by Dave
Part I of this series: Why Joker Succeeds and Voldemort Fails
“Behind the scenes” is a trope of long standing tradition in many forms of literature. In a recent essay on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Terry W. Thompson argues that the violent deaths occur off the page as a direct result of Shelley’s love of classical [...]

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by Travis
What were you doing at this time last year?  You were reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I remember dropping Sophia off with Tricia’s mom and heading to the park on two hours’ sleep (I had read until 5am), and then reading all day long.  
Today marks the anniversary of the release of Deathly [...]

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by Dave
Since Deathly Hallows release last year, I’ve been perpetually puzzled by Voldemort’s characterization in the last two novels. Half Blood Prince humanizes Voldemort in a way that lends HBP a sophistication most of the earlier novels lack — Voldemort’s backstory both enlightens and befuddles the reader, at once shedding light on his origins [...]

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by Dave
I saw this article this morning at IGN. It says the last film’s script has been reportedly split into two films and that the HBP crew have already been notified of the change. Mugglenet is reporting that the original story is in The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail article makes a [...]

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by Dave
If a reader drops Deathly Hallows on the ground in expectation of the book opening to the literal center of its story, she will more than likely find Chapter 21, “The Tale of the Three Brothers”. Presented as a children’s story of three brothers attempting to cheat Death, Beadle the Bard’s tale narrates [...]

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When Albus and Aberforth were young lads, despite Albus’s prolific magical talent, Aberforth was the better man. Albus’s heart was not with his family. The death of Ariana rattled everything for both of them.
For Albus, watching his friend cruciate his brother and (probably) kill his sister wrecked him for good. “He was [...]

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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!

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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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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