A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature

I’ve been putting off this blog for a super long time (mostly because I was so overwhelmed with everything I had learned!), and I decided I’m finally going to blog it, so I can start blogging other things, too. :)

The most important thing I must tell you, BEST. CONFERENCE. EVER.

Okay, now to the actual conference. If you’re curious as to the public response to our brilliant conference, you can check out John Granger’s post on it here. What I’m going to give you is my experience of the conference. The first thing you have to understand is that there were lots of awesome things I didn’t get to hear, I only got to go to a few of the sessions. I’ll give you bits and pieces of the little I can read of my notes (what I would give to go back in time and take that tape recorder!!).

Notes from Dr. Maria Nilson’s “From Nerdy Boy to Empathetic Male: Harry Potter’s Development Through the Series” from Linné University.

First she challenged the concept of Harry as a Cinderella figure. She said that he is more of a “changeling.” According to Swedish mythology a changeling is a child that is stolen by goblins (or trolls…I don’t remember). The child then grows up as the servant to the goblin/trolls until one day the child escapes and is reunited with his own family (Dursely=troll, Okay, I dig it). She also nixed the Cinderella theory because Cinderella comes into power; in the beginning of the story, she is powerless, then we cue the magic tree, and bippity-boppity-boo, she’s got some mojo. Unlike Cinderella, Harry always had power, and he never looses it; some argue that he looses his power in Phoenix, but she argues that it isn’t a loss of power he’s experiencing, it’s despair. She spoke a lot about Harry’s growth (obviously); the things that my notes mention the most are the concepts of power, love, and fatherhood. She talked about different levels of masculinity.  She hits on the different father figures for Harry and what they represented to him: James was a bully, Sirius was reckless, Lupin was truthful, and Albus was responsible. She also talked about Harry as a hero because of a collective group effort (Let’s face it, without Hermione, those boys would have been toast pretty early on).

I’d give you more, but that’s all I have. I put my name on a list to get her paper sent to me, but it hasn’t come. Oh well. I have a few notes from Carol Esheleman’s paper. You can facebook her if you want more information. She had a really brilliant thesis; you know, one of those ones that you hear and say “Duh! It’s so obvious! Why did I never see that before?!” …Well I had that experience anyway. Her paper was called “Twin Core: An Exploration of Twins in the Wizarding World”

She talked about the obvious twins (Fred/George, Padma/Pavarti, Harry’s wand core/Voldemort’s wand core), but she also discussed the relationship between wizard/witch and wand (How Harry and his wand have similar personalities, etc…), as well as some of the twins of the books themselves: in the generation before Harry, there was James and Sirius (Patronus: Stag and Dog, respectively), and in Harry’s generation, there was Harry and Ron (Patronus: Stag and Dog, respectively. She even talked about how Harry and Neville were each other’s twin.

I know I left out a ton, but I’m telling you what my notes said. Now, a little of what the conference was like. St. Andrews is a brilliant little town on the coast of Scotland. It’s right next to the ocean, and it was pretty rainy, cold, and windy the whole time we were there (but we weren’t bummed, we were getting the true Scottish experience). The University of St. Andrews was founded in 1413, and—unlike any other university I’ve ever been to—it is the town. The WHOLE town is the University. The English department is on one side of the town, and the Business department is on the other side of town. The best part about this university you ask? Castles. The whole darn thing is a castle! They call St. Andrews the school for the kids that didn’t get into Hogwarts.

I can’t remember if this is the building we were in for the conference, or if it was the one next door, but this gives you an idea of what the building looked like. It was beyond amazing. All these buildings looked like (and were!!) medieval castles, but you walk inside, and it looks just like any other university building. :) I would LOVE to go to school here.

 

 

 

 

Now there were tons of other wonderful papers, some I got to hear, and some I didn’t. There are a lot of notes I didn’t take, and a lot of revelations I wrote down. I will tell you that if you want to know more about the complexity of Rowling’s work, or (if you’re a skeptic) you doubt that there are complexities in Rowling’s work, I suggest you read John Grangers Harry Potter as Ring Composition, and Ring Cycle. I bought it shortly after attending this conference. He gave us the condensed version of his theory in the conference. It’s another one of these brilliant ideas that make you say “Duh! Why didn’t I see it before?”

So the last thing I’m going to give you are a few revelations I had and scratched into the margins of my program:

“Harry’s faith in Dumbledore waivers. He thought Dumbledore was a symbol of goodness, but to become a symbol of goodness, you must know the value of goodness, thus you must go through the bad to understand the good.”

