Ravenclaw Reader: Seeking the Meaning and Artistry of J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts Saga, Essays from the St. Andrews University Harry Potter Conference

How things change. Boswell famously records this soundbite of Samuel Johnson. "I told him I had been that morning at a meeting of the people called Quakers, where I had heard a woman preach. Johnson: “Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”"It would not be quite fair to apply that saying to the Ravenclaw Reader. Nonetheless my appreciation of the book is more for its existence than its content. I have enjoyed reading this kind of discussion of Harry Potter, and I don’t think I ever expected to see the fruits of an academic conference in print, far less one that took so seriously the underlying Christian themes of the series. That says as much about the many early battles some of us fought against the book-burning brigade as it does about this collection of conference papers.There are some interesting themes dealt with in the (as always in a book of this type) very varied chapters. I have found all of them provoking me to think more deeply about my own appreciation of Rowling’s artistry. And for that I thank all the authors and the editors who have imposed a kind of logic on a very disparate collection.I have been most astonished by the bibliography. I had not realised there were so many serious contributions to the field of Potter studies.Yet, in the end, not a single essay in this collection has quite convinced me of its interpretation, though some provoked me to new thinking of my own quite constructively. Some of that is, no doubt, down to my disagreement with some aspects of cultural and literary studies. Yet I constantly found myself thinking that despite the very sharp intellects revealed here, the authors were missing large swathes of the narrative wood in pursuit of their analysis of particular trees. Some papers were simply too clever for their own good.Overall, I think my reaction to this book moved from excitement that it was published to disappointment that it was not as engaging as I hoped. I have blogged interactions with each single paper in more detail, and list all the posts here: http://www.dougchaplin.uk/culture/books/the-ravenclaw-reader-sadly-not-wit-beyond-measure/

EnthrallingA thoroughly readable and thoughtful look at why the Harry Potter books have had such a grip on their devoted readers. This is a collection of essays from the excellent St Andrew's conference (which I attended) which give a real flavour of the depth of knowledge, the erudition and the sheer enjoyment of an outstanding literary conference. Highly recommended