Canon and Fanon: Figuring Out Fandom at Lumos 2006

Ok, as Pauli said ... many posts on their way. This is just a quickie though as far as my sort of "learning curve" at Lumos this year. The ladies who I ran into from Le Moyne College in Syracuse NY (Dr. Cathy Leogrande and Sarah Fleming) were really helpful in helping me get a "birds eye view" of HP fandom as it was represented at Lumos. I'm only going to go into one pair of terms, the two that sort of define the major lines of the HP "fandom" (well, the term "fandom" itself, from what I can gather, applies more specifically to the fanfic side, but it seems to me that it should cover all who are fans of the works). Many who read this may already know this material, I'm just throwing it out there really quickly in case any are like me, who was not really familiar with it until Lumos. The "canon" obviously refers to Jo's work, the actual Harry Potter books, and I'm guessing the two schoolbooks fall into this but maybe people have a subcategory for them. The "fanon" is the ever-growing body of "fanfic," which appears to be quite sizeable. As "secondary writers" like Pauli and myself and John Granger, I don't think we have an "official" status or term, except something general like "commentators" on the canon. John's work obviously falls under the heading of "people who are actually published and making some well deserved money on it because they are really good scholars and writers". I would guess that Jo's interview comments fall along the same line, although obviously much higher authority (although also more mysterious and ambiguous because she is not trying to give anything away) ... falling somewhere between the academic categories of "primary text" and "secondary resource", although closer to the former. According to the Le Moyne ladies, last year's conference, the Witching Hour, appropriately held in Salem, MA, had a much higher percentage of "fanon" people. They said this year there were probably the same number of fanon people but with the increased size of the conference I would guess that brought the fanon percentage down to around 50. Of the remaining 50 percent I would guess that it was split roughly about in half between people writing mainly on educational issues and those writing on literary analysis of the content ... that's just my rough guess of the breakdown though. Then, I would add in what I call the "facilitators." This crowd seems to me to be the "backbone" structure of "fandom" as such. Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron seem to be the two biggest, and combined as the "Leaky Mug" they had a HUGE draw at Lumos. They seem to me, in what they actually produce, to stick mainly to pieces on the material details of the canon and what might be predictable from those said details, such as Mugglenet putting up the piece of the theory that Slughorn stood in for Dumbledore, etc. They also facilitate the "fanon" side of fandom with links to the bigger fanfic network pages etc, but in what they actually put up on their site (aside from the message boards and discussion groups they run, which are pretty huge in themselves), sticking to the basics seems to best allow them to sort of service the largest amount of the "fandom." I would put Steve Vander Ark in this category too because of the focus of his work on filling in the "encyclopedia gaps" left when you experience the world in a story, like an actual visual map of Hogwarts before she put one out, and his matched hers almost exactly when she did put it out, and compiling info together from throughout the work. His is a work that can be, and is, used by all parts of fandom: Pauli and I checking on facts to see if our philosophical/religious readings jive with the physical facts (which is a core tenet of an "incarnational approach" and not becoming gnostic about it); people like Felicity working on really good theories and predictions use it for research; and I imagine fanfic writers use it for consistency and details in their stories, i.e. helpful in keeping the "fanon" materially congruent with the "canon". Anyway, that is my "bird's eye view" of Harry Potter "fandom" as I kind of got it at Lumos. There are other breakdowns within the "fanon" that I learned about which I won't go into here ... some for time consideration and some for appropriateness for our audience ... but also wanting to be helpful, I'll say that if you have kids and do not know what the terms "slash" and "het" mean [as I did not, and wondered when one of the talks was titled "slash vs het"] - just email me at the address I have here and I'll tell you what I know - always interested in helping people be informed, especially parents), and how it was represented at Lumos - so hopefully it is helpful to some ... I know it was helpful and educational to me learning it this weekend and I was grateful to Cathy and Sarah for taking the time to fill it in for me and some of the history of how the dynamic has been in the history of the conferences. The whole thing is a pretty interesting phenomenon on the sociological level. Post Script I just wanted to throw this in here because I forgot to before, and since I mention Felicity in this post I figure it would be a good place. One of the reasons I really like her theory on the Horcruxes being at Hogwarts is that it would keep the book, as a series culmination focused on the school (which represents the world we live in as a whole, with the 4 houses and 4 elements and all ... which makes it really important). Like I said in the comments of the "It's All Right Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" post (responding to Pauli's comment about Dylan's album "Bringing It All Back Home" in general) ... I think Book 7 will revolve around a series of "homecomings" (or "sorts of homecomings" ... I use that phrase for Jo2: in highschool one of my fave songs was "A Sort of Homecoming," both the "Unforgettable Fire" version and the "Wide Awake in America" one) - I think Privet Drive and Hogwarts will be 2 major ones and I like Felicity's theory that places a central part of the battle there (I think the Burrow and the Old Riddle House may be in there as "parallel homes" for Harry and Voldy. I also think that the MOM will be there in a central conflict between The Love Room and the Death Room). Felicity's post is a good example of what I spoke of above as the importance of the "incarnational." When Pauli and I work on the side we work on, it is so cool to see somebody like Felicity working the detective angle in a way that, if she's right, goes along with some of these "deeper meanings" people like Granger discover, and shows how important it is for such "deeper meanings" to have congruity with the physical side of the equation ... the two are meant to work together, and there is a unique dignity to the physicality. Anyway, I promise more Lumos material forthrightly. :)

And many more...

Happy Birthday to both J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter! You can add your best wishes in the comments at this mugglenet post. Well, Merlin has returned with many tales to tell. He's "off" today, taking care of many logistical issues regarding his past, present and future living arrangements. We'll be seeing a lot of post-Lumos posts up in the next few weeks, I'll warrant.

Oh, no, I've been TAGGED!