“Harry comes out of ‘the cave’ (referring to Plato’s Allegory) of the Muggle world into the Wizarding world.”

“Was Harry a more complete character because he got to fulfill his role as a father whereas his own father (James), his godfather (Sirius), his temporary father-figure (Remus) and his long-lasting father-figure (Albus) all bit the dust early on in their mentoring positions?”

My last revelation that was so true that it could remain unwritten until this moment: There is so much work to still do on Rowling’s work, and her work and meticulous writing and planning have inspired me in my own writing.

Short story? Harry Potter changed my life. Period.

Lessons I learned from the UK

I LOVED the UK. So here we go. :)

1. Under no circumstances should you ever run to catch the tube if you are traveling in groups of two or more: Why you may ask? Because one of you will make it on, and the other one will have the doors slam in their face (and if it happens to be the first trip for one of you, then that person will definitely be the one to get left behind.) Yes, this happened. It was terrifying and funny all at the same time. Jake made it on, and the doors closed. I looked at him with my wide terrified eyes, and he looked at me, and shrugged. The people sitting behind him, all made that “oooh, so close!” face. Then the train went away. I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily this couple was standing right next to me, and the man looked at me. I felt compelled to say something…something like “I think I just lost my husband.” He replied, “I’ve never lost mine before.” :) The lady was more helpful, haha. She said it had happened to her before. (Good to know it’s not just me that these things happen to). She said Jake had actually jumped on the wrong train, and that it was better for me to just stay put—which was brilliant, because my original plan had been to hop on the next train. So I waited, and then a few trains later, Jake popped up. He had gotten off at the next stop, waited to see if I was on the train after him, and when I wasn’t, he hopped on the next train back, and found me. The first thing I said to him was “Good thing this only lasted long enough so it’s still funny.” :) So my tip? Always hold on—literally, after this I always had a handful of Jake’s jacket when we got on—to your travel buddy, and have a plan so you both know what to do if you get separated…needless to say, we came up with one as soon as Jake came back.
2. Be willing to try new things: You’re in a different country with brand new opportunities presented to you. My biggest regret about Scotland was not trying Haggis—the one day I had a shot at it, my stomach was already in knots, and I felt awful. (plus the only places we could find that served it were all bars and the added smell of beer and alcohol was the furthest thing from helping my stomach we could get). But, you can bet your butt we’re going back and I’m getting that order of Haggis :) So here are the things I did try for the first time:
1. going on a 9 hour flight (twice!)
2. getting a decent sleep on a plane ride
3. riding the tube/underground/subway :)
4. using a shower cap
5. using “opera glasses” during a show
6. riding in a cab
7. getting separated from Jake & temporarily lost in the underground
8. (my personal favorite) participating in the first ever Harry Potter conference in the UK
9. wearing a coat at the beach
10. eating mousse (which has neither moose or mice in it…very misleading)
11. eating a kumquat
12. eating fish and chips (fries).
3. Food doesn’t have to make any kind of sense: For example, McDonalds (I know, I know) doesn’t have vanilla milkshakes, but they do have banana? Really? Banana shakes are more popular than vanilla? Ok. How about pepperoni….on a nacho sandwich? Yeah, Jake was surprised by that bite :)
4. Become a impulse-buyer!: Now don’t be unreasonable, paying 300 pounds for a bag is completely crazy whether you’re on holiday or not. What I mean is if you see something you love (it’s a decent/reasonable price), get it right then and there. Don’t say “Oh, I’ll think about it.” Because you won’t be able to find the shop again, or the shop will be closed. You’re supposed to get awesome stuff. Like this kind of stuff:

  An awesome old school milk bottle, a tin of fudge, a cd of Scottish bagpipe music (a wee bit pricey, but I have a weak place for bagpipes, and bagpipe music bought in Scotland? Like i could turn that down!), rosary beads from St. Paul’s, 2 bracelets, some earrings from Scotland, a little gargoyle from Westminster, and a pin from Scotland.

Three patches from Scotland (Scotland flag, Scotland crest, and Scotty Dog) and a brilliant little pin that says “Up Yer Kilt”

 

And lots of postcards (postcards are great for those types of places—museums especially—where you’re not allowed to take pictures).

