Explore the surprising relevance of Beedle the Bard’s first tale - “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” - in this week’s episode. 

“The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” seems like a simple story on the surface, but Katy and Emily with their guest Travis Prinzi (Harry Potter and Imagination) uncover the challenging complexities of this tale. 

We look at the fairy tale motifs Rowling uses, and also ways this streamlined narrative acts almost as a parable. The young wizard learns his lesson in the end, but does he learn it in the right way and for the right reasons? The themes link to Christian texts like the parable of the talents, the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan. Beedle’s story also references generational inheritance of power and responsibility, which echoes main ideas of the larger Harry Potter book series. These themes resonate with other works, from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are to The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. 

The story’s commentary explains that this narrative exists in different versions, rewritten for different contexts and audiences. Particularly Albus Dumbledore’s portrayal of Beatrix Bloxam’s saccharine revision slaps back at the suggestion that children should be sheltered from important realities to which they must develop a moral response. Beedle’s tale gives voice to the grim and grotesque miseries of the wizard’s “other,” which demand remedy and cannot be ignored. Dumbledore’s reflections on the story point out that Beedle was writing at a time when wizards were persecuted by Muggles. In helping his potential persecutors, the young wizard makes himself vulnerable - and yet, this is what he must do. 

This tale has essential lessons for our own times, as we are called to recognize how the suffering of others calls us to their service, despite the inconveniences and despite the risks. Beedle asks us to dare to heal our communities with courage and the talents we possess. The world is knocking at our door, and our conscience requires a response: How will we answer? 

Take a closer look at the fierce and fine Ginny Weasley in this bonus episode. 

Katy and Emily talk with Louise Freeman (Mary Baldwin University) about Ginny Weasley, examining why some fans dislike her as well as what is admirable about her. We compare book-Ginny with movie-Ginny and consider the effect of scenes left out of the films on our impression of the character. Romantic love is at the heart of our discussion, but is that all Ginny has to offer? Does she transcend her role as Harry Potter’s girlfriend? We talk about her influence on other characters and the central plot of the series, as well as the development of her own unique story arc. Looking at Ginny Weasley Potter of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child also provides an opportunity to reflect on her core qualities and her relationship with Harry as an adult. Ginny becomes more interesting as the series progresses, and so rereading reveals important and surprising insights, not only on her character but also on building romantic relationships - and family - in a time of crisis. 

Deconstruct Beedle the Bard’s tale “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump” with us in our latest bonus episode! 

Katy and Emily talk with Katherine Sas (University of Pennsylvania) about the wizard fairy tale featuring the wily and witchy Babbitty Rabbitty. We discuss how J.K. Rowling developed the concept and how it connects with the themes of the Harry Potter series. Is this a story about death, as Albus Dumbledore suggests? The story demonstrates ways people manage their deepest fears. Considering that this story plays on common fairy tale tropes and undermines them, we talk about the fusion of the Trickster and the Crone, and Kat reminds us that Babbitty Rabbitty shares characteristics with Baba Yaga from Slavic folk tales. We also discuss the animal imagery used in the story and contemplate heroic rabbits in literature, including Watership Down. Beedle’s tale also has a political dimension that highlights Rowling’s themes about the abuse of power and the courage of marginalized and overlooked people. In the face of violent power, Babbitty remains unbroken and laughing. 

Take a surprising closer look at Petunia Dursley in this week’s episode. 

Harry’s Aunt Petunia is one of the lesser villains of Rowling’s fantasy series, but in this bonus episode, Katy and Emily hear Emma Nicholson’s rereading of Petunia in light of what we find out at the end of the last book. Considering how Petunia was rejected from the wizarding world in her childhood, and other hints of her humanity and vulnerability, we find some sympathy for Lily’s sister. Petunia is at the center of the Muggle-wizard divide and reveals that the wizards - including Albus Dumbledore - have not always been in the right. Do you remember what Petunia’s last gift to Lily was? We explore the symbolism of the two flower sisters, the influence of Vernon Dursley on Petunia Evans, and the emotional difficulty of living - and raising children - on the boundary between two worlds. 