New dad Travis tagged Merlin and I to answer a bunch of questions about books. So... 1. One book that changed your life: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis This book made me realize that I could lose my soul and go to hell. If I hadn't read it, I might be there right now. Seriously. 2. One book that you've read more than once: The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton This book blew me away a decade ago and more recently about a year ago. It's not the easiest read, but don't give up on it. Just take small bites. 3. One book you'd want on a desert island: Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy The Deep Thoughts would go good with the sound of the waves crashing, I think, and it might make me laugh as I meditated on my plight and talked to Wilson. 4. One book that made you laugh: Groucho and Me by Groucho Marx The famed funny man's auto-biography. 5. One book that made you cry: Right Turns by Michael Medved During the part with his ancestors and relatives dying in their attempts to come over to America. Oy, was I bawling. 6. One book that you wish had been written: How to Stop What Will Happen on 9/11/2001 by Whoever 7. One book you wish had never been written: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Fred Engels I'm sure there are lots that could be placed here -- that was just the first that came to mind. Probably because of Groucho above, no relation. 8. One book you're currently reading: The Grail Code by Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey 9. One book you've been meaning to read: Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) Sitting in my shelf, collecting dust while I blog about Harry Potter. 10. Now I'm supposed to "tag" people. Uhhhh.....this is like duck-duck-goose, right? Whitney John (Cubeland Mystic) Felicity Mr. Barlow JKR2 Thanks, Travis, that was actually fun.

Lumos 2006 Class Notes - Saturday - # 2

Why Voldemort Cannot be Named: Traditions, Taboo and Language in Rowling's Harry Potter -by Jeanne M. LaHaie This was, overall, a pretty interesting talk (and truly informative), even though I suspect this woman and I would not necessarily see eye to eye on some things (I'll stay away from some things ... she said "I'm more of a ..." but I couldn't figure out how that impacted her particular reading/interpretation here - so it seemed to me like it didn't impact how interesting I found her talk to me, which was cool with me). She was basically making a suggestion of one possible source for the not naming Voldy thing - medieval Jewish magical practice ("Jewish Name Magic") and its taboos. Apparently they would not say the name of an evil deity because to even speak the name at least risked calling said evil deity to interact with you. This of course automatically set off the mental bell on Granger's thing on invocational magic versus incantational. In having Harry and Dumbledore call Voldy by his "dark lord" name, Rowling is actually not only using incantational magic and not using invocational magic, she is even presenting an argument (well, in the way that stories in particular present their arguments) against invocational magic. If somebody who does not worship a certain deity, say Baal, is still afraid to say the name, they are ascribing a power to Baal (or whatever spirits/demons may have "piggy-backed" on Baal worship) that Baal might not have, giving him undue credit for power by fearing him in that way ... and ironically it is often this very type of thing that actually does give such entities the power (although, I'm not saying to be flippant with a demons name; Baal/demon does not have that power because Christ is more powerful, not because any of us are). Secondly, there was a neat parallel she had with the myths of Jewish Rabbis in a certain area (Prague, I think) in the middle ages forming a sort of protector from clay (only a very holy Rabbi had the power to do this) and inscribing one of the names of God on its forehead. At some point the protector becomes self-aware, but then, after the protector had saved the people from the particular evil in the story the Rabbi would remove the name and it would return to clay. This is a parallel that would lead one to believe that the scar might be removed when Harry has vanquished Voldy ... interesting theory (it would maybe mean too that Harry will die but then Harry did exist before receiving the scar. Voldy did not create Harry, only made him his equal). Beyond that there are just a few interesting incidentals, some of hers and some of my mental hiccups from her stuff. She noted that these days title names refer only to context/function ... sort of stripped of idea of "person," which I found interesting. She also tied the lightning bolt to the sign of Zeus and the fear of Zeus. The talk also made me think of the movie "Pi" (the Greek symbol for 3.14...) but I would not recommend that movie to everyone, it is highly stylized and can be quite jarring (my sister, Pauli's wife, found nothing wrong or objectionable with it, but just the style really grated on her nerves) ... anyway, in that movie there is a set of Hasidic Jews trying to persuade the main character (an atheist of Jewish descent who is a number theorist trying to figure out the mathematical system behind the stock market, and also suffers intense [and intensely represented, hence the jarringness] migraine headaches and is paranoid reclusive) to share with them the 216 digit number his computer spit out just before it melted and just after it made a set of stock market picks that contained two picks that were completely illogical ... but dead on. Apparently their lore said that at the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD the last high priest was taken up into heaven, taking with him the true name of God, which has a numerical value of 216 in Hebrew. All that to say that names are really important, and hence the giving and taking of names. In Genesis there is specific formulaic text for God giving names to what He creates and the first task for man as having dominion over the earth is to name the animals (and indeed this leads to the revelation that there was not a mate suitable for him among the animals and the creation of the woman). Voldy's renaming of himself could be seen as a "dark re-creation" of himself. Fasinating stuff. The Slytherin Question by Eva Thienpont Ok, this one is for Pauli because he wanted to hear it. But also, when I thought about doing it tonight (not going to get to all of them tonight) I was thinking "hmmm not as much interesting as Pauli might have hoped" and I was thinking of doing another one because I thought that one had a point on it I thought very interesting (on the pentangle as a magical symbol) ... but then I checked the notes and found that indeed the other talk did NOT have the pentangle point ... this one did. Anyway, this lady started with some interesting observations: Rowling's interview statements on Slytherin as "embracing the flaws," the fact that traitors are not unique to Slytherin - Wormtail is arguably the biggest traitor because he was supposed to be the Potters' friend, and he was a Gryffindor, and the fact that everyone in the Order of the Phoenix whose house is known was from Gryffindor except Snape. She moved from there to the "nature/nurture" debate in regards to Draco and Snape and Voldy, then discussed the "non-interference" policy at Hogwarts and the probability that it is something Rowling agrees with, then set up Gryffindor and Slytherin as a pair, with the former being courage and the latter calculation, and noted a quote from Rowling in an interview saying "the sorting hat is never wrong." Finally, what she really blew me away with was the pentangle as a magical symbol. Four of the points on the pentangle are for the 4 cosmological elements (fire, earth, air, water), but there is a fifth point symbolizing their unity. In other words, once you get rid of Voldy, all you have is the four points still in oppositional tension ... you need a fifth point to be their unity. I think it is Granger in Looking For God in Harry Potter (but if it is not, if it was in your stuff Felicity ... I apologize ... a lot of stuff flowing in through my eyes and ears recently :) ) that voiced the suspicion that Harry will be shown to have the blood of all 4 founders (or in the case of Slytherin, Voldy's infusion of power/gifts). But, if Harry still hates Snape, he cannot be the unity point. Harry will not only need to see Snape through his mother's eyes of compassion, but part of that will be seeing the world through Snape's eyes ... in short, he must have not just sympathy for, but empathy with Snape. Without this all is still the four points of tension. Thus she surmises that Harry will overcome Voldy before reconciling with Snape. I have noted this same sort of thing in Lord of the Rings: the ring is destroyed, the black riders gone, we have reached the climax right? No, evil, by definition, cannot exist without good, but good is always more than just the conquering of evil, it has a positive existence of its own. Thus on mid-summer's eve you have the onset of evil in the form of the black riders crossing the fords of Isen, and mid-summers eve one year later you have the symbol of evil finally overcome in Arwen arriving with the company from the north, betrothed to Aragorn. But the wedding itself is on Midsummer's day, beyond the mid-summer's eve book-end framework. The true culmination of the 7th HP book will be a positive relationship between Harry and Snape, even if it only takes place and the deathbed of one or both. I think it was this lady, but it may have been somebody else, who said that the "If I meet Severus Snape along the way, so much the better for me, so much the worse for him" line is a very Slytherin thing to say -- Harry has more of it in him than he realizes. The Slytherin Problem The whole thing in all of this is a point this lady brought out, that in the sorting hat's songs there seems to be the idea that Salazar and Godric were good friends before the disagreement about "blood purity" came up ... ie, there was unity. It would seem to me that if the school with its houses represents the cosmos (4 elements cosmology ... she used the Rowling Quote that Granger had about the houses and the elements) then this original unity lay in the actual founding of the school ... originally the school was the unity. But like in Creation, the seeds of disunity are sown, not in the founding itself, but very quickly thereafter. Eventually this disunity crescendoes to Voldemort and the progress must be made beyond an institution as the unity, to a person as the unity (much like the development from the institution of the Old Testament Law to the person of Christ in the New Testament). This is much like the thought that is developed with regards to the Garden of Eden, that it was not ever meant to be the final rest, but rather a probation ground. So, if the couple had not sinned then the development would have come in another form that was "reward" rather than "redemption," but still the Incarnation. Either way, as concerns the Potter series, this final unity will have to involve Slytherin in the equation. I think, and I think what she was driving at, is that Snape will be crucial to this, and not just as "a Gryffindor in Slytherin Clothing." It will be through his genuine Slytherin perspective of calculation (in the talk on memory, which I'll get to later, it was mentioned that Snape says to Harry in Book 5, that in not closing his mind, in allowing Snape into his memory, he gives Snape weapons to use ... it will likely be something about this kind of understanding that Snape has that will have played some crucial role in the physical events that help Harry to overcome Voldy, and Harry will have to "get it" that this was the case and that Snape was doing right ... did I already mention in writing on one of the talks that somebody presented the theory that even in actively killing Dumbledore, as a "cunning" and calculating move, that he was doing the "best thing," because he was weighing the life of Dumbledore, as an already doomed man, against his own usefulness to the good cause and that of Harry's survival?) End Anyway, that is it for tonight ... I'll continue the "Lumos Findings" when I get back up North East. :)

