Putin and Dobby: Separated at Birth?
January 31, 2009
I frequently joke in my talks about how much Vladimir Putin looks like Dobby the house-elf — and share as an aside that that has been the subject of some conversation and controversy in Russia since the premiere of the Chamber of Secrets movie. For those skeptical or just curious about that possibility, I urge a trip to that ‘Duck of Minerva’ post on the subject. I hope those who check it out will share their reflections here.
Scrooge and Malthus: Satire versus Satirical Writing
January 30, 2009
Mr. Jerry Bowyer is an economist, author, Great Books lover and friend of that blog (HogPro All-Pros will recall it was Jerry and Susan Bowyer who spotted the ‘House of Gaunt’ with its ‘Dark Mark’ in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair). Forbes magazine ran a fascinating column by Mr. Bowyer last December on the allegorical and satirical meaning of Dickens’ Christmas Carol called ‘Malthus and Scrooge.’ I bring the column to your attention for two reasons.
Firs…
PRAYERS FOR INJURED HARRY POTTER STUNTMAN DAVID HOLMES
January 30, 2009
Friends and family of the Harry Potter stunt double injured in a horrific fall were yesterday praying his film career is not by.
One pal said that specialists had taken a scan of 25-year-old David Holmes’s back and were assessing the extent of the damage.
He added: “They are hoping he will form a full recovery. But it was a nasty injury and it might be some moment before they know precisely what they are dealing with.
“He is hoping he hasn’t suffered any really serious permanent damage….
The Divine Mirror in Pilgrim’s Progress
January 29, 2009
Mirrors are a big part of fantasy literature in the English tradition. It starts in a big way with the Alice classics by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), an Oxford Platonist, Anglican clergyman, and mathematician, when he sends his heroine Through the Looking Glass and it echos through Goudge’s work (as we saw yesterday), Tolkien’s Mirror of Galadriel and Frodo’s Light which is essentially a phial of water taken from the pool-mirror, up to the Godfather mirror fragment that pla…
HARRY POTTER CREATOR JK ROWLING VOTED worldly IPEX 2010 “CHAMPION IN PRINT”
January 28, 2009
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has been named the second worldly Ipex 2010 ‘Champion in Print’ by the global graphic arts industry event Ipex for her outstanding contribution to book printing.
that prestigious honour acknowledges the huge positive influence that Ms Rowling has had on the printing industry, through the phenomenal increase in the production of the printed book, as a aftermath of her hugely successful Harry Potter series.
The first of Ms Rowling’s Harry Potter boo…
HARRY POTTER STUNTMAN SUFFERS HORROR INJURY IN FILM SET EXPLOSION
January 28, 2009
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double suffered a horror injury in a film set explosion yesterday.
The 25-year-old was rehearsing a flying sequence using a harness when he was sent plummeting by the blast, which was part of the stunt. He was conscious after smashing to the ground but told horrified colleagues: “I can’t feel my legs.”
The 25-year-old, who doubles for Harry star Daniel Radcliffe, was sent plunging yesterday by an explosion that was part of the stunt.
A source s…
Elizabeth Goudge: ‘The Well of the Star’
January 28, 2009
Much has been made of the influence of Elizabeth Goudge’s Little White Horse on Ms. Rowling’s Harry Potter books — and with good reason. As I detail in the last chapter of Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures, beyond Ms. Rowling’s pointing to that fantasy as a favorite of her childhood and saying it was a “direct influence” on her work “perhaps more than any other,” Horse’s structure, symbols, and ana…