Update: Speaking of Harry Potter conferences, Penny has just uploaded the video of her roundtable discussion, “Voldemort Understands Nothing,” and you’ll get to see yours truly opening his big mouth and blabbing a bit. I talk at the 3:33 mark of the first video and just after the 9:00 mark of the second (though you’ll not know the context of the conversation if you just fast-forward there.)
I’m back and recovered after a whirlwind trip into Dekalb, IL, for a one-day Harry Potter conference. ”Searching for Platform 9 3/4″ was held on the campus of Northern Illinois University. It wasn’t your typical Potter conference with 700-1500 people; it was a smaller event, and I like that.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be there very long, but the time I was there was well-spent. I got to meet some Hog’s Head patrons like Brent, who comments here fairly regularly, as well as Richard, who tells me he makes his college students come to my website. (Richard, feel free to contact me if ever you want me to set anything up specifically for your class – a post, series of posts, podcast, whatever you need.) I was also able to catch up with my good friends John Granger and David and Toni Gras. It’s always a pleasure to be with you.
As soon as I have time to work through the edits, I’ll have some audio from the conference posted. Toni took some photo and video which we might be able to make available as well.
For those finding this site for the first time after attending the conference, click here for a welcome post to introduce you to The Hog’s Head.
Inside joke, for anyone who was at the conference: Tell me, did you go to John’s talk?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Travis,
I enjoyed your panel discussion at the conference. I am sorry I was such a Hermione. Like Hermione, I always have something to say. I try to be quiet really I do.
I didn’t get to John’s talk–unfortunately. I also had to leave after the panel discussion. So I guess all of the book references were good. I will check out his new book.
It was good to meet you, David, and John.
Gina
Gina, no worries! We appreciated the chance to interact.
Yes, do buy John’s book. Really great stuff.
Okay, Travis, who’s this avatar now? We need a scorecard for all these!
I thought the conference was really good. Being usually short on time and money, it’s hard for me to get to one of the bigger conferences like Portus. So here’s my day synopsis if anyone is interested.
Not surprising to most hogshead patrons, but Travis and John put together excellent presentations although both of them could probably each go for another 2 hours and still kept their audiences captive. I think we’re getting both Travis’s talk and the panel with John, David and Travis as podcasts although if you want to know the contents of Travis’s talk just “buy his book”
John put together an excellent talk mostly about eye symbolism in Deathly Hallows (some of which was in pubcast#60) including why Lily’s green eyes are important and other things which can all be found in his book, “The Deathly Hallows Lectures” which has been featured on this site before.
To start the day, I went to a lecture by Anne Canavan who is finishing an English PhD in the area of Gothic Literature. Her presentation looked at comparisons between Yeats the poet and Harry Potter. It was interesting to see how both him and Rowling used existing Mythology and expanded it in their works along with their works both becoming more political as time progressed. Also, she showed some similarities between the Sorting Hat’s song and Yeats’ poetry. Gina Burkart, who posted earlier in this thread, had a presentation at the same time which dealt with Christian themes of the seven deadly sins and seven heavenly virtues that seemed interesting based on the material she gave me.
Next, I saw a presentation by Vicky McKinley on when someone should read Harry Potter using both objective and subjective metrics. I think she runs the website http://thepensieve.org since her entire presentation is online at that website, but I’m not sure because I walked into the presentation late because I was talking to John and Travis . The lunchtime keynote was given by Karley Adney looking at Masculine and Feminine characteristics of Dumbledore, Snape and Voldemortand how they affected Harry and she did a good job and worked really hard to keep all of the children’s program participants engaged.
Next in the day was Travis, and then the panel I mentioned before. After that I listened to Cathy Colton, the English Chair at the College of Lake County about Heroism and Leadership in Harry Potter and she did a fine job. To end the day, I talked to John Granger and some of the event staff for the next hour before John’s talk to end the conference.
Brent, thanks for that helpful synopsis. I’m glad you enjoyed the conference.
Finally actually read the list line of your post. I/eye went to John’s talk and it was great!