Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Harry Potter: the beginning of the end

I'll be getting my hands on a (borrowed) copy of #7 this evening. No spoilers in the comments please.

More than five years ago, I wrote an English honours thesis comparing the representation of children and childhood in Harry Potter and Narnia. At that stage, only the first four books had been published and no movies had come out. I'll be very interested to see whether my claims still hold up in light of the final revelations.

As is often the case, the best thing I've read on Harry Potter is found on Alastair's blog in a lovely post called 'Of Boggarts'. Here's a taste:

Christian authors can and should tell stories of Greek and Norse gods, of dragons, giants, goblins, faeries, of witches on broomsticks, of pixies, gnomes, elves and dwarves. These stories are the chains in which defeated Boggarts are paraded in triumph before the Risen Christ.
Also from Alastair comes a link to this catchy video which I can't get out of my head.

4 comments:

nico said...

i really enjoyed it - as i have done with most of the previous 6, i read it in 24 hours and am now re-reading through it more slowly. i hope you love it, don't want to spoil anything so will wait until next we meet to hear what you thought...
nic

One of Freedom said...

I am still wanting to find a copy to borrow. Only one of my friends finished it so far and he didn't bring it with him last night. I might just buckle and by it, but I really want the trade paperback to match the rest of my set.

That video was brilliant! Reminds me of Badger, badger, badger!

Matthew Moffitt said...

i finished reading on Sunday afternoon, and thought of you Byron and this long rumored thesis of yours.

byron smith said...

Nic, I'll probably post again when finished (currently around page 234).

Frank - yeah, I haven't bought it for the same reason.

Moffitt - maybe I should post some highlights...