I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but I am permanently closing comments on this blog. I don’t receive many comments, but the few I do receive, particularly lately, have done nothing to contribute to conversation about the posts and frankly have me wondering about the future of the human race.
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It has been quite some time since I updated this blog. Partly it’s the time of year. As a teacher, I find spring taxing. That said, I am finding the Harry Potter Carnival difficult to maintain. I rarely received submissions, and those I did receive often made it patently obvious that submitters were looking for links to their blog rather than really trying to share information with HP fans. It was a lot a work. It was a labor of love. I always told myself I would stop doing it if it began to be a chore, and after DH came out, I’m afraid that’s what it became. I am putting it on hiatus indefinitely. I am not willing to hand the carnival over to someone else. I did that with another carnival I ran, and they never did a thing with it. Technically speaking, the carnival probably belongs to Blogcarnival, as that is where I created it. However, I created it and have been alone in throwing it together and almost alone in finding links to share. So it is on indefinite hiatus, as I said.
I do have some thoughts on the case JKR brought against RDR books, a company that was set to publish the HPL with Steve Vander Ark. A lot of the press who only started following the case when the trial started gave JKR a hard time. They insinuated that she was being greedy. In my opinion, she was being protective of her rights. JKR has been generous to her fans. She has allows fanfiction, fansites, and all kinds of fanart. To me, any doubt as to whether or not Mr. Vander Ark was in the right was erased when TLC severed their ties with HPL. Mr. Vander Ark did not seem to be able to hear the opposition, and to be honest, I think that’s because so many fans were so nasty. I wouldn’t want to hear it either. But there were some voices of reason he didn’t listen to, either. I feel sad that a man who has done so much for the HP fan community feels cast out. Vander Ark has been silent about the case over the last few months, and perhaps that’s for the best. I wish him well, but I agree with Jo on this one. She would have been within her rights to put a stop to a lot of what goes on in the HP fandom, but she has been remarkably supportive. I think she was right to pursue the case. TLC has a good summary of the case.
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Welcome to the 60th Harry Potter Carnival! As promised, this month our focus is Harry Potter: TNG. Star Trek fans will get that.
I received no submissions related to Harry Potter at all this month (and for that reason, I’ll post my own theories about HPTNG soonish); the four submissions I received could best be categorized as spam. It’s a pity that people bother with that sort of thing. For one thing, because of all the spam, off-topic submissions, and submissions for material that has been submitted to the carnival before, I have to remind submitters of criteria for acceptance. It really bothers me that I feel obligated to post this reminder each month, but every month I receive submissions that are not suitable. I’m not picky. I just have three basic rules:
The best way to be published in the carnival is to be an active reader of it — advice which is true of any other publication.
Beyond Hogwarts compiles some information JKR shared about the fates of her characters following DH.
This month’s featured artist is Frizzy Hermione, who submitted this work to Argentinian site Amortentia Multimedia:
You can view the submission and more details here.
DH hints that Albus Severus could end up in either Gryffindor or Slytherin. Which one do you think he ended up in? Folks at Mugglenet’s CoS Forums speculated. I think a lot of fans wanted him to be in Slytherin, but truthfully does he exhibit any characteristics that would make sorting him into Syltherin plausible? We know already that James is a Gryffindor. What about Victoire? I am thinking either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Teddy Lupin, I think, was probably a Gryffindor like his father; however, it’s worth noting his mother was a Hufflepuff, so who knows? Scorpius Malfoy most likely wound up in Slytherin. I’m betting Rose Weasley will be a Gryffindor, too. The Scamander twins I see in Ravenclaw like their mother. You can look for my thoughts on this issue some time soon, but until then, let’s speculate: where do you think HPTNG ended up?
If you want to mine DH’s Epilogue for clues about the fates HPTNG, you might find HPL’s reader’s guide handy.
If you want to display your appreciation for HPTNG characters on your Web site, you can join the following Fanlistings:
No individual Fanlistings exist for any of TNG Weasleys. If you’re interested, why not propose them?
While not strictly related to HPTNG, this site is kind of interesting. Translate anything into Parseltongue. I know Harry received this gift from the bit of Voldemort’s soul that resided in him, according to JKR, but I wonder if any of his children can speak Parseltongue. If any of them can, my bet is on Albus Severus.
