth some discussion. I’ve quoted it here in full:
“I was wondering how closely the Deathly Hallows are supposed to be associated with the three temptations of Christ. That some connection exists seems clear enough to me. [...]

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John Granger has more time on his hands than I do
You should go check out HogPro today. I don’t have anywhere near the time to put together much at the moment, but John has set up 20 different posts on 20 different topics from Deathly Hallows. It’s much more organized than [...]

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