Lumos 2006 Class Notes - Saturday - # 1

Ok, this has been a mental whirlwind ... some seriously packed speakers here, pretty exciting. This is going to be sort of a "highlights" of the stuff I went to today. There is still a ton to unpack ... 5 talks to listen to on CD that I did not make it to, another one I thought of that I am going to hop over there and order or order by email (the one on the "trickster" type) ... or maybe I'll just read the paper - there is a CD of data that was included with the packet that has all of the papers that were presented by non-"headliner acts." Amazing. I would suggest going to the Lumos website and see what deal they have going on as far as paper publication or download publication; their official deal with the presenters is publication of the papers. But for now, here are the highlights and we'll discuss more later (drop comments here about what interests you most and I'll be sure to dig especially for that in the CD of the papers). The Byronic Hero and the Gothic Fathers of Snape That is, Lord Byron's gothic hero. Pretty interesting. ... There are 3 types that influence Snape as Byron's gothic hero: The "noble outlaw" (Sirius Black), the "gothic villain" (Voldemort) and the Prometheus character (Dumbledore). The gothic villain is usually mysterious and handsome (as is young Tom Riddle, a charmer) - the Byronic hero elevated to a level beyond the human condition to a level that would usually kill such a hero; Prometheus is not gothic at all - his main crime is being kind or merciful ("I trust Severus Snape completely.") What interested me was the outlaw because that character contributes anti-social/solitude characteristics. Here Linday Ludvigsen (the presenter) noted the individualistic tendency of Slytherin house (vs the group identity exhibited in the other houses) in this development of Snape (influence of Black on a Slytherin). In the other 3 houses people hold each other accountable for how their actions affect the house standing as far as points especially. (In Slytherin they won't say "hey, that's wrong, don't do it and get us in trouble" they'll say "whatever you do is your business, just don't get caught). It really interested me because of some concepts in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger that my housemate Dom and I have talked about. Heidegger is a controversial figure, and there are some real reasons for that (including having been a member of the Nazi party) -- and I am not claiming all of his philosophy to be sound. But if you're like Dom, you look for the elements in a philosophy that, even if they are in a flawed form, once carefully separated from the flaws, are redeemable. Thus he take MH's 2 terms Daseign and Dasmann. The first is an individual being. The second is maybe closest to "group identity." Dom puts it "it is the someone new to be." In other words, in the group identity the sum is more than the whole of its parts because each of the parts is now given over to a new dimension of identity, that is being "a member of this or that particular group." I have always been cautious of the dasmann, the group identity, the "us" ... mainly because it usually seems to yield a them as an "excluded other." I have said in conversation that "the only safe dasmanns are those that are sacramentally-based, such as the mystical body of Christ in the Church, marriage and family (believing as a Catholic that marriage is a sacrament) etc. But this causes me to formulate a little more subtly because the dasmann of the houses is a good thing. As a Christian-Catholic interpreter I would say that, on the symbolic level, the houses, as institutions of a school of magic, can be "given" in the way the sacramental is. A lot of fine lines here: you can become wrongly prejudicial about even such divinely given dasmanns. Sometimes the reclusiveness of the Slytherin could be all right as a balance to an over-zealous group identity ... but not at Voldy's level (I think there is more meant to be a dynamic flow of give and take between individual identity and identity as part of a group ... and Voldy never had the other distinct thing, the trust thing of what Martin Buber talks about as the "I and Thou" relationship, which is not a group identity, but rather a relation to an other, but not an excluded other). Slytherin house did turn out more definitely dark wizards. That was more than a highlight of my thoughts interwoven with the talk ... I'm going to go get some food and write more later. I promise, there is a lot for of good stuff and fun stuff to come! (NOTE: See Comment 1 for a content amendment by Merlin to this post)