5. Take an extra battery, extra memory cards, and TONS of pictures: You’re not guaranteed to get to see this place again. Take as many pictures as you can. If it seems fuzzy, take the time to take the picture again. It’s like shopping: do it now, because you won’t necessarily get the opportunity to do it again!

6. Take note of all the cool, different things: For example, there were some things that the UK just does better than the US like the traffic lights. In the US the lights go Green, Yellow, Red, Green. In the UK the lights go Green, Yellow, Red, Red & Yellow, Green. It just makes more sense. The interstates are all 3 lanes; this allows the trucks to pass each other while still maintaining a free lane for cars to pass the trucks. The money system is clever. There are coins for two pounds, one pound, fifty pence, twenty pence, ten pence, five pence, and one pence. It makes getting change so much easier. (plus the one pound coins remind me of the communication coins Hermione makes in Order of the Phoenix).

7. Don’t be an Idiot: Under no circumstances should you wear a London hat in Edinburgh…there will be a nasty little old man who makes you feel the fool, and makes you cry…or at least want to cry. Don’t let one mean person ruin your feelings for the country. Other than that one man, I had a wonderful experience with Scotland.

I’m sure there was more stuff I thought of, and wanted to tell you, but I don’t remember right now. Basically we had a brilliant time, and loved St. Andrews so much that we want to go to school there. :) I loved it—even the parts when I was tired, hungry, sore, and wet.

so . . .

i kind of just felt like writing tonight. i don’t really have anything specific to talk about, i just needed to get some thoughts down i guess. nothing major. just talk. in hawaii we’d say ‘talk story.’ :]

for a simple update Jake and I both have jobs, [if you haven’t already, you can read all about my views on my new job at Walmart here.] and we both work at walmart. While i’m grateful for a job, and—mostly—for the paycheck, but if i could get the same paycheck doing more work for longer hours doing something i loved, then…i’d do it. Jake said he mostly does a lot of DVD stocking.

As far as school goes: the school i’m teaching is pretty good. i’m realizing how much i need to readjust my schedule. :\ As for the school we’ll eventually be going to, we have NO idea…. with the combination of work + play + life and everything else, grad school has become that thing we’re saving for, but don’t know where we’re going yet, whether it’s going to be in-state or even in-country! sheesh

Goals, GRE, and a Great load of other things

GOALS

So one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world is getting married in June. I am currently 30 pounds heavier than I would like to be. So, to solve this problem, I decided (last week) to lose 2 pounds a week (I think this is a pretty reasonable goal), so far I have lost 0 pounds a week. Granted that this is only the beginning of the second week and last week involved a road trip and a wedding, but still. I was hoping for at least half a pound. Anyway, here’s my genius workout plan idea.

 

So I have 3 pictures here. The first one is the little ‘workout calendar’ I made. Basically it has Monday-Saturday on there (Sunday is a day of rest for a reason); the next photo is my jar of workouts. While there are six days to work out, I have cut out and written down 9 workouts (which I plan to add to); and this last picture is of the most genius part of my whole plan: VELCRO! The cardboard calendar and all the workouts have been laminated with that do-it-yourself-sticky-paper I can’t remember the name of right now. I bought a packet of square velcro stickies at WalMart and POOF, my creation is complete. Exactly. The. Way. I. Pictured. (which doesn’t happen often).

GRE

Want to know something I really, really suck at (I suck at it SO much that I used two ‘really’s): Test Taking. I never bothered with the GRE because I got it mixed up with that other miserable test that people deciding to go to Law School take. I never realized you needed another test to get into grad school. I always thought that the fact you had gotten your bachelor’s was enough. Guess what…it’s not. So, now—because Jake and I both want to go to grad school—Jake and I both get to study for the GRE. Luckily there’s a place in La Grande that does testing year-round, and the school we’re looking at only looks at one part of the test, so we can totally bomb (not that we will, but hypothetically speaking) the math portion of the test, and that would be okay. Can I just say I am not looking forward to taking this test AT ALL. AT. ALL. (in case you missed it the first time). but we do what we have to do to do what we want to do. (remind me why I want to go back to mounds of homework again…oh yeah, I need a real job that I’ll enjoy doing…and for some bizarre reason, I like school).

