“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” Those words, written by Plutarch and quoted by J.K. Rowling in her 2008 Harvard commencement speech, sum up both the Harry Potter series and Travis Prinzi’s analysis of the best-selling books in Harry Potter & Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds. Great imaginative literature places readers between two worlds – the magical world on the page and the world of daily life – and challenges readers to imagine and to act for a better world. Starting with Harry Potter’s great themes, Harry Potter & Imagination< takes readers on a journey through the transformative power of those themes for both the individual and for culture by placing Rowling’s series in its literary, historical, and cultural contexts. Prinzi explores how fairy stories in general, and Harry Potter in specific, are not merely tales that are read to “escape from the real world,” but stories with the power to transform by teaching us to imagine better.
We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better. ~ J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter & Imagination Table of Contents:
Introduction: Harry Potter for Real Life?
Part I: Faerie
Chapter One: The Tales of Rowling the Bard
Harry Potter as Fairy Tale and Truth
Chapter Two: Between Two Worlds
Encountering Faerie with Harry
Chapter Three: Hogwarts, a (Haunted) History
Fear and Supernatural Horror in Harry Potter
Chapter Four: Dehumanization
Defining Evil in Harry Potter
Chapter Five: Worthy of Hallows
Courage in Arthur, Gawain, and Harry
Chapter Six: Christ in the Forest
Aslan and Harry Walk to their Deaths
Part II: The Creative Hero
Chapter Seven: Harry Potter, the Phoenix
The Hero’s Fiery Trial
Chapter Eight: Harry’s Shadow
Voldemort as Sociopath and Sinner
Chapter Nine: The Life and Love of Albus Dumbledore
Wisdom from Failure and Forgiveness
Chapter Ten: The Sacking of Snape the Shapeshifter
Examining the Cult of Snape
Part III: A Political Fairy Tale
Chapter Eleven: The Postmodern Potions Master
Brewing a Story that Changes Culture
Chapter Twelve: Of Fountains, Fabians, and Freedoms
Dumbledore’s Deconstruction of the Wizarding World
Chapter Thirteen: How Half-Bloods Became Purebloods
And What that Says about Race in the Wizarding World
Chapter Fourteen: The Witching World?
Gender in Harry Potter
Chapter Fifteen: Wizards at War
Harry Potter as Commentary on the War on Terror
Chapter Sixteen: The Last Enemy
Learning to Imagine Better on the Way Between Two Worlds
Afterword: Conversations at the Hog’s Head
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Just preordered my copy!
Wow, with all the book royalties & speaking fees, you can probably quit your day job, Travis, & write full time. Won’t your wife be thrilled!
Anyway, great job & looking forward to the book. Thanks for sharing the Table of Contents with us. Looks fascinating!! Can hardly wait. Now, if I could just get around to reading John’s Deathly Hallows Lectures…
Thanks for posting the Table of Contents. I can’t wait to read your book because if the above is any indication, it looks like an enjoyable read. I preordered my copy just now, although I have a question. Will you be autographing them? Just wondering.
Congratulations, Travis! I look forward to reading it.
I just had the opportunity to work with Travis at the NIU Harry Potter Conference this last weekend and gleened some subject material and content to different elements in Travis’ new book.
This book is definately a “must-read” for any Potter fan or acedemic, as this work covers the literary, political and symbolic meanings internal within the seven book Harry Potter saga.
I’m excited for you Travis on this book and looking forward to its release soon.
I just twittered about the book, posted my facebook status, and publicized it through Hogwarts Radio, and HPANA.com. good luck!
Jeremy, thanks! Would you mind posting this same comment over in the contest thread? When I go to count up name entries, I’ll do it by reading that thread.
Also: Just out of curiosity, where at HPANA.com is the book publicized? Could you link me to it?
I never read a book from beginning to end. In this case, I’ll start with Chapter 9, then 6 and 10, and then 14. And maybe 11. After that I’ll take my bearings and see what else is on the menu that looks interesting.
I expect Chapter 9 will generate a lot of discussion.
I think revgeorge has asked this question already, but Travis: should we put much emphasis on anything you say after publication, or should we just go with the text? Should you, in fact, take part in the discussions at all? And if so, what should your role then be? First amongst equals?
It’s its own text. In all likelihood (I was just saying this to John over email), there will be parts of my arguments that I end up disagreeing with. When I post the panel discussion from NIU, you’ll hear a funny portion where David Gras quotes from one of John’s books, and John disagrees with it. I imagine there will be a few moments like that.
So it’ll be a conversation based on a text containing ideas about Harry Potter.
But the text didn’t write itself. So if you’re in the room (virtually speaking) then are you not in a privileged position to tell us what it all means?
And isn’t it a bit early for you to be giving yourself permission to disagree with your own arguments?
This is going to be fun. And it will be so much more fun if you don’t get to disagree with yourself but defend the text as the word from on high.
We probably need a grand title for Travis in regard to his book. Maybe something like Lord High Interpreter? It sounds much cooler than First Among Equals.
Rocker, I think chapter 10 may generate as much discussion as 9. The Cult of Snape? That oughta rile some people up.
