Quote of the Week

"Would anyone like me to help them interprut the shadowy portents of their orb?" [Trelawney] murmured over the clinking of her bangles.  

"I don't need help," Ron whispered. "It's clear what this means. There's going to be loads of fog tonight."   

 -Prisoner of Azkaban

Ah, the wonderful humor of JKR. The quotes that I usually choose are rather serious and important pieces of advice. But this week I decided that we needed to represent the other side of the series. Does this quote do much to further the plot or conflict of the novels? No, but it does provide comic relief. In novels packed with heavy themes and suspense, it is nice to have some playful moments. JKR is just as adept at writing humor as she is drama, and I have to say that the odd mixture of the two is part of what makes the novels so entertaining.

And the answer to the last post...

As if by the greatest coincidence, JKR has come out of the shadows in a big way today. She announced that she is launching a new website, Pottermore. No word yet on what the site actually will be, if you go there you just get a "coming soon" message, but we will know soon. She is going to announce it in less than a week, on June 22. Speculation fills the spectrum of possibilities from a new online game to my deepest desire an encyclopedia. Well more to come I assure you.

Mischief Managed,

Calie

Where in the World is JKR!?

So lately, Harry Potter fans haven’t heard much news from JK Rowling. No press conferences about anything, no book announcements, no HP news, no public appearances… Her website, www.jkrowling.com, hasn’t been updated since October 28, 2008, which is almost three years. The update was about the release of the book The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which came out in 2008. Where in the world has JKR been!?

I know that she’s extremely famous, but what could she possibly be doing so that she has completely dropped off of the earth? The only thing that I can think of that could be consuming her time other than her home-life would be charity work, but even then, it’s not that often. She has said on a few occasions that she may or may not write another series of the Harry Potter world, but without Harry as the main character. So, to our knowledge, she isn’t writing anymore books for a while- unless you count The Scottish Book. The Scottish Book is supposedly going to be a future production of JKR’s that will basically be a Harry Potter Bible; an incredibly detailed encyclopedia of the Harry Potter universe, if you will. It will feature dropped plotlines, extra information on characters, further elaborations on topics, and more. She hasn’t mentioned much about it since the original mention of the project on a LeakyCauldron podcast, followed up by a newspaper report with her in 2008.

The only recent public appearances she has made recently were at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I movie in 2010, as well as a few charity functions that she is a part of. She has founded a few charities as well- including the charity Lumos and a charity for Multiple Sclerosis in honor of her mother, who suffered and died from the disease. She is involved in many charities that she donates generously too; many of them helping children.

I’m sure that Harry Potter fans around the world, very much like myself, are extremely anxious for the release of this encyclopedia. It doesn’t appear that it will be released for a while, but I will keep hoping that this isn’t the case. Many fans are dreading the release of Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 because it is the last Harry Potter movie, which means that the series will come to a conclusion book and movie-wise. It will end the ten year span of the movies, and the twenty year span since the little thought of an orphaned wizard passed through the mind of a woman on a subway.

Though we may not know where she is right now, or know what she is doing, we do know where she will be in a month… at the biggest premiere of her career. This is the final moment- the conclusion of the eight movie series that has so fascinated us. I imagine that this will be the next time that we see her for some time, unless she answers my prayers (and loads of fanmail) about her releasing The Scottish Book soon. Just kidding, I haven’t actually sent them. I guess that we will see what this reintroduction to the spotlight will do for JKR and her public appearances; hopefully spark more, in my opinion!

Mischief Managed.

Paige Cyrus

Analysis of Prisoner of Azkaban

The third book can be viewed as the beginning of Voldemort’s rise to power. In this book, Pettigrew leaves to return to Voldemort, essentially enabling him to regain his full body. But other than this, Voldemort plays a small part in the conflict of the third book. Most of the conflict centers around Harry learning about Sirius, and all the fear associated with Sirius’ apparent attempts to murder him; and Harry’s struggles against the dementors. In the analysis of this book, I am going to focus on a few things: the dementors, Harry discovering his father figures, the time turner, divination, and finally a few questions that I had as I read the book.

Dementors

JKR has said many times that the dementors symbolize depression. Dementors drain people of all their happiness, and cause them to dwell on the unhappiest things that have ever happened to them. They cause people to feel cold and when they are near people see the world in a fog. All of these things are characteristics of depression. We know that Rowling has suffered from depression and understands the power that it has on a person, it is no surprise that those experiences found their way into the books. What I see as incredible is that she didn’t simply make depression a part of the books, but actually created a creature that truly embodies it.

Father Figures

This book marks the beginning of a few relationships with people who will serve as father figures for Harry. First of all you have Lupin, who Harry deeply respects and trusts. We see this most clearly when Lupin rescued Harry from Snape after he had been spotted in Hogsmeade. Harry says that he felt worse after Lupin said that he was disappointed in him, than he had the entire time he was in Snape’s office. Lupin is a responsible and caring individual. He empowers the downtrodden, like Neville, but he also understands that even the strong need some help, like Harry. These qualities not only make Lupin a good father figure, but also are some good qualities that Harry can learn from him. We are also introduced to Harry’s most prominent father figure, Sirius. Although we don’t see very much of this relationship in this book, it becomes more prominent and important in the later books.

The Time Turner

Hermione says: “We’re breaking one of the most important wizarding laws! Nobody’s supposed to change time, nobody!” Indeed, in this book we see the affects of meddling with time. Hermione struggled during this year. She was visibly very tired and overworked. It is no wonder, if you think about it she was having nearly thirty hour days. Time is very complicated, and when you have the ability to go back in time it is very easy for terrible things to happen. Hermione warns Harry that there have been cases where people have killed their past or future self. In short, time is something that has serious consequences.

Divination

We are also presented with the magic of telling the future in this book. This plays major roles throughout the rest of the series so be on he look out for it to come up again. Divination, however, is also very complicated. I think Dumbledore puts it best: “The consequences of our actions are so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed... Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that...”

The class of divination serves another purpose throughout the series: comic relief. Professor Trelawney is a comical character. Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s reaction to the lessons and homework also provide some laughs. The best thing is that it just gets funnier from here.

Questions I Have

Why did the sneakoscope go off part way through the train journey, just as they were talking about Black, and not earlier? Wasn’t Pettigrew being deceitful the entire time he was a rat?
How do earthen passages appear out of walls several stories up, like the passage that caved in on the fourth floor or the one that comes out of the second floor of the Hog’s Head in the seventh book?
When the dementors come to the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match, was it because they were hungry or sensed that Sirius was present?
When animagi transform, do their clothes also transform with them? What about turning back into people? (I know that the books indicate they do, but how does it work? What if someone was wearing an invisibility cloak?)
How did Sirius know that Harry did not have permission to go to Hogsmeade and that he should send permission at the end of the book?

Poll

I have added a poll to the right. It concerns your favorite book of the series. This poll will run through June so you have some time to vote, but don't put it off too long. Have fun and let the voting begin.

Mischief Managed,

Calie