Busted at Lumos 2006!

Well, It finally happened ... Snape busted me and exposed me to the whole Lumos wizarding community as a were-pirate. The Ministry swooped in and had me before the Wizengamot in a matter of seconds. A laptop with wi-fi was brought in and www.MuggleMatters.com brought up and they indicted me instantaneously of writing about Pirates of the Caribbean on a Harry Potter named page. They were just bringing that Dementor back in to give me a nasty smooch when I managed to escape through a daring burst of swashbuckling and magic. I hopped up on a table and grabbed a chandelier and swung and jumped (acrobatically doing a couple flips in mid-air, narrowly missed by numerous stun and impediment spells), landing just beyond the area protected by anti-apparition enchantments and apparated back to my hotel room across the way ... but not before yelling "Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherins! You will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain ... uh ... er ... Wizard Merlinus Ambrettus!" The conference is not actually over yet and I am not actually leaving till tomorrow but I thought I would come over here and blog. They're having an auction and stuff tomorrow and the leaving feast (but I would not be in the great hall for that one anyway ... and it's from 9 -11, which makes going to Church at the Cathedral way over by the strip and getting to the airport on time for the security checks and all for the flight a little close). Tonight is mainly eaten up at the conference with a HUGE podcast by "LeakyMug" - the combined forces of Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron. I figure they will have that available online for those interested, but I would have gone anyway if it wasn't just madly packed. Seriously, the thing did not start til 6 or 6:30 and there was already a huge line when I was walking to the last class at 4 pm. I'm more the academic type and am not really well traveled in the HP "fandom," but I gotta tell ya ... those folks have some seriously dedicated and excited fans... it's pretty cool.

More Lumos Pictures and Morning Report

Wow ... busy and dangerous morning here at the Marriott in Vegas ... first thing I get here this morning, still groggy, and I get attacked by a Dementor in the hallways and have to kick his butt practically all by myself to save this girl. And Harry was even nearby, but apparently he was too engrossed in Hogwart's a History (yeah, right) to lend a hand. Luna was nearby with her lion hat but she said she and her said hat and friends only specialize in support at Quidditch games. After that I just narrowly slipped by Draco and Lucius and a gang of Slytherins, but you can sort of see Lucius sitting there smiling evilly at me, I know just ready to whip that wand out of that cane and hex me ... but, like I said, I escaped ... Well, that is I escaped from the frying pan into the fire ... right into the clutches of Ritah Skeeter, who thought it was terribly interesting that I kicked a Dementor's cold, scaly posterior all by me onesy but started focusing immediately on how I got my start as a complete wild nutter up in the hills (in the early Arthurian material.) My case was definitely not helped by the fact that this guy, a vendor at the conference, who looks like he might even be crazier than me, if that's possible, was the only one who lent a hand in any way with said demented beastie. I skillfully got Ritah focused on said nutty vendor and proceeded to actually accomplish one of my stated missions for today ... a pic of Red Hen. Sorry for the darkness, it was from a distance with the zoom ... she was giving an interview to some podcast (probably Mugglenet) and just as that was ending there was a mad queue for a talk in the nearest marquis, so I didn't get to talk to her or get my pic with her, but the day is not done yet... Her name is Joyce Odell. Anyway ... there was a mix up with the ticket John gave me ... it was the red ticket that was for today's luncheon and he gave me the blue one ... oh, well ... hearing him and talking yesterday with him was the real bonus (but the meal would have been nice and I would have liked to hear the stuff on education models at Hogwarts.) This morning I heard a talk on Snape as a Byronic (as in Lord Byron) gothic hero and the different literary types that contribute to him, which I'll do a spot more on later, and a talk on the whole not mentioning Voldy's name and Judaic medieval magic practices of fear of names and invocational magic (which kind of connects with Granger's stuff on it in Looking for God in Harry Potter, but with an interesting twist on Voldy ... more on that later, too.) Good lineup this afternoon for me: - A Shining Silver Thread: Memory and Identity in Harry Potter - The Slytherin Question - Harry Potter and the Problem of Evil: An Ancient Riddle Revisited (I'm drooling over that one ... the guy's bio sounds like he is an old-school powerhouse - Rev. Francis Bridger.) - On Hobbits and Wizards: Comparing the Magical Realms of Middle-Earth And with that, I'm off to class!

