Nick has been reading his way through Anthony Powell’s twelve volume Dance to the Music of Time because Rowling mentioned it in a 2017 tweet and he thought there were interesting connections between that Roman Fleuve and Rowling-Galbraith’s series-writing. And it turns out he was right! Rowling tweeted about her favorite book in Dance and her favorite character in the epic (see links below).

Two weeks ago, Rowling tweeted at some length about her ‘Lake and Shed’ writing process. Nick and John dive into those messages that muddied the water considerably about what exactly she means by her ‘Lake’ and the possible meanings of ‘Universal Psyche,’ a phrase new to Rowling’s descriptions of her writing process, not to mention of her core beliefs. Jung? Coleridge? Anaxagoras? St Maximos the Confessor? Again, see the links below.

Nick and John then share their reading lists for the short time remaining before the publication of Hallmarked Man and talk about three options for how we will read the book here at Hogwarts Professor. Those options in thumbnail sketches are:

* Read It Like Everybody Else — Straight Through — and Write a Review

* Read It As If It Were a Dickens Novel Release, One Part at a Time

* Read It Straight Through and then Read It As If It Were a Dickens Novel

Nick and John discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each and decide to post a poll inside this post for readers to voice their preference (please share your thinking in the comment boxes and place your vote in the poll below!).

Next time out, we’ll be (1) trying headsets to improve the audio quality, (2) discussing the results of the poll with comments as well as our tentative plans for the release, and (3) the most important tools to have in hand (in mind?) when reading a Rowling-Galbraith novel for the first time.

Until then, thank you for listening and for your support!

Links To Subjects Discussed Above:

Rowling’s 15 August Tweet about Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time

* Rowling 2017 tweet about Dance (‘Rowling’s Admitted Literary Influences’)

* A Dance to the Music of Time (Wikipedia)

* ‘Roman-fleuve’ (Wikipedia)

* Anthony Powell (Wikipedia)

* Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (Wikipedia)

* ‘Hugh Moreland’ aka Constant Lambert (Wikipedia)

* ‘Dr Trelawney’ aka Aleister Crowley (Wikipedia)

* S. J. Perelman (Wikipedia), The Most of S. J. Perelman, 1957 (Amazon)

* Fred Tremallo (‘Exeter Unafraid’)

Rowling’s 7 August ‘Lake and Shed’ Tweets

* Writing Characters is “a doubly subconscious process,” Lake as “subconscious part of my process”

* The Lake as “mysterious source of inspiration, ability to tap into something in the universal psyche that animates the best stories”

“Universal Psyche”?

* Rowling belief in “permanent soul” (El Pais, 2008)

Q: You said that you saw your soul as something undeniable.

A: Yes, that’s true. But I also have said that I have many doubts regarding religion. I feel very attracted by religion, but at the same time I feel a lot of uncertainty. I live in a state of spiritual flux. I believe in a permanent soul. And that is reflected in the last book....

* Rowling belief in “indestructible soul” (Leaky Cauldron, 2007)

Do you see death as the end of everything?No. I lead an intensely spiritual life, and even though I don’t have a terribly clear and structured idea about it, I do believe that after you die some part of you stays alive some way or other. I belief (sic) in something as the indestructible soul. But for that subject we should reserve about six hours: It’s something I struggle with a lot.

* Universal Mind (Wikipedia)

* Panpsychism (Wikipedia)

* Anima Mundi (Wikipedia)

* Jungian Archetypes and the Universal Patterns of the Psyche (Psychologs)

* Coleridge’s Philosophy: The Logos as Unifying Principle, Perkins, 1994 (Amazon)

* St Maximus the Confessor on Essence, Energies, and Logoi (Jean-Claude Larchet)

Louise Freeman Davis about ‘John Oxenham’ Sark Novels

* First Epigraph posted: John Oxenham

* A Maid of the Silver Sea

* Carette of Sark, Part One and Part Two

* Oxenham and Hoffman

Elsie Oxenham ‘Abbey Girls’ Novels

* The Thirty Eight Books in the Series (Fantastic Fiction)

* Elsie J. Oxenham (Wikipedia)

* Abbey Series (Wikipedia)

* Elsie Oxenham Appreciation Societies (Wikipedia)

Cormoran Strike Ten Book Series Structure Ideas

* Why the Cormoran Strike Novels are a Ten Book Series: Mythological Clues and Tetractys Parallelism with a Touch of Tarot (Evan Willis, July 2023)

* Is Tetractys Theory the Best Explanation of Why the Cormoran Strike Series is Ten Books in Length? (July 2023)

* The Double Wedding Band Model (Louise Freeman Davis, October 2023)

* The First Seven Strike Novels as a Closed Ring Composition (November 2023)

* Rowling’s Parallel Series Swan and Heart Structure: Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 2025)

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