Which of the wizarding world books mentioned in the Harry Potter series would you most like to have on your bookshelf? 

Join us in considering the funniest, most important, and most intriguing books within the Harry Potter books in this bonus episode. Emily and Katy talk with Professor Lana Whited (Ferrum College) about the many books J.K. Rowling invented for the wizarding world. Which ones are most central to the plot? Which are the most dangerous? Which would be the most entertaining? We also discuss the effect of having all of these wizard-specific books and what the series is teaching us about reading, knowledge, and critical thinking. As Lana reminds us, Rowling’s point is that books are the most powerful magic of all. 

Graduating seniors connect their experiences this spring to the final Harry Potter book. 

In this special episode, Emily, Katy, and Lana Whited (Ferrum College) talk with high school and college seniors who are separated from their friends and schools this spring because of the COVID-19 crisis. Neil Fredericksen (Franklin County High School), Jamie Gilbert (Ferrum College), and Miranda Veal (UNC-Chapel Hill) share their feelings about missing the last part of their senior year. Responding to the viral post about similarities between this experience and what Harry, Ron, and Hermione went through in their lost seventh year, our guests connect their own stories with the trio’s exile in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We talk about the similarities in the missed opportunities, isolation, unpredictability, and lack of closure. We also explore the important differences that Harry Potter fans see between fighting a deadly virus and fighting the Dark Lord. Once again, our conversation reinforces how important the Harry Potter series is for interpreting challenging events in our own lives. 

From all of us at Reading, Writing, Rowling, a big congratulations to all the seniors graduating this year! May we look back upon this time as one in which we did not what was easy, but what was right, to keep our loved ones, friends, and even strangers safe from harm. 

Prognostications about the next Cormoran Strike novel, based on the clues so far. 

In this bonus episode, John and Katy predict what will happen in the next novel in the Rowling/Galbraith Cormoran Strike series with the help of Elizabeth Baird Hardy (Milton, Spencer, and the Chronicles of Narnia) and Beatrice Groves (Literary Allusion in Harry Potter). Given the Strike 5 title Troubled Blood, John explains Rowling’s reliance on the blood motif in Harry Potter and ponders its recurrence in Cormoran Strike. We speculate about the possibility of Marilyn Manson epigraphs through the book, how Manson lyrics could connect with key characters, and whether this blows apart the potential for repeating the chiastic structure of the Harry Potter series. Other clues point to the phrase “troubled blood” in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Like Rowling, Spenser mixes genres, with literary allusions abounding. Britomart, Florimell, and the Redcrosse Knight provide hints for the plot and characters of Strike 5: women in danger, Robin in disguise, depression and suicide, doppelgängers. From tattoos to Twitter headers, we leave no clue unexamined! Are we on the right track? What do you think?  

Enjoy a special bonus mini episode of our show about how we’re “holding on to Harry Potter.” 

Katy and Emily talk with MuggleNet’s Laurie Beckoff about how to navigate our love of Harry Potter with new revelations from J.K. Rowling that challenge what we thought we knew. Laurie explains her theory that the wizarding world extends beyond the books and has become a common language for our culture, an idea she expressed in her article “Holding on to Harry Potter.” Laurie connects us with the “death of the author” literary idea, and Emily makes comparisons to H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, and (of course) Star Wars. We may sometimes feel the Disillusionment Charm has been cast on us with new tweets from the author and by developing, as readers, a stronger critical perspective on the series. Nevertheless, we discuss how each of us still holds close the themes and values that first made us love the books. 

Explore the more-than-magical power of words and rhetoric in the wizarding world. 