Not Primus inter pares? I think it’s got some zing. And we could informally call him Pip, sort of like the MI5 and M
I like the idea of Snape as the Shapeshifter. It’s very apt, I think. I just wish JKR had gone a little further in getting Harry to look at what he learned from Snape, along the lines of his conversation with Dumbledore at King’s Cross. But what’s done is done. Someone once said that a true tragedy would be a story in which the principals never met. That’s how I feel about that.
But the Cult of Snape? That conjures up visions of groupies and fangirls and fanboys. But yes, I do remember the dismay amongst some quarters when Snape died his lonely – and pretty much meaningless and unmourned – death. I wasn’t too happy about it myself, but got over it as soon as I moved on to the next chapter. Let’s see if Travis affords some closure on this, or whether he just tears the scabs off half-healed wounds.
I’m up for it.
Primus inter pares works. Saying it in the Latin makes it sound more noble & authoritative.
I agree on your points with Snape’s death, for the most part. I’m not sure it would’ve felt right, though, or authentic to have a living reconciliation between Harry & Snape. Mainly because I don’t think Snape could’ve gotten past James. But we’ll see how Travis deals with it. It will be fun. At least for us. I don’t know about Travis so much. More like having your paper peer reviewed in a graduate seminar.
Actually, the text did write itself. It was very strange. I kept feeling compelled to offer up these weird sacrifices to unnamed powers, and then I’d go into a trance and come out with another chapter written.
Y’all are going to be a blast to discuss this with.
Red Rocker, where’d your avatar go?
I’m trying to remember what I wrote about Snape as I type this. I haven’t revisited that in a while. “Cult” is, of course, a provocative word, and I do some examination of fanboy/fangirl stuff, as well as literary analysis. I think you’ll find the title, rather than the subtitle, even more provocative, as I think it’s Rowling who, unfortunately, did the sacking (and Red Rocker seems to agree).
revgeorge: I agree on your points with Snape’s death, for the most part. I’m not sure it would’ve felt right, though, or authentic to have a living reconciliation between Harry & Snape. Mainly because I don’t think Snape could’ve gotten past James.
Trust me, it didn’t feel right when I read it in a fanfic by someone I had liked until then. It was contrived and so out of character for Harry and Snape to change from snarling with one another to having heart to heart chats and walk off into the sunset as friends. It was just wrong, turning Snape into someone he was never going to be. And the funny thing is, I thought that I wanted them to have that moment of face to face reconciliation. Maybe it would have worked if Rowling had written Snape’s reaction to Harry’s pensieve snooping differently, and Harry had actually been able to tell Snape that he did understand that James had been a jerk. But she didn’t.
I think cult of Snape is a great way to describe the fangirl reaction to Snape. Can’t wait for that chapter – and all the others.
(revgeorge) But we’ll see how Travis deals with it. It will be fun. At least for us. I don’t know about Travis so much. More like having your paper peer reviewed in a graduate seminar.
It will be fun. I’m looking forward to getting the book (yes, I’ve pre-ordered a while ago) and then discussing it.
Pat
Eeyore, a couple of thoughts.
My understanding of archetypes such as the Shadow, the Wise Old Man, and Shapeshifter is that they represent parts of the human experience, and are there to help the hero learn about himself and his quest. They are there to teach him lessons. The three main archetypal figures Harry deals with are Voldemort, Dumbledore, and Snape. You could write books about the lessons Harry learns from and through each of these figures, but in a nutshell, this is what I see:
Through Voldemort Harry learns his most crucial lesson: fear of death, rather than death itself, is the true enemy; it is possible to transcend death through love. Through Dumbledore Harry learns about what it takes to become a man: as a child he looks up to Dumbledore and needs him and learns from him; as he grows up, he learns to do his own thinking and make his own decisions. Growing up means not so much that he doesn’t need Dumbledore, but that he can walk alone – even to his death – when he needs to. And from Snape Harry learns what? That appearances can be deceiving; that someone can seem foul and feel fairer, or in Strider’s words: All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.
Now the interesting thing about two of these life lessons are that they are highlighted by a final conversation between the character most connected to the lesson, and the learner: Harry. There is the conversation at King’s Cross between Harry and Dumbledore when the two of them go over their unsettled business, and establish a common understanding of what happened and why. There is a very different conversation with Voldemort, when Harry tries to show Voldemort where he went wrong, and offers him one last chance to go right. Voldemort refuses – and pays the ultimate price. It’s a resolution of sorts: it confirms for Harry that love trumps fear of death (Voldemort!) and shows Voldemort that he doesn’t have the means to defeat death.
But for Snape and Harry, there is no final conversation. There is no chance to stand together and look at the pattern of their interactions, and what that means to them – as well as the greater world. Snape dies thinking of Lily; Harry gets to look at his memories in his absence and learn his lesson without the teacher.
Why so? Why is the pattern different for Snape?