Thanks to everyone for the submissions! To submit Potterica for the next carnival, use my carnival submission form. Please note the category for which it should be considered. Deadline is 10:00 P.M. Friday, March 14. The next HP carnival will appear Saturday, March 15. Please be careful to read past carnivals before you submit articles to be sure you are not submitting material that has already been included. Also, keep in mind this is a carnival for HP fans, and your posts must be directed toward that audience.
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, carnival, J.K. Rowling
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Welcome to the 59th Harry Potter Carnival! Before we begin, I would like to remind submitters that I welcome your blog posts and artwork, but blog posts must be made within the month between the posting of the previous carnival and the current one. I would like to provide carnival guests with recent information and news when I can; also, please check to see if news has already been posted in a carnival before submitting it to the next carnival. The best way to be published in the carnival is to be an active reader of it — advice which is true of any other publication.
JKR appeared in a two-part show on PotterCast. She shared new canon, which HPL was kind enough to gather in one place.
You can download the PotterCast interview:
Also, if you have not yet seen the documentary, J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life, you should check it out. Some new canon learned in this documentary is discussed later in this carnival.
This month’s fan art selection is a beautiful drawing of Professor Trelawney by Pia’Sharn.
GrrlScientist shares speculation that JKR may actually write another book… if her daughter has anything to say about it. For my own part, I can’t wait until that encyclopedia comes out.
New canon appeared in the form of a quick family tree drawn by JKR for J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life. The tree details the Weasley family beginning with Arthur and Molly and running through their grandchildren’s generation. You can view the tree here (click the appropriate language version, click the eraser, open the door to the Room of Requirement, and it is there as of this date), but here is a quick run-down:
Wouldn’t a next generation series be great? I want to read more about Albus Severus, and I want to find out if he is sorted into Gryffindor, as he wished. See below for more details on the next carnival.
Mike Blitz submitted a review of the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
As I mentioned already, reviews that appear in the carnival must have been written within the time period between the last carnival and the present one. In other words, reviews for this carnival were only accepted if they were written during the latter half of December or first half of January, as Mike’s was. Each month I receive carnival submissions for reviews that not only lack substance (”I saw the movie and liked it, but the book was better.”), but also were written many months ago. Since it is my goal to present readers with new information related to HP, I will not include news or reviews that are older than the previous carnival.
Are you learning or Italian? A native speaker? Maria Fernandez submitted her post, which shares how you can find HP books in Italian in the U.S.
Thanks to everyone for the submissions! To submit Potterica for the next carnival, use my carnival submission form. Please note the category for which it should be considered. Deadline is 10:00 P.M. Friday, February 15. The next HP carnival will appear Saturday, February 16. Please be careful to read past carnivals before you submit articles to be sure you are not submitting material that has already been included. Also, keep in mind this is a carnival for HP fans, and your posts must be directed toward that audience.
The next edition of the carnival will focus on the next generation: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna Potter; Hugo and Rose Weasley; Victoire, Dominique, and Louis Weasley; Molly (Jr.) and Lucy Weasley; Fred (Jr.) and Roxanne Weasley; Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy; Teddy Lupin; and Lorcan and Lysander Scamander. Please submit only fanart and speculations related to these characters. I would like to see original posts speculating about the personalities, futures, etc. of these characters.
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, carnival, J.K. Rowling
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January 9 is Snape’s birthday. R.I.P., Half-Blood Prince!
Image created by Heather Campbell. View her other spectacular HP art.
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Welcome to the 58th Harry Potter Carnival! Before we begin, I would like to remind submitters that I welcome your blog posts and artwork, but blog posts must be made within the month between the posting of the previous carnival and the current one. I would like to provide carnival guests with recent information and news when I can; also, please check to see if news has already been posted in a carnival before submitting it to the next carnival. The best way to be published in the carnival is to be an active reader of it — advice which is true of any other publication.
JKR made news this week as Amazon paid $3.98 million for a copy of her Tales of Beedle the Bard. Amazon is generously sharing information about the tales on its website for fans. I have to admit I would love to be able to read them.
JKR has also been nominated for Morgan Stanley’s “Great Briton Awards” in the Arts category , and Newsweek named DH the “best book of the year.“
This month’s fan artist is =Bilious. Chapter 33 of DH, “The Prince’s Tale,” might be my favorite chapter in the whole series, and I admit I’m a sucker for pictures based on that chapter. Here’s “BFF”:
I really like the cartoon aspect.
