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Showing posts from December, 2018

Episode 30: Harry and Tarot

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The beginning of an 11-episode arc about Tarot symbolism in Harry Potter . What links Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious to the series? Why does Trelawney suddenly reappear in Half-Blood Prince ? And how does the Tarot Major Arcana tell the story of Harry’s journey? Episode 30: Harry and Tarot Watch the Episode 30 video on YouTube. Related essay: JK Rowling's Own Private Tarot Game EPISODE GUIDE

Essay: The Long Game

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In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , JK Rowling explicitly introduces the theme that had merely been im plicit in earlier books: people disregarding, to their detriment, such things as games, toys, “blood-traitors” or those with so-called “dirty” blood (including house-elves), and (ironically) fairy tales. All will play a role in defeating Voldemort. (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 1: The Kids’ Table .) The best weapons or skills Harry has are those that he acquires to play games; a children’s story teaches him a lesson about death; and Harry, a half-blood, with another half-blood (Snape), plus Snape’s abiding love for the Muggle-born Lily and the aid Harry receives from his Muggle-born and blood-traitor best friends, along with his consummate game-playing skills, combine to defeat someone who disregards all of these things: Voldemort. The first time in Deathly Hallows that Harry, Ron and Hermione go “camping”, a fun pastime for many people now that began as a pa

Essay: Harry Potter and the Frog King

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In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowling retells a Grimm fairy tale: “The Frog King” (sometimes known as “The Frog Prince”). This is not the first time she uses a Grimm fairy tale in the series; she retold “Little Red Riding Hood” in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 12: Grow Up Now , Episode 13: Deus ex Machina , and Episode 14: The Devil’s Game .)   The golden locket Horcrux not only plays the role of a Golden Snitch in the seventh book in the series (see Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 26: Until Someone Loses an Eye ), but it is also like the golden ball in the Grimm story, a precious ball that a princess loses when it rolls into a deep well. At first, the fairy tale seems very familiar, like a folktale version of myths in which a symbolic sun disappears underground and is retrieved by a winter-solstice hero, ensuring that the round of the seasons will continue. Myths like this are common in cultures around the wo