Exploring Deeper Literary Meanings

This week on The Literary Life, Angelina and Thomas wrap up their series on J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter: Book 1. Angelina and Thomas begin the episode with some thoughts on their Aristotelian approach to literature as seen in this series of episodes. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they dive into their discussion of the last few chapters of the book. Some of the ideas they consider are how the entire plot is a series of symbols, alchemy and the allegory of the soul, and the figure of the “wildman” in the literary tradition. They also go over the characters of the centaurs, the significance of the unicorn, more references to Greek mythology, how Harry exemplifies the “chest” of the well-ordered man, and the great importance of the philosopher’s stone as a Christ symbol.

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Commonplace Quotes:

There is a sort of wild fairy interest in these tales which makes me think them fully better adapted to awaken and soften the heart of childhood that the “good boy” stories which have been in later years composed for them. In the latter case their minds are, as it were, put into the stocks…and the moral always consists in good conduct being crowned with temporal success. The truth is, I would not give one tear shed over Little Red Riding Hood for all the benefit to be derived from a hundred histories of Jimmy Goodchild.

Sir Walter Scott, from a letter to a friend

“I believe in God, not magic.” In fact, Rowling initially was afraid that if people were aware of her Christian faith, she would give away too much of what’s coming in the series. “It I talk too freely about that,” she told a Canadian reporter, “I think the intelligent reader–whether ten [years old] or sixty–will be able to guess what is coming in the books.”

Michael Nelson, quoting J. K. Rowling, from “Fantasia: The Gospel According to C. S. Lewis“ A Selection from “The Inferno”, Canto XII

By Dante Alighieri, trans. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

O blind cupidity, O wrath insane, That spurs us onward so in our short life, And in the eternal then so badly steeps us!I saw an ample moat bent like a bow, As one which all the plain encompasses, Conformable to what my Guide had said.And between this and the embankment’s foot Centaurs in file were running, armed with arrows, As in the world they used the chase to follow.Beholding us descend, each one stood still, And from the squadron three detached themselves, With bows and arrows in advance selected;And from afar one cried: “Unto what torment Come ye, who down the hillside are descending? Tell us from there; if not, I draw the bow.” Book List:

Studies in Classic American Literature by D. H. Lawrence

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

Unlocking Harry Potter by John Granger

Harry Potter’s Bookshelf by John Granger

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

The Sacred and The Profane by Mircea Eliade

The Elizabethan World Picture by E. M. Tillyard

The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis

Mythos by Stephen Fry

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

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