JKR updated her website with information about the Elder Wand, Harry and Dudley’s future relationship, exactly what happened when Voldemort cast the Avada Kedavra curse on Harry in DH, and what the mutilated baby Harry saw at King’s Cross was (although any astute reader of GoF should have got that one), thus ending some speculation for readers.
A serious treatment of the similarities between Star Wars and Harry Potter appeared on StarWars.com this past week. I still have a fondness for this one, too:
And of course, this is one of my favorite pictures of all time:
Ever wonder exactly what Wikipedia is saying about you? Check out their Harry Potter Fandom article.
Exactly how many students attend Hogwarts? Well, JKR has said repeatedly that she is “bad at maths.”
Thanks to everyone for the submissions! To submit Potterica for the next carnival, use my carnival submission form. Please note the category for which it should be considered. Deadline is 10:00 P.M. Friday, January 18. The next HP carnival will appear Saturday, January 19. Please be careful to read past carnivals before you submit articles to be sure you are not submitting material that has already been included. Also, keep in mind this is a carnival for HP fans, and your posts must be directed toward that audience.
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, carnival, J.K. Rowling
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JKR recently revealed on her website that the “core of the core of the Elder Wand is the tail hair of a Thestral; a powerful and tricky substance that can be mastered only by a witch or wizard capable of facing death.”
The Elder Wand’s first owner was Antioch Peverell, one of the three Peverell brothers described in “The Tale of the Three Brothers” in The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Each of the Peverell brothers possessed one of the Deathly Hallows. Cadmus Peverell owned the Resurrection Stone, and Ignotus Peverell, Harry’s ancestor, owned the Cloak of Invisibility. “The Tale of the Three Brothers” contains the common motif of the rule of three (for example, “The Three Little Pigs,” “Three Billy Goats Gruff”). In these stories, either all three beings outwit some stronger force (as the billy goats gruff outwit the troll under the bridge), or one cunning being outwits the stronger force while the other two unwise beings do not (as two of the pigs build their houses out of insubstantial materials and are defeated by the wolf, while the third wise pig builds his house out of bricks and defeats the wolf).
In “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” the Peverell brothers each cross a bridge they create over a treacherous river that usually kills travelers who try to cross it. Feeling cheated, Death offers the brothers prizes to acknowledge their defeat of him (407). He creates the Deathly Hallows at this time.
The Elder Wand was created by Death from an elder tree on the banks of the river the three brothers crossed (407). No Thestral is described as being present, but the lack of a visible Thestral could be explained several ways. First, perhaps none of the three brothers had seen death. True, Cadmus Peverell had lost the woman he loved and used the Resurrection Stone to bring her back, but the story does not say he saw her die, which is a prerequisite for seeing Thestrals. As Thestrals are closely associated with death, it makes sense that Death himself might ride one or keep one or more of them close by. A second explanation could be that though no Thestrals were present, Death carried Thestral tail hairs for some purpose and happened to have one to put in the core of the Elder Wand when he created it.
Xenophilius Lovegood tells the trio that the Elder Wand has been the most easily traced of the three Hallows because of the way in which it must be passed down: “[T]he possessor of the wand must capture it from its previous owner, if he is to be truly master of it” (412). Because Harry has not always paid close attention in History of Magic, we don’t know the exact path the Elder Wand took to reach Harry Potter, but we do know who some of its owners were:
In DH, the fact that Voldemort did not truly master the Elder Wand is attributed to the fact that he never truly defeated the previous owner (Draco Malfoy) in order to obtain it (he didn’t know he had to, or he surely would have killed Draco). Once he realizes his predicament, he has Nagini kill Snape, thinking that because Snape killed Dumbledore, Snape must be the master of the Elder Wand. However, now JKR has also added the detail that no wizard who is not capable of facing death can truly master the Elder Wand. Whether Gregorovitch or Grindelwald were truly capable of facing death is unknown, but it can certainly be inferred that Grindelwald was, as he truly mastered the wand. We know from many of Dumbledore’s discussions with Harry that Dumbledore himself was capable of facing death, so we can also infer that he truly mastered the Elder Wand.
Was Draco Malfoy capable of facing death? He certainly stood up to the most powerful wizard of the age and threatened him with death, but could he have made the same choice Harry did to walk into the woods knowing he would die? Does the Elder Wand demand that level of commitment from its master? Again, we don’t know for sure, but all characterization of Draco from the very beginning of the series describes him as the sort of person who would be incapable of the kind of bravery Harry showed in facing death. Voldemort not only did not obtain the wand by defeating its master, but he also, as JKR has told us time and again, was incapable of facing death. He created seven Horcruxes to prevent his death. Even his dying bit of soul, glimpsed by Harry in King’s Cross, was cowering and whimpering in fear of what lay beyond in the next realm. Therefore, even if he had been able to successfully obtain the Elder Wand from its previous owner, he would never have been able to master it.
