I knew it. I totally knew it. 
So I was at the library today and on the new books shelf something caught my eye: a book called Reading Harry Potter Again.
It’s a collection of essays about HP (fairly academic but still very interesting), and it turns out that the person who edited it (Giselle Liza Anatol) has an earlier collection on Harry Potter as well, Reading Harry Potter, critical essays from 2003. (a few essays from the 2003 book that look particularly interesting: “Safe as houses: sorting and school houses at Hogwarts;” “Harry and hierarchy: book banning as a reaction to the subversion of authority;” “Flying cars, floo powder, and flaming torches: the hi-tech, low-tech world of wizardry;” “The fallen empire: exploring ethnic otherness in the world of Harry Potter”)
Has anyone read either of these? I’d check the new one out, but one can’t since it’s new… but it looks neat!
I have no but I did read The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter by David Colbert that goes into the history of the concepts in HP, meanings of the words, that kinda stuff
My friendly neighborhood Barnes & Noble had a whole table devoted to Harry Potter stuff, including a book, the title of which eludes me, analyzing the series. One of the subjects was [spoiler]whether Harry should have died[/spoiler]. It looked kinda interesting, but I got a programming book instead.
Easy, he wanted to be in Gryffindor and the sorting hat takes what the wearer wants into account more than what traits they may have.
Also I’ve noticed in the books he’s the only one who ever questions Voltemort on anything. He gets tortured (CRUCIO!) for it but we see him do it a few times. That really requires some sort of bravery.
But he’s still a git.
Also, it takes a great amount of bravery to stand up to your friends. Neville used this type of bravery for good. Unfortunately, Peter used it for evil. Peter’s a fascinating character.
Wizard Rock is the terminology used for Harry Potter inspired music.
There is also Timelord Rock (Dr. Who), Twi-Rock (Twilight barf), Star Wars Rock, and WWRock (West Wing…a side project some friends of mine have). I’m not sure if there’s been Lord of the Rings rock, but I haven’t searched much.
Whaaaaaa? I know there’s some people here that would really really like to know more about that.
I have a band called BARTLET FOR AMERICA with Alex from The Remus Lupins and a few people around St. Louis. I’m CJ, Alex is Josh, but we write about everything.
There’s a myspace, but right now the song up there isn’t a great example. http://myspace.com/bartletforamericamusic
Here’s an example of a song I’ve written for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfXbJQpo8xE
Our goal is to release an album and donate the proceeds to MS research! Once my basement is un-flooded, we’ll get started on production, since Alex & I have most of the album written already.
Take it back. I just added a new rough demo to the Bartlet for America myspace. Listen with abandon: http://myspace.com/bartletforamericamusic
Thanks. Very interesting. …Woah, Woah. wait. Hold on a sec. WWRock?
West Wing rock? I MUST know more about this. I am on record as a HUGE West Wing fan (alpng with my good buddy SellixSeesAll here on the forum).
Please, please tell me more. Do I see a song “Charlie Young doesn’t really love me, he only loves his President…” in our future?
Hahaha. We’ve been writing WWrock a lot lately. Not much is recorded yet though. Our myspace is http://myspace.com/bartletforamericamusic
I’m actually writing a song about the Butterball Hotline right now
Oh. My. Gods. That is awesome. The Butterball hotline scenes is among my favs!
What hath Harry and the Potters wrought 
There’s already several albums worth of WWE(F)Rock. None of it very good.
Speaking of “very good,” it’s been five days now, and Tonks’ “Charlie Weasley (Clapping)” is still bouncing around in my head. It is textbook awesomeness.
If you’re interested, I noticed when I was there yesterday that the authors of that book are going to be at my friendly neighborhood Barnes & Nobles tomorrow: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/61668. I’m still too much of a Muggle to get much out of the discussion, but one of these days I’ll actually have read the books!
Edit: Fixed some glaring typos
The official Sorting Hat Link http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/web/hogwarts/sorting_hat.jsp
does not work properly in Safari, Firefox, Camino, and Opera! You get linked into the new movie home page, like others have said. Too bad. I’m a Hufflepuff, it seems.
Any Potterheads here have links to the other tests handy? If so, start a “Sorting Hat” thread in the HP forum, please.
Great discussion of censorship. One thot though. While I don’t doubt that it has been argued that the Diary of Anne Frank is too depressing for children, I thot the actual motivation behind banning it is because of her questioning the existence of God.
Doesn’t work with IE8 either…