 

GREAT LOAD…

As for the general update, Jake is still looking for work (seriously, you’d think with a BA we’d get something, but no). He’s also working out with me (less to lose weight, and more to just be in shape). I’m slowly working on a syllabus; designing a class for tech writing is a lot different from designing an Eng 101 class (personally, I prefer teaching analyzing literature to teaching how to properly format and write a memo). We’re excited for me to start working (and getting a paycheck!) in April, and even more excited to go to London/Scotland in May! I need to work on my HP paper, and find out how this presentation works (sometimes it’s just telling people what your paper is about, and other times it’s reading your paper, in either case, I need to know how long my presentation can be). As for other updates, Jake is listening to The Hunger Games on audio book, and is getting a lot of writing done. I’m working out on handouts for my class, and trying to get through the obnoxiously boring (and sometimes offensive to English Majors) book I ‘get’ to teach in April.

Well, That’s all Folks.

and today is?

Remember how, when you were a kid, and it was summer vacation, you never knew what day of the week it was. The weeks were only marked by Sundays and church? Well, that’s pretty much how our life is going so far. We’ve got a couple of lines in the work world and now it’s all about sitting and waiting for a bite. (It’s kind of like fishing, but the only bait is us.) Here’s the line-up:

*Teaching entry-level college English; Verdict: We’ve been approved to teach, but they don’t need teachers…lucky us.
*Tutoring at same college as above; Verdict: Icy week last week, so chances are they never processed our applications; this leaves us still waiting….still hoping…and still sitting with our fingers (and toes!) crossed.
*Substitute teaching: We have bachelors (yay!), but no teaching degrees, thus we have to apply for restricted-subbing licenses ($100 a pop + $50 expediting fee; yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s $300 between the two of us). And because we don’t have the teaching degrees to get the regular subbing license, we only get to teach 60 days out of the year. (Truth be told 60 days is better than 0 days, but 60 days is still only 2 months of work). Either way that job still takes time and money
*Tutoring at the High School (or as they call it “Instructional Aid”); Verdict: Same as tutoring at the college. We’re waiting for a bite.

Basically if none of these pan out….we’re back to square one… Any ideas?

we're not dead.....we promise!