Harry could probably have mastered the wand, but he recognized it as an instrument of evil and preferred to end its destructive history by putting the wand back in Dumbledore’s grave and dying a natural death, breaking the wand’s power (749). As the story said, “[Death] pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic” when he offered them prizes, counting on the folly of human nature. He believed they would request prizes that he could use to accomplish his own ends — their deaths. And indeed, the Elder Wand in particular brought Death his fair share of “prizes.” Antioch Peverell, described as “combative,” died a week after obtaining the wand. Only Ignotus Peverell, wisest of the three, mistrusted death and asked for a prize that would actually protect him from death. Again, this motif is also common in fairy tales — the character is allowed a boon that turns out to be his undoing. Harry masters all three of the Deathly Hallows by the end of DH, but he drops the Resurrection Stone where he hopes it will never be found and chooses not to use the Elder Wand, thus ensuring that no wizard will truly ever conquer Death. The fact that Harry makes this choice makes him a true descendant of Ignotus Peverell, who “attained a great age” and “finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life” (409).
I can very well imagine Harry’s death will be much the same, for the true master of Death is not he would would conquer Death, but he would embrace it when it was his time to die.
Reference:
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Scholastic, 2007.
Technorati Tags: death, deathly hallows, harry potter, elder wand
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Welcome to the 57th Harry Potter Carnival! We have a lot of news this time, as JKR is in America and sharing lots of information, and HPL is busily updating pages.
J.K. Rowling and HP Lexicon writer Steve van der Ark have been battling over his plans to publish a print version of the Lexicon. I noticed that Steve has taken down comments on the post in which he presents his side of the argument. I wasn’t keeping up with the comments, but I imagine they were getting ugly, but Steve says he was asked by lawyers (whether his or Jo’s is unclear) to shut the comments down. I happen to love HPL, but I also happen to think Steve is in the wrong here. Many writers would not even allow sites like the Lexicon to exist, much less encourage them with awards, and I feel his plans to publish the Lexicon in book form for profit are a slap in Jo’s face.
Awesome picture of the Tale of the Three Brothers from some late visitor at TLC’s fan art gallery:
Did Snape and Dumbledore really have to make that bargain?
I really liked Sarah J.’s exploration of the reconciliation between Harry and Snape.
The official HP website has a new look in time for the DVD release of Ootp.
The HP Alliance is asking HP fans for their attention to the tragedy in Darfur.
Can you imagine being IT Director at Hogwarts? It wouldn’t be pretty…
Thanks to everyone for the submissions! To submit Potterica for the next carnival, use my carnival submission form. Please note the category for which it should be considered. Deadline is 10:00 P.M. Friday, December 14. The next HP carnival will appear Saturday, December 15. Please be careful to read past carnivals before you submit articles to be sure you are not submitting material that has already been included. Also, keep in mind this is a carnival for HP fans, and your posts must be directed toward that audience.
Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, carnival, J.K. Rowling
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It looks like UrbanPosters.com shipped my order today, almost exactly three months after I ordered it. I still have not received feedback regarding the lateness or the multiple e-mails, or the BBB complaint, and I suppose I don’t expect to now, as they will feel they fulfilled their end of the bargain. I am not satisfied, however, and will still not order from them again. Three months for posters they said they had in stock is ridiculous. Amazon does better with out of print materials than that!
Crossposted at Much Madness is Divinest Sense, huffenglish.com, and Our Family History.
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Consider this post a public service announcement.
Back in mid-August, I ordered two posters from the website poster outfitter UrbanPosters.com. September came and went, and they had not arrived. Furthermore, the company did not respond to numerous e-mails regarding my order. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but the company has yet to respond to that complaint as well. I’m out about $27, which is not a lot, but much more disturbing to me than the fact that I lost money is the fact that the company ignored repeated requests and a BBB complaint. I have rarely received such shoddy customer service anywhere. I would urge you strongly not to do business with this company and to spread the word around.
Crossposted at huffenglish.com, Much Madness is Divinest Sense, and Our Family History.
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