Lumos 2006 Class Notes - Friday

OK - I was a delinquent student and missed a couple classes, but they have an order sheet of CD recordings of the talk, I got the order form. They said that there is a website in the works to order online after the conference (not at a discount price as at the conference but I'm going to be putting the email addy up here anyway ... I missed the talk given by the ladies I ate with last night, from Le Moyn College, because I was hanging out doing the Granger thing [there was a time overlap so I only would have been able to catch half their talk anyway], but they had been telling me last years conference was much more devoted to fan-fic and art and what they are calling the "fanon" (fan canon) but this years has much more on education and using HP in education ... lots of education types here, so some of you may really find some of that really interesting ... There was a CD that came with the conference packet and if it has education stuff on it maybe we can provide some of it here.) But I got some very exciting stuff today. (I'll try to post some of the pics I took today after I get this out ... just some fun stuff of costumes, and one where you can see how packed Vander Ark's talk was.) Voldy as Malignant Narcissist - by Maria Hsia Chang Really good. She went through Voldy's characteristics and showed how they were common of pathological narcissism - such as young Tom's affable charm, being a consummate liar, but obsessed with telling when others are lying, envious and projecting that onto others (connected with the duplicity issue in HP when talking to Dumbledore, "greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies"[HBP 443]), prefers being feared to being loved (for a great portrayal of this see the lines by Chaz Palmenterri on it as "Sonny" in his movie "A Bronx Tale"), fearing loss of love (I noted to myself ... "Davey Jones"). The thing I liked about this woman's talk was her clarity on one issue. She asked the question of whether the source of this narcissism might lay in his childhood, and concluded that while there were factors there, these could not explain it all ... only his own choices could have full caused it. The best formulation was when somebody asked in the Q&A how culpable he is and if this is "mental illness." She said she has pondered this one a bit (ie this was not a pat answer, that it had taken her some thinking to arrive at this conclusion) that Voldy's is not mental illness but a spiritual illness. I was not quick thinking enough to get in on the Q&A but I should have asked her to compare and contrast Lupin and Voldy (or more accurately Lupin and Greyback) as a way to illustrate this point. If magic represents psychic capabilities, that is capabilities in the soul, that connect us to higher realities, then Lupin's "magical malady" is symbolic of psychological malady, but he does not make the same choices as Greyback or Voldemort. Religion in the Wizarding World - Panel I left this one early because it was not what I was looking for, but there were two things I thought would be useful here. 1. The reason it did not interest me is that it was too "realist." They were addressing the question "why don't kids in the books go to Church or practice a religion." They were all very professional and I respect their work, I just don't think that a good question. The one woman gave statistics on current UK and very low church attendance, especially among the predominant group, Anglicans - thus, the religious practice of Hogwarts student would accurately reflect the demographical stats in the UK. While this is a good argument for whether the books accurately do that, I don't think that doing that falls within the scope of their literary art. What I mean is that I think a much better argument is one that I heard Joseph Pearce use in a talk at Franciscan University once, regarding the absence or formal religion in Lord of the Rings. He said the setting of LOTR is "pre-Incarnation" and since it cannot be about the Jewish people, the only option would be paganism. I would prefer the term "extra-Incarnational" and HP is exactly why. The time of Harry is obviously after Christ, but the setting, because it is mythic symbolism (magic and all), is "outside" of that historical setting (ie this only bears slight coincidental common characteristics with the official genre of "historical fiction" ... it is decidedly not that genre). They do practice Christmas and Easter but only in the aspects of these holidays in which the core meaning has been diffused into sociological affectation. The panelists focused on a question "what would be the reaction in my religious tradition [they were from various backgrounds] if a kid got a letter from Hogwarts" and I just didn't feel like that was an accurate question for this issue, even though I respected the work and research they had put in on it. 2. The other thing relates to the "Potter teaches Wiccan" thing. One of the panelists (Karen Dougherty) was, in fact, a "frequent attendee of Neo-Pagan festivals ... a member of the Earth Spirit Community and ... a twenty year member member of Arn Draiocht Fein: a Druid fellowship" (- from the Lumos program) ... and her comment was "I just don't see it." (I view this as being kind of like Ian McKellan on the issue of homosexuality in Lord of the Rings ... he's a big activist for that cause, but he's also honest ... he said it would be untrue to Tolkien's text to introduce it and it would seem from his choice and performance that he still respects that text as a good piece of art to be involved with.) In Defense of Ginny: Harry's Ideal Girl - Panel There was some good stuff in this talk but only one thing I can work into a "structure/prediction" post here. Some of the other cool notes include the noticing that the library scene in Book 5 (over contacting Sirius) is where we see Harry start to trust Ginny in a mode that he can't pull off with Ron and Hermione (the trust is there but other things are too - Harry's worry about Hermione's judgment on morality and her reaction), and that each has a unique relationship with Voldy - not only unique from others but unique from each other ... Harry will never have the "possession" (the whole school year with that intimate of contact with Riddle) and she will never have his particular experience of Voldy, they will always have to trust each other's complimentary perspective and others will have to respect their combined perspective/knowledge. The thing I thought was cool was their shared "leader" role in regards to what one of the women referred to as the primary and secondary trios, especially if the primary trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione go a little bit "Indiana Jones" for a bit in book 7 - Ginny will be the leader of the trio consisting of herself, Neville and Luna (another reason to see Neville and Luna getting together ... just kidding, just thought I would toss that in there) ... I thought that was kind of cool. The only other thing here is that one of the women said that, based on reading the books and on some of the stuff Jo has said in interviews about how she wanted to craft that element of the books, romance is and will always be a "subplot" in the books, not a main plot. I would frame it, rather, in the language of symbolism in the line of thought of Charles Williams (in an out of print essay called "Religion and Love in Dante") that even not only is marriage symbolic of divine Grace (and in Catholic theology, that "symbolism" being seen as sacramental) but the psychological state of "being in love" is symbolic ... (along the lines of the medieval thing of seeing courtly love as symbolic of Grace), ie romance ... and I would call this more of a "subsidiary symbolism" in the books, but with a real connection to the main symbolism of the main plot. "Lucky You": Gender Agency and Alternate Myth Making in the Characterization of Ginny Weasley - Gareth Fisher This was a great talk. I'll try to compactly synopsize the main point and how I was a bit chuffed (I love that word since Jo2 brought it up on her site, I think from the books, but either way, I love it) that it supported my chiastic reading and the Quidditch imagery. :) The "Lucky You" is from in Book 5 when Ginny confronts Harry about the fact that he thought he was possessed but never asked the one person who really had been possessed - her - to see how his experience compared. He say "I forgot" and she says "Lucky You". Fisher started by saying he would not be focusing on the psychological meaning of myth (as do Jung and Joseph Campbell) but on