This month’s episode explores Albus Dumbledore’s wisdom that “Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.” Mark-Anthony Lewis (Bristol Community College and School on Wheels of Massachusetts) helps Emily and Katy understand how speech and rhetoric operate in the wizarding world. He explains why “Harry Potter Has a Consent Problem,” and the importance of not only choice but lack of choice for certain characters and beings (like Muggles) in the Harry Potter series. Spells, of course, gain their power from words, but Mark-Anthony also points to pivotal moments where speeches are more powerful than magical spells. Dumbledore in particular uses speech instead of magic at critical points to persuade and to empower others in the magical community. 

Mark-Anthony applies the ideas of rhetoricians like Gorgias, Kenneth Burke, Lloyd Bitzer, and Richard Vatz to explore where the power of language and speech originates, and how it builds relationships and empowers listeners. Does the prophesy constrain Harry’s action through the words it relays? We consider Harry’s means of retrieving the real memory about the Horcrux conversation from Slughorn - which he thinks will involve magic but Hermione knows will require persuasion. How do free will and destiny intersect with speech and rhetoric? 

The wizarding world often disdains the physical violence of the Muggle world, but accepts violence generated by the words uttered in spells. Wizards are sometimes blind to the fact that words can do great damage, and to other kinds of physical communication, like the way animals or beasts speak. Mark-Anthony explains that Hagrid is more in tune with this kind of communication, in ways that other wizards are often not, and makes a quite creative connection to the gamekeeper of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. 

Characters like Lockhart, Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape employ a variety of rhetorical styles and devices. We talk about Harry Frankfurt’s concept of (to put it politely) “baloney” as well as the concept of “techne” to understand how key characters communicate and persuade through their speech. Is Snape a kind of Victor Frankenstein? We conclude with some thoughts about insights regarding crisis communication in the Harry Potter series that we might apply to our current difficult times. 

Get to the heart of werewolves in the Harry Potter series in this month’s special double episode!

In this supersized episode, John and Katy talk with literary scholars and werewolf specialists Dr. Melissa Aaron (California Polytechnic State University) and Dr. Renée Ward (University of Lincoln, UK) to reveal the true nature of beastly transformations in the Harry Potter series. “Everything you know about werewolves is wrong,” Melissa tells us, explaining the literary origins of werewolf lore and its key elements. Renée explains the diversity of classical and medieval lyncanthrope references, which were not necessarily judgmental but often emphasized martial violence and extreme difference. Melissa cautions that there is no stable “Ye Olde Book of Werewolves” with one static understanding of what werewolves are or were, but you will nevertheless get lots of ideas for your werewolf reading list from our discussion.

What do werewolves represent? Often they represent the beast within, and fear of oneself, which is clearly a theme of Rowling’s series, especially with Remus Lupin. Renée explains the significance also of Fenrir Greyback (and his name), and how both he and Lupin are searching for similar things: in struggling with their own identities, they look for communities in which they can find acceptance and play meaningful, powerful roles. Rowling’s archive of character histories reveals important contrasts in Remus’s and Fenrir’s development. Werewolves in general, and these two characters in particular, explore the fear that having been a victim of a predator, one may become a predator oneself.

Newt Scamander in his Fantastic Beasts textbook has difficulty categorizing werewolves as “beings” or “beasts.” Rowling problematizes such a binary system, using the werewolf as a case study. Transformation is a fundamental, often involuntary part of werewolf nature. To her magical world, Rowling adds Animagi and Metamorphmagi, who transform at will. Why does she do that? What do we think about the concept of wolfsbane as a medical treatment for lycanthropy? We look at the various metaphorical readings scholars have used to understand Rowling’s transforming characters, the alchemy of these transformations, struggles with one’s own duality, and whether the novels support a romantic “Beauty and the Beast” reading of werewolf relationships. The movies, the Twilight series, and the new Fantastic Beasts films (especially Nagini) - we leave no stone unturned in this conversation! Human/animal transfiguration, we realize, is genuinely at the heart of Rowling’s most important themes.

The nuance, humor, and deep literary knowledge of this episode will tremendously expand your view of human transformation in the Harry Potter series.

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