The Hog's Head » Monday Magical Musings http://thehogshead.org Harry Potter News and Commentary Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:00:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Analysis, news, commentary, interviews on all things Harry Potter and fantasy fiction. Travis Prinzi no Travis Prinzi tprinzi@gmail.com tprinzi@gmail.com (Travis Prinzi) 2006-2009 Smart Talk on Harry Potter Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Inklings, Mythology, Fairy Tales, Literature The Hog's Head » Monday Magical Musings http://thehogshead.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/Hogs-Head-PubCast.003.jpg http://thehogshead.org/categories/monday-magical-musings/ Monday Magical Musings: Harry Potter, Batman, and The Hero http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-harry-potter-batman-and-the-hero-1658/ http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-harry-potter-batman-and-the-hero-1658/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:00:25 +0000 Travis Prinzi http://thehogshead.org/?p=1658

If you haven’t yet read Dave Jones’s essay on Batman in issue 8 of Journey to the Sea, I commend it to your careful attention right away.  In that essay, Dave explores the rising importance of the flawed humanity of Batman to that mythos:

In the past twenty-five years, the Batman character has grown into a morally complex amalgam of mythic qualities wherein the evolution of his humanity has become more important than any drive toward transcendence.

Beowulf is a “trascendent” hero.  Batman is not.  Questions:

  • In what ways does the transcendent hero satisfy?
  • What is lacking in the transcendent hero that creates the need for the flawed, even morally ambiguous hero?
  • What hesitations, if any, do you have about the morally ambiguous hero?
  • Where does Harry fall into this spectrum?  Is Harry effective as a hero?
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]]> http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-harry-potter-batman-and-the-hero-1658/feed/ 8 Monday Magical Musings: Children Only? http://thehogshead.org/lengle-children-only-598/ http://thehogshead.org/lengle-children-only-598/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:00:15 +0000 Travis Prinzi http://thehogshead.org/lengle-children-only/

Discuss:

“The artist…must retain the vision which includes angels and dragons and unicorns and all the lovely creatures which our world put in a box and marked Children Only. ~ Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water

  • Why are supernatural beings considered kids’ stuff?
  • What benefit does the adult derive from these “lovely creatures”?
  • What do you say to people who think you’re nuts for liking “kids’ stories”?
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]]> http://thehogshead.org/lengle-children-only-598/feed/ 5 Monday Magical Musings: Language, Imagination, and Justice http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-language-imagination-and-justice-1588/ http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-language-imagination-and-justice-1588/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:55:23 +0000 Travis Prinzi http://thehogshead.org/?p=1588

“If our vocabulary dwindles to a few shopworn words, we are setting ourselves up for takeover by a dictator. When language becomes exhausted, our freedom dwindles – we cannot think; we do not recognize danger. Injustice strikes us as no more than ‘the way things are’.”  ~ Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water. Colorado Springs: Shaw Books, 1972. p. 37.

  • What is L’Engle saying here?  Is she right?
  • How does creative language help in the fight against injustice?
  • Where do we see this play out inside Harry Potter, and in our culture relating to Harry Potter and other imaginative fiction?
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]]> http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-language-imagination-and-justice-1588/feed/ 3 Daniel Radcliffe Naked: Who Cares? http://thehogshead.org/daniel-radcliffe-naked-who-cares-895/ http://thehogshead.org/daniel-radcliffe-naked-who-cares-895/#comments Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:31:24 +0000 Travis Prinzi http://thehogshead.org/?p=895

by Travis
I’m wondering what the marriage of celebrity culture to great literature is doing to Harry Potter.

The extent to which film has become normative in our culture is profound, especially as it relates to literature.  We all used to joke about getting the movie version in order to do book reports in school (much to the chagrin of our teachers), but the Harry Potter phenomenon has produced a situation in which, for most of Harry Potter subculture, the films and the stories are inseparable.  Just subscribe to “Harry Potter” news updates through Google or any of the major fansites, and you’ll see what I mean.

So, according to the way the name Harry Potter is used, it’s “Harry Potter News” every time one of the young Potter actors is going to be naked for an upcoming project.  So this week’s “Monday Magical Musings” presents the following questions for discussion:

  • What effects, positive and/or negative, is the broader Harry Potter subculture having on the overall perception of the series?  
  • Is it really “Harry Potter” news when Rupert Grint is going to be naked in a non-Potter movie?  Is it really “Harry Potter” news if Daniel Radcliffe thinks he might have to get naked for the last Harry Potter movie?  Or when Emma Watson goes to a polo match?
  • Is the story and the heart of Harry Potter getting lost in the celebrity culture that has been inextricably linked to it?
  • How long (or what) will it take for the series to get beyond the commercial hype and become more popular in academia than it is in pop culture?

Note:  I’m entering this post in the Problogger “Killer Title” contest.

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]]> http://thehogshead.org/daniel-radcliffe-naked-who-cares-895/feed/ 27 Monday Magical Musings: TriWizard Tournament & Olympics http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-triwizard-tournament-olympics-858/ http://thehogshead.org/monday-magical-musings-triwizard-tournament-olympics-858/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:11:47 +0000 Travis Prinzi http://thehogshead.org/?p=858

by Travis

OlympicsI’m going to begin a new Hog’s Head practice of starting each week off with a subject for discussion.  This week – the Olympics and the TriWizard Tournament.  With the Beijing Olympics underway, Potter fans are reminded of the “Olympic” event that is the TriWizard Tournament in Goblet of Fire.  The HP Alliance is noting the parallels along the lines of international cooperation and the Olympics’ theme, “One World, One Dream,” particularly in their call to use this time to raise awareness about Darfur. 

Goblet of FireMost definitely, Goblet of Fire, particularly in the character of Dumbledore, emphasizes the need for international cooperation in the fight against evil.  But beyond Book 4, this theme gets little to no attention.  In Deathly Hallows, Voldemort is brought down quite apart from widespread international cooperation.  In reality, he’s brought down by the courageous actions of a few (non-government) individuals. 

In light of this, some questions for discussion:

  • What happened to the theme of international cooperation in Harry Potter?
  • Does the lack of emphasis on the theme after Book 4 reflect the improbability of international cooperation (“it just ain’t gonna happen”), or does it reflect the Fabian element (“it’s gonna take a long time and a lot of work before that happens”)?
  • Is there something discordant about the emphasis on globalization in Book 4 and the clearly localized solution to the Voldemort problem in Book 7?
  • Is it simply a plot issue – Voldemort didn’t have time to become an international threat before Harry brought him down?
  • Overall – what is message of the Potter books about international cooperation?
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