the anthropological matter of myths as having a role in organizing society. Particularly he focused on the fact that this is not a static matter, but one in which some myth forms get re-written. Specifically, Ginny begins in book 2 as the "helpless maiden" heroine who owes Harry her heart because he saved her life. But Rowling rewrites the myth and in book 5 we begin to see Ginny develop as more than a helpless maiden in her relationship with Harry, and by book 6 Harry "gets the girl" but definitely out of the "heart debt for saving her life" deal ... the myth has developed. Fisher made the point that Ginny does pay Harry back, but in the form of other things he really needs like a good kick in the pants when he is moping, and also a sympathetic ear (library scene in book 5, about contacting Sirius, noted in the just previous panel discussion on Ginny). In book 5 we begin to see her development as a character and it is with the wisdom from this that she repays Harry. The thing I liked is that book 2 (Harry saves the girl) and 6 (Harry gets the girl but no longer because of the "heart debt" idea) and linked in the chiasm. The other part is that Ginny's "non-passive" quality as heroine is shown in that she gets Harry as much as he gets her in that they get together after she catches the snitch to win the match. Welcome to the Wizarding World - Steve Van Ark Let me start by saying, Van Ark is a phenomenal speaker ... completely gripping and entertaining. I wish I could give you all the whole experience. At one point he had up a map of London and was cataloguing the POA text details on the travels of the Knight Bus when it picked Harry up, then he said "so I have overlaid on this map of London the route taken by the bus on the night in question." and up came a complete mess of lines criss-crossed all over the map of England. then he said "and I have overlaid that with the flu network" and up came scribbles in another color covering the whole map as well. He had a ton of details, really fascinating, and I'll get to them under his second point, sort of my closing point on his talk. Well, let me change that - he had 2 main points: Time (such as establishment of MOM in 1692 act of secrecy) and Setting, and these had fascinating details I will put under his second "preliminary point" - things you have to understand before even beginning to talk about the Potterverse - and these 2 preliminary points will be my two main points of his talk (hope that wasn't too confusing). 1. Wizarding Logic: Because of magic, any place you are is ever only about 40 seconds from any other place. Thus, in the wizarding world (I loved this statement and so did everybody else, everyone was rolling laughing) - if you live in Hogsmeade, and you attend Hogwarts, how do you get to Hogwarts at the beginning of term? You go to London to catch the train at platform 9 and 3/4 ... because that is where the Hogwart's express leaves from and that is how you get to Hogwart's. My way of saying it is that in the hierarchy of truth, "scientific" truth (such as "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" - material quantification) is lower down the totem pole that things such as relationship and function/role. (in other words, and I can explain this a little more in comments if anybody wants ... my point is that, even the material world is not truly/fully defined by the "material quantification" of Descarte's "res extensia" ["extended reality/matter"] ... ie the it's quantifiability)) 2. "Jo Logic" The point on "material quantification" dovetails nicely with "Jo Logic" because Vander Ark himself used the language that she has a clear and vivid mental picture, but "she's not that good at quantifying it" (personally I think this is why "Jomione" has Hermione into arithmancy, which is basically numerology rather than "quantification" math, like the "precision" needed for potions. In an interview Jo said that she doesn't have a floormap of Hogwarts (although it seems like one has since been provided by her, at least as far the grounds in relation the castle), but that she does have "a clear mental picture." In fact, Vander Ark put up a map that he had made in 2001 from the books and then the one she provided since the interview and they were almost identical, and his point was not that he was so clever, but that her mental picture was so clear and brought through into the text so well that somebody else was able to make a map like this. The thing he brought out is how believable this image she has is and how well she carries it through to the page. Hence some of the stuff he went through under "place." I mean, he did or has had done some serious stuff, and it was a riot to listen to. He has a buddy in England who actually did experiments in Surrey to try to locate the location of Little Whinging ... what neighborhood did she base it on, meaning what neighborhood has the "feel" (and I mean this guy did in depth studies on the noted architecture of the Dursley house) ... and he (this correspondent of Van Ark's) even actually did one test of walking around dragging a trunk through the various neighborhoods ... and is pretty sure he found # 4 private drive. This guy also pinned down the location of the Leaky Cauldron, and there is a place in Exeter (where Jo went to university) named "Burrow Hill Farm" surrounded by locations/towns, such as "Chudley" and "Dawlish." He pointed out that the thing is not whether or not Jo consciously had these places in mind ... maybe she just passed by them once, but certain things about the world she has lived in stuck in her head, certain feels, and she is really good visualizing those feels in a concrete image of a place and at crafting those feels on the page (from my writing prof in undergrad, I would say that JKR is capable of putting "the smell" of a place on the page, the sense of smell being one of the most difficult to get but the most effective is you can nail it ... particularly the way she characterizes Harry's impression of Ginny when he smells amortensia fumes) Disney Does Derrida - John Granger Wow ... a lot to write here ... I may just pop some highlights up and then write a more thorough post when I get back, because in conversing with him briefly outside after the talk I got to ask him some about something from "Looking for God in Harry Potter" that I want to write about too because it relates (when I get the lines of thought drawn out) to the whole "bipartite vs tripartite" discussion Jo2 and I have delved into here). First of all ... John Granger is a great guy. He's a great speaker too: energetic, genuine, clear ... in short amazing. Second, I really respect the attention he gives and the respect he has for the intellectual hard work of others and the genuine interest he shows in it. Let me explain: there were two women with him helping him, one was his wife and there was another, and I'm pretty sure the one I am talking about here was the other. When I said who I was to John, she said "oh yes, I read the thing on Pirates of the Caribbean ... I took the advice and printed it out" ... Now all I ever knew is that Pauli had emailed John himself to check out our site ... but he must have cared enough to pass it on in his organization a little for others who work with him to see what they think too .. which to me speaks of respect for what people are doing, a willingness to take a minute and actually focus on what somebody is saying (and with as much email as the guy gets, his minutes are at a premium price). ... (and since you [the woman working with John, whose name I was too flustered, ie excited, in the business and jostling around of it to get] read the piece on Pirates, if you stop back and are reading this, please drop a comment and say hello ... it meant a lot to me that you had read the piece.) Third - an interesting revelation ... Red Hen is a woman named Joyce who is in tight with Granger, has one of the pieces in the Who killed Albus DD book (she was there in the audience but by the time I could identify her from a comment he made back her direction and a reply she gave, I couldn't get the camera ready in time to snap a good pic before she left early and I didn't see her any after that) ... I have come to agree with Pauli that RH's theory of the whole remainder of Riddle's soul having gone into the scar, leaving only memory/ego and will/malice as "vapormort" (vapormort not having a soul) ... does not fit Rowling's world (and this goes back to the bipartite-tripartite thing that I hope to get into more in a later post.) Signing Off Anyway, that's all for right now. It's late here.

