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Edmund Kern

Portus 2008, Day 3: End of Day Report

by Travis Prinzi on July 13, 2008

This will actually be the last Portus update, since I’m flying out too early tomorrow to make it to any of the closing events.  I’ll be writing more on Portus, podcasting, and doing an essay or two at Suite101.  For now, just a few quick updates.

Though I’m convinced of the Christian reading of “King’s Cross,” Edmund Kern did a nice job of laying out the case for the passage’s ambiguity.  Dr. Kern takes a secular reading of the series, and sees King’s Cross as something that exists entirely in the imagination of Harry.  We had a pleasant discussion later in the evening, which was unfortunately cut short by the fact that I was extremely exhausted and need to get back here, write this, and sleep before my flight tomorrow.  I look forward to corresponding with him in the future.

I also had a very enjoyable talk with Dr. James Thomas, who, as I said, gave what I think was the best presentation of the weekend.  

Yesterday, David Gras did a roundtable called “Harry Potter and the Bridge Between Two Worldviews.”  ”A Bridge Between Two Worldviews” turned out to be a literal description of the Hilton Anatole today, because on one side of the hotel was Harry Potter fandom, and on the other, a Gospel for Asia missions conference.  Jeffrey Weiss picked up on the interesting situation as well and blogged about it here.  Apparently, apart from a few minor and irritating scuffles, the two groups managed to avoid hostilities and be civil.  In my rush from presentation to presentation, I missed the interactions.

It was a fun conference.  Now it’s time to rest, fly home, work for two days, and then start my family vacation with my two favorite people in the entire world, whom I’ve missed terribly these past few days.

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Portus 2008, Day 3: Midday Report

by Travis Prinzi on July 12, 2008

This morning, I got up early enough to make it to the hotel for a small press gathering with Jim Dale.  In the next week or so, I’ll do a podcast with audio clips and reflections on that.  His talk was excellent; he’s a very engaging speaker.

My second talk went well, I think.  ”Hogwarts, A (Haunted) History” is still a bit organizationally challenged, but it was well-received, and I was pleased that well over half the people in the room were Lovecraft fans.  What is particularly validating for me was this simple observation from James Thomas: Fear and Sacrificial Love are the two key thematic elements of the series.  My two talks were on those two precise themes, and, in fact, I constructed the major thematic analysis in my book around those two key themes.  I feared, to an extent, that I had oversimplified, but I am more convinced than ever that those two issues are at the crux of the series, and that they make up the central conflict in a series that is “about death” – and that all the issues of power flow from there.

The rest of this afternoon will be spent enjoying other talks without having to think about my own.  I’m meeting for “afternoon tea” with James Thomas, trying to arrange a few other meetings, and hopefully, if our schedules work out, grabbing a beer later with a friend from the Boar’s Head Tavern (great name, right?) later tonight.  Next on the schedule, I’m heading to hear Edmund Kern argue that “King’s Cross” in Deathly Hallows was entirely Harry’s imagination, and that Dumbledore wasn’t really there at all.  I disagree, but it will be fun, and I do admit Rowling left the ambiguity there on purpose.  This afternoon, I’m utterly torn between three different presentations.  I need a Time Turner.  Too bad they all got smashed.

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