Because everything since moving away from our beloved Hawaii has been so crazy, I’m going to go day by day to tell you all about everything we’ve done (well, within reason). :)
(p.s. I got the formatting idea from a dear friend.)
December 15: I handed back Research Papers (yes I had them ALL graded in two days! I have to admit, it was much easier for me—having 20 students—than for Jake—having 40. But both of us got them all finished). My class took their hour and 50 minute long final. Jake’s class did the same.
December 16: Finished grading finals; got the grades in and put “Do internship-write-up” on my to-do list. We also checked out of our apartment. Let me frame this for you.
6:30 am> Jake wakes up, and leaves to go give his final Final (yes, those poor kids had to take their final exam at 7:00 on a Friday morning).
7:00 am> I wake up, watch a little Youtube, and start the final cleaning of our apartment.
8:30 am> The man buying our Futon comes and picks it up (And by “picks it up” I mean we both take bits and pieces down to his truck. It took 3 elevator trips.) A scratched floor and $100 later, Jake and I are Futon-Free!
9:00 am> Jake comes home and we start moving everything we haven’t already moved into the car.
9:25 am> Sylvia (our super awesome landlady) shows up and starts checking everything (thank goodness we had JUST finished swiffer-ing.)
9:45 am> we hand in our keys, pack the last of our things in the car, and drive away from our $975/mon-apartment.
10:00 am> We eat breakfast.
Eventually we went to my parents’ house and stuff. But all the real excitement took place that morning. Phew! Glad that is over.
December 17: Go back to campus to sell everything we hadn’t already sold. Then we hit the beach! Yay surfing!!
December 18: Went to church, then afterwards did Christmas with my family! We got some pretty cool stuff.
December 19: More surfing! (and lots of laundry)
December 20: Got on a Jet-Plane and flew away from the islands I swore I’d never leave. :( We landed in Portland, OR and it was COLD! (I could see my breath; that hadn’t happened since I was 5!) Jake’s dad picked us up, and we drove home (Pendleton, OR).
December 21-24: This part is all kind of a blur. I met Drake (one of Jake’s younger brothers) for the first time, and his cute girlfriend, Kayla. We went hiking for a Christmas tree. I saw a coyote. We practiced Christmas carols. We also went over to Natasha’s house (Jake’s older sister) and did a White Elephant exchange with her, her husband and her cute little monkeys. (I got a pocket knife.)
December 25: Christmas! We woke up and did stockings (Santa sure knew what kind of loot I was looking for!) We went to church. Then we went home and ate some chow, and went back over to Natasha’s so we could all watch her boys could open up their Christmas presents. (There is nothing cuter than a two-year-old holding his new green puppy—that says his name funny—opening a box and screaming “Blankie!” in the most excited voice you ever heard.) We went back home and we all opened presents (Youngest to Oldest). We both got some neat stuff. I got an awesome little hat and some gloves (Yay fingers!), we also got some really cool movies (HARRY POTTER 7 part 2!) Then (we were actually still opening presents when this happened) Natasha and her boys came over for what my mom calls Brinner (Breakfast for Dinner). Jake, Drake, and I all had presents we had to find. We had clues. Jake got the Mace Windu (something) fighter Lego set; Drake got some cool pants; and I got the Knight Bus. We ate a delicious Brinner, and watched movies.
December 26: We all pile in the car and drive to Burly, ID. We spend the night with Melanie’s mom and family. We slept over at Melanie’s sister’s house (Robin) and she had two cute little lap dogs named Pip and Squeak. :) Pretty clever, huh?
December 27: Piled back in the car and drove to the Twin Falls temple for Rourk (Jake’s younger brother…that’s older than I am) and Jessica’s wedding. How would you like the first time you meet your brother-in-law to be in the temple at his wedding. :) Welcome to my world. After the wedding we went over to Scott’s house (Jake’s older brother) and did presents. Then we went to the Luncheon. We watched the bride/groom slide show. Then we all (Melanie, Craig, Jake, Rourk, Jessica and I) went to Rourk and Jessica’s house. I changed into some pants (my poor legs could only handle freezing for so long). Rourk and Jessica had to leave and Melanie and Craig wanted to go back over to Scott’s. Rourk said we could hang out at their house. I took a nap on the couch, and Jake played Halo. We went over to the reception when Rourk and Jessica came back. I changed back into my dress (sorry legs), and Jake and I were put in charge of making sure everyone ate cookies. Eventually, when it was all over, we came over to Jake’s Mom’s house and went to bed.
December 28: Christmas with Jake’s Mom and the kids. (Yay Barbies, stickers and Alfred Hitchcock!) We did some walmart shopping (we were borrowing Rourk and Jessica’s car while they were on their honeymoon—they took Rourk’s truck). Then we had Christmas with the Jenkins and played Celebrity! (Fun, fun game!)
December 29: The car hunt begins. We poke around Poky. After a semi-fruitful day, we went over to Richard and Allison’s and hung out. (Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!)
December 30: Car hunt. Drive to Blackfoot and spend the night with Grandma Baird (Jake’s maternal grandma) and Al.
December 31: Drive to Idaho Falls, Car hunt. Take a nap and eat some delicious soup at Bryce and Valene’s. Drive to Tetonia—our final destination for the weekend—and spend time with David and Grandma Hibbert (Jake’s paternal grandma). Jake had a fever so I got to stay up for the new year. It broke around 4:00am. (The first time I took his temp it was 100.5; I told Jake what his temp was and he said “105! I’m going to die.” Then I said “Not 1-0-5, 100 Point 5.” Then he said “Oh. Don’t pick on me, my brain is hot.”)
Happy New Years!
January 1: Church (Jake went home early cause he was still feeling crummy.) Hung out, Jake slept. I read. Around 5:30 Jake ate some soup and seemed to be feeling better—much better, he stayed up til 1 playing on the Xbox with David. Boys ;)
January 2-3: Find promising car. Begin the arduous process of trying to get the $2600 asking price down to OBO. (Long story short, her OBO on the ad on Craig’s List was a LIE! Ended up paying full price….but we broke her heart—she didn’t really want to sell the car—so that was a plus).
January 5: Spend a wonderful day with Nikki (my wonderfully awesome best friend) and Jake (my other wonderfully awesome best friend) in Lava. Ate a delicious lunch, had some ice cream. Found out that “Butt Naked” perfume smells really good. Said our goodbyes (which were really “see-you-laters), and went home. Came home, napped, and I spent the night puking for some unknown reason.

And here we are today January 6th. I have no idea what our plans are but I can tell you a couple things “Do internship-write-up” is still on my to-do list, life is better in your pjs, husbands working on half-finished bathrooms wearing their levis that you NEVER see them wear are pretty hot, and poweraid always tastes better when you need it. See, I told you we weren’t dead, just super busy. Now if you’ve actually made it to this point in my blog, you get some major Kudos. :) Hope your holidays were as restful as mine. ;)