Can you see Merlin now?

EVERYBODY should be able to see the pictures now. Love the one of Merlin & J. G. -- lot of brain power in that frame! It's great to hear that the Merle-ster is going to make it into the key-note luncheon. I'm happy to have my copy of Looking for God in HP signed -- thanks M. I should take a moment to highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the symbolism in Rowling's books. If you are not particularly religious you will be fascinated by the symbols and narrative analysis. If you are a religious Christian, my bet is that you will learn a lot of things you didn't know; so much of the rich symbolism of early and Medieval Christianity have been tossed out in the fashion of modernism -- a revival is most definitely in order! Which reminds me: just got my copy of another book The Grail Code by Chris Bailey and our friend and blog-roller, Mike Aquilina. I'd blogged about it earlier and we have a link to the site on the side-bar -- the book looks like another winner!

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words: John Granger and Merlin

Granger's Talk on Post-Modernism in Potter was fantastic and I got to talk to him afterwards and get this pic (and got your book signed too Pauli). When Pauli and I had last spoken this morning I had had to inform him that I wasn't going to be able to attend the Key Note Luncheon of the panel discussion tomorrow with Granger in it because, as we had not known, those were separate deals that were sold out as far back as October of last year (according to the one girl at a table I sat at for the feast last night) ... well, I had not done my homework as thoroughly as Hermione and failed to notice Granger was doing the Post Modernism workshop talk, and then I found that and went and got to hear him and got to speak (he knew who I was when I told him, said Pauli's emails have been great) ... AND, I am now going to be able to attend the Luncheon of the panel Granger is on Tomorrow .... WOOO-HOOO !! Much to write when I get back to the hotel later (lots of great talks today) BUT - for here, I do have a better answer for Felicity on the size. During Steve Vander Ark's (from HP Lexicon) this afternoon (which was packed) he made mention of future plans to do some more sleuthing in the English countryside next year for "real" HP places (this stuff was great, the places this other guy has sleuthed out for him and he has checked out, the real world settings that they have found that form the texture of Rowling's book settings) -- Vander Ark said something about "oh, you're going too? great! 1200 of us running around over there" or something to that effect ... the important thing is the number ... 1200 must be the rough head count. I'm going now to get more info from the recordings table and see if they will give order sheets for ordering CDs of talks after the conference is over ... I missed the trickster talk for the Vander Ark talk today (the HP Lexicon is just such a huge name you have to go to that one if you can :) )

Pictures and Fun Stuff From the Night Before "Classes Begin"

To answer your questions Felicity ... a lot. I snapped this during the welcoming banquet this evening (I was at the far end from the head table, but I was midway widthwise, which went probably 3 to 4 tables in either direction from me). I was at the opening banquet in the Great Hall because I have a blue dot on my badge - the people with orange dots had to eat in another dining room and they will get to have the farewell feast in the Great Hall, whereas I won't. ... To quote the Hitchhiker' Guide "It's big". One of the lady's sitting next to me was from Le Moyne College, "the Jesuit College of Central New York" and says she knew the current President of Fordham while he was at Le Moyne. This is in the vendors area, I'll have to take some mor pics tomorrow of some of the stuff they have for sale: Sets of robes, some pretty fancy wands and jewelry (oh yeah ... and that isn't a statue of Dobby ... that's really him - he made a guest appearance ... I've got some nasty welts to show for a wise-crak I made about Harry :) ) Just a taste of some of the costumes I snapped really quickly. Some of these people are pretty thorough. I'll try to get more better pics tomorrow ... there was a couple showed up as beaters, had the whole 9 yards, great costumes This is Vegas from the air (with a little delayed exposure and some turbulence.) NEWS 1. Okay, My (tentative) schedule for tomorrow: - Not Just Good and Evil: Moral Alingment in Harry Potter - Love Potion # 9: Vice, Volition and Voldemort - A Study in Evil: Voldemort, the Malignant Narcissist - I Solemnly Swear I am up to no Good: The Trickster archetype in HP and Beyond - Harry Potter and the Sacntuary of Everyday Life: JK Rowling's Complex treatment of the Trope of Normalcy 2. Rock and Roll: I was pretty impressed with the concert tonight. I figured it was going to be not the type of thing you can judge like other shows where you go to see a band and say that they were good, or not so good, etc. I was expecting it to be "actish," which of course it was because it is a big Potterfest; and I was expecting it to be "conferency," (rather than concertish) which it was - no real stage lighting, not a really big PA system - Draco and the Malfoys was basically 2 guys on guitars with a taped drum trak and the one "Draco" then played drums as Ron Weasely for the 4th year Hary and the 7th year Harry, who comprised Harry and the Potters (young Harry played keys and once a sax and old Harry played guitar). For all that though, and the fact that all the songs were stuff from the books ... it was very interesting, fun ... and professional. the act was good ... they played the characters up well, and they played and sang really professionally ... although in the "pumped up rock" genre that has different tones than in other forms of music performance (I really like the rock myself)... what I mean is they were tight. Even with the taped stuff, they had it down well. The stuff was witty. The Draco's did more Goth/Grunge type stuff, but pretty clean soundwise, not super-muddy arrangements. And the Potters did more of your Weezer-type popped up punk. Younger Harry had a pretty good semi-hyper-active version of Dan Radcliffe talking about how important themes like love and frienship, and Rock, would stick it to "the man," Voldy. The wit had some to do historical sense too. At one point the 2 potters and the Weasley all stood up and were doing the Pete Townsend Windmill but it was to a tape-track so it was basically the "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" motion, which I found hilarious. And The Draco's did a cool version of "99 Red/Luft Balloons" ... but only it was "99 Death Eaters" (with tones of both the Nena original and the live punk version t the band 7 Seconds did ... personally I always really liked the German version by Neena because she puts some personality into it that isn't there in the Enlish version ... you can tell German is her native tongue.) ... my point is, it all sounds campy on paper but these guys pulled the act off as a pretty decent rock concert, despite no stage lighting other than the house lights in the room and a smaller PA system and using taped drum tracks on some songs, etc. -- it was credible as a rock show as far as sound and performance. I was impressed and it was fun and witty ... All the costumed people were having a blast dancing too I'll be posting tomorrow from the convention on the various talks.