Part of me – the part that dabbles in writing – thinks its because the author ran out of story time and space and “emotional” room: she only had enough space to write two of the three resolutions she needed. Couldn’t exclude that final conversation with Dumbledore, nor the final battle with Voldemort, so Snape got shortchanged. Another part of me – the analytic critic – thinks that she had never intended Snape – and his life lesson – to grow as large as he did. And perhaps in her own mind, he was never as large as he was for us. So in her own mind, she did not give him short shrift; she gave him as much story room as she believed he merited.
So one of the questions for me is this: was Snape as important to the story as we believed him to be? Plot wise, he was essential. Emotionally? He certainly seemed to be, to Harry as well as us. But how about that life lesson? How important was it for Harry to learn that appearances can be deceiving? He had learned all his life that bad things come in innocent-seeming packages; was it as important to learn that good things could come in ugly packages?
Maybe not so much.
In trying to explain Snape’s role, I kind of lost track of my main point.
The final resolution I was looking for between Harry and Snape would not necessarily end up with the two of them walking hand in hand towards the sunset. That would be false, as Eeyore said. It would not be tears and forgiveness and reconciliation, as per Dumbledore. And it probably wouldn’t be a complete inability to see the other’s point of view, as per Voldemort. But something, some mutual recognition. As it sits now, Snape dies not even seeing Harry – only Lily. And maybe that’s an answer of sorts. That for Snape Harry was never a real person, just a symbol of his hatred for James and his love for Lily.
I think I’ve answered my own question. That final conversation was never going to take place because Harry was never actually a real person for Snape.
I can’t let this one go.
Maybe it was not as much that Snape had a lesson to teach Harry, but that Harry himself was Snape’s life lesson. Lesson being that love is more important than hate, and trumps hate. And if you miss the lesson the first time, life will give you the chance to make up for it, but it will be hard going.
And taking this analysis to its logical conclusion, if Snape had vital lessons to learn from Harry, then doesn’t it mean that Snape was also a hero of the tale? That just like Harry (and Ron and Neville, the other two “dynamic” characters) he too had a quest, and had to struggle against his own tendencies in order to fulfill his destiny?
So that while Snape was a Shapeshifter archetype in Harry’s story, he too had archetypes in his own story: the Shadow (James and Voldemort), Wise Old Man (who but Dumbledore!), anima (Lily, of course!) and the Child – abandoned or orphaned child, wounded child, divine child – who would be none other than Harry James Potter.
A very nice summary & examination of Snape, Rocker. I think it may be a little of all that you’ve brought up. First, with Snape, that the author herself didn’t realize the role he’d come to play & that his story or motivations became just as important to us as the story of Harry. And it goes way deeper than we just love to love a good baddy or that bad boys are more attractive. I think a lot of people were wanting to understand Snape & to find out what his true motivations were & to come to grips with him as a person & not just as a plot device.
Of course, maybe Rowling just ran out of time, too, or quite possibly couldn’t think of a plausible way to have the Snape/Harry denouement. I think also the point you make about Snape’s inability to see Harry as a real person on his own, unfiltered through the hatred of James & the love or obsession of Lily is a very strong one. Dumbledore tries to point this out to Snape in DH wrt Snape’s prejudices about Harry.
I still think any face to face resolution between Harry & Snape would’ve felt off kilter or not right. Harry’s pretty thick sometimes, even at the end, & I think he needed to see Snape somewhat abstractly, through the lens of Snape’s memories. And through this he does come to a resolution with Snape & forgiveness for him. I still find it satisfying, even if I might sometimes wish for more.
Red Rocker,
I disagree that Harry was never a real person to Snape. I feel that he was beginning to thaw during some of the occlumancy lessons but then he got hurt again or he could only interpret Harry’s actions through his pain.
There’s a few times in the series when Snape seems to wake up and see that Harry is a person. When Harry speaks parsceltongue, when he uses the shield charm to block out his occlumancy, the fight after Dumbledore’s death.
I think any resolution between them would be shown by mutual respect, not singing We are the World together. Harry ends up with a lot of respect for Snape. Maybe because he has more experience in forgiveness than Snape who has held a grudge across generations.
Oh crap, revgeorge!
It’s Godzirra!
revgeorge, you’ve changed your avatar.
Is that Godzilla? And what does it mean when you go from a tiny blue penguin that epitomizes technology to a gigantic mutated pre-historic lizard?
Red Rocker’s comment #16, and most of the content of the 2 follow-ups, presents a nice summary of my analysis in Chapter 10. Well said.
Rocker, yes, it’s Godzilla. The 1954 original version. No particular reason for the change other than that everyone else was changing their avatars & that I like Godzilla.
So when’s the release date? Give or take.
I’m still not seeing a changed avatar for revgeorge.
My book is being uploaded as I type this. Release date is (give or take) Dec 10 – George MacDonald’s birthday!
My new avatar comes through for me, although I had to clear my cache yesterday when I changed it. Just picture Godzilla with part of a train in his mouth & hand.
Since we’re talking avatars:
I changed mine yesterday for the sake of the giveaway. It didn’t appear initially, came through once, and then disappeared, leaving me with the pink/purple monster. I tried fixing it twice, to no avail. Earlier today I switched to the current one (Red Rocker v9) and it came through soon after. No idea what was going on.