Lumos

Lessee if this works... Just taking a breather in the lobby after sifting around some more ... the wizards chess was a bit hard to follow from the sidelines, but looked terribly fun for those playing ... mostly younger types. The Opening Feast is at 5, but not sure which room I'll be in, apparently so many people that they have to split up the opening feast and closing feast between two rooms, and you're assured to be in the Great Hall (rather than the other room) for one of them but you don't know which (they made you choose a colored dot coming in that determines...) Pretty amazing how big this thing is!

Study Finds HP Has Positive Impact on Kids School Work

Hat tip to Harry Potter's Page for this article. Here's an excerpt: The vast majority of parents (89%) say that reading Harry Potter has helped their child enjoy reading more, and 76% say that reading Harry Potter has helped their child do better in school. The findings also show that Harry Potter books have had a significant impact on the reading attitudes and behaviors of boys. More boys than girls have read Harry Potter (57% vs. 51%), and a greater number of boys than girls say that they did not read books for fun before Harry Potter (61% vs. 41%).

News from Lumos-bound Professor

I emailed John Granger yesterday regarding the "missing links" on his site. His reply confirmed my suspicions that this had some to do with the new publications shown on his home page. He writes: The posts have all come down because I have revised and expanded them for publication along with a host of new stuff. The first collection is Unlocking Harry Potter: The Serious Reader's Guide to the World's Best Selling Books and it is about the four big patterns and formulas that Ms. Rowling uses to write her books. My talk at Lumos will be about her "postmodern realism" which, with literary alchemy, I think are the two big ideas to "getting" why these books are so popular -- and why both academics and culture warriors hate them. The second collection, The Pope Hates Harry Potter? Hardly: Essays on the Controversies and Christian Content of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter Novels, pulls together much of what I've written on the Potter books as edifying literature with an FAQ and a brand new essay on Rowling and Lewis, in light of her recent attempts to distance herself from that association. God willing, I'll have TOCs, sample chapters from each book along with ordering information "up" on the site by summer's end. Firstly, thanks John for taking the time out from your "pre-Lumos scramble" to answer my email. When I read the phrase postmodern realism I knew I was in for a series of really good conversations with Merlin. He's often talked about how HP has a psychological layer that is absent in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. This absence is neither negative or positive of course, but PMR serves as a succinct explanation of what is new about the HP phenomenon. Some folks who object to the books have pointed out that while LotR supposedly occurs in the ancient past and fairy stories traditional occur "once upon a time", the Potter novels take place in the here and now in a kind of parallel universe. This realism, they conclude would make kids more apt to be sucked into magic, witchcraft, etc. I don't know... if my kids want to race around the yard pointing sticks at each other and yelling stupefy" I don't see the difference between that and running around with sticks shouting "bang". And if my kids actually spend hours attempting to jinx a broom so it will fly I doubt that's a bigger waste of time that the hours a spent in 7th grade trying to beat PacMan. But I'm digressing. I know Merlin will have plenty to say on this subject of PMR. In our conversation last night we covered everything from Shakespeare to Jane Austen to M. Night Shyamalan in the space of several hours. You can't talk about anything with him, you have to talk about everything. I guess that's what you get with encyclopedia managing editors, but that's what we like about him!

R.A.B. and the Big Switcheroo

Hat Tip to Felicity/Maureen for pointing out this great theory from another sleuth, David Camillus. The gist is that R.A.B. is Regulus Black and that he pulled a switcheroo on the lockets before the fake was ever hidden. Felicity pointed out to me in an email that the theory Explains why the fake locket was at the bottom of the basin covered in the poison, apparently undisturbed, and Eliminates the problem of explaining how one person could have managed to cross in the boat and drink the poison. Professor Mum posited in this post that Bellatrix may have been involved in the task of placing the Horcrux for Voldemort. She cites Bellatrix's quote in HBP Chapter 2: "The Dark Lord has, in the past, has entrusted me with his most precious--if Lucius hadn't--". Felicity concluded: "Voldemort gave the diary horcrux to Lucius, so there is no reason he wouldn't have given the locket to Bellatrix." I feel like Dr. Watson surrounded by all these detectives. This theory made me ponder something about the nature of horcruxes: does the creator of a horcrux have to get away from his horcruxes for some reason, i.e., do the bits of soul cause pain to each other in close proximity? It does seem odd that Voldemort wouldn't take care of really important stuff like stashing a horcrux by himself. Of course he always hangs out with that silly snake which Dumbledore seems to think is a horcrux. Someone somewhere pointed out that if the diary horcrux had succeeded in taking bodily form in book 2 that version of Tom Riddle probably wouldn't have been very good friends with the reinvigorated Voldemort of book 4.

Robed and Ready

I'm sure it will be nice for Merlin to get out of his whole "muggle disguise" for a bit. Is it just me or does this guy look as shady as Mundungus Fletcher? I assure you, however, that he smells better than ol' Dung. Definitely a wizard, but looks as if he's got some pirate in him as well. Hmmmmm...

The Horcrux Hunt

Maureen of Felicity's Mind emailed these links to me from her site, on possibilities of 2 of the Horcruxes. http://felicitys-mind.livejournal.com/2006/07/21/ - the Hufflepuff Cup hidden at Hogwarts? http://felicitys-mind.livejournal.com/2006/07/22/ - "Something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's" As I said in a comment on the second one, detective work is not my strongest point ... but both of her pieces seem pretty well put together to me, and tied out nicely. Some real possibilities, and both were a fun read. I think Jomione (that is my new name for Rowling as a braniac Hermione type) is really into this kind of thing, that it is "up her ally." I can definitely see her working clues like this in.