Episode #78: The Truth Hurts
In the week’s episode, we continue our discussion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the central theme of truth and knowledge, specifically how the book presents the theme in context of Hogwarts, education, careers and experiential vs. learned/taught knowledge. It’s even more exciting that I can describe.
We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.
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And, the news:
- Radcliffe, Leung nominated for Best Kiss. BORING.
- Lavender Brown interviewed. Not the real Lavender Brown, mind you.
- Aerial footage of the Potter movie set at Leavesden Studios. This is very cool.
- J.K. Rowling won a trial. Not the trial we’re all interested in, but a trial nonetheless.
Also, check out Pensieve Memories, a new Harry Potter forum.
You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download directly as an mp3.
Tags: book 5, dolores umbridge, Harry Potter, knowledge, ootp, Severus Snape, trust, truth
May 9th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar
May 9th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
good podcast.
i was thinking about the different patterns and themes of each book, and it occurred to me that maybe the end of each potter book is an introduction to the major theme of the next. i don’t have my books with me, so i don’t know if this could be shown in each case specifically, but at the end of book one harry questions dumbledore about what went on and why voldemort chose to kill him, which would lead to his true identity as the man marked to defeat voldemort in the end; leading into the theme of book two which is identity. and at the end of book four, voldemort returns and we see that the truth about his coming back is denied by fudge and that the knowledge of what went on is only held by harry and to fudge, he isn’t a credible source; thus leading into the theme of truth and trust in book five.
idk if this follows for all of them, maybe someone else can prove/disprove my theory?
May 10th, 2008 at 9:08 am
this was another great podcast, but I was trying to check out that movie footage you guys talked about in “our” news, but the link is dead. is there somewhere else to see that video?
May 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Jackie: That’s a really good idea. I’m pretty sure that it can be proved, I’ll just have to go back and check. At the end of PoA, Fudge is questioning Harry’s reliability as a witness, and that plays in to GoF, when everyone is questioning whether Harry should be in the tournament.
Maybe that should be an episode of Patterns in Potter?
May 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I just had an idea about the knowledge/truth theme. If you know the truth, you have knowledge, and if you have knowledge, you have power. So in a way, truth leads to knowledge, and knowledge can lead to power.
What do you think?
May 10th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Rose: What I think…is that you’re totally right. But it’s sounding an awful lot like Yoda in Star Wars, “Fear leads to Anger, anger leads to hate” etc.
May 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I meant Rosie. Oops.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I’m a new listener and your podcast is amazing. It’s funny and although a lot of other podcasts are about Harry Potter, yours is by far the best. It’s been cheering me up, I have flu. I can’t stop listening which probably means, JOB WELL DONE!!!
May 11th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Brian: Wow. Accidentally sounding like Yoda is not something that happens to me often. Or ever, before this.
Laura: Hope you get well soon!
May 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Jackie- Very interesting thoughts. Like you, I have to sit down and actually think about each book and figure out if it works but that would be really neat, wouldn’t it?
Brian From Facebook: I fixed the link so it should be working now. Thanks for letting us know. Greg feels like he owes HPANA an apology now.
Rosie- But with Great Power, comes Great Responsibility
Laura- Welcome!!! We are so happy to have you hear. Sorry you aren’t feeling well, but we are glad we can do something to cheer you up. Stay in touch!
May 11th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Penny- That’s a good point, and through-out the series we see that people who don’t use their power responsibly often end up dead. Voldemort, for instance abused his power so much that he thought he was more powerful than he actually was, and ended up dead.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for fixing the link, Penny. It was an interesting video–definitely worth linking to.
May 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
it was interesting, wasn’t it? I really liked the look of some of the sets. Especially the burrow. Can’t wait to see what this attack on the burrow will look like, so I was hoping to get some clues from the set, but I didn’t see anything.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
btw, i was listening to one of your earlier podcasts and you were talking about your t-shirts and how everyone was trying to copy napoleon dynamite’s pedro for president t-shirt, but in actuality in the first book during harry’s first quidditch match his friend’s made a sign that says “Potter for President” on it.
so i guess you could say napoleon’s copying harry potter.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
You guys should have a t-shirt that says Potter for President! That would be awesome!
May 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Jackie and Rosie: I would totally buy an HP Progs “Potter for President!” shirt. That’s pretty cool.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I’ve been meaning to buy on of the Progs t-shirts for a while, I just couldn’t decide which one, but I would totally buy a Potter for President t-shirt.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Rosie: You should buy the Snape “Always” shirt first. I think it’s their best-seller.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I might. I’m rather partial to the W shirt.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
thanks
im considering ordering a ‘potter offers you his protection’ shirt. It hilarious - i liked the film but it was so not funny, it was funny.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
So i have been catching up on your older podcasts that i never listened to and i am listening to episode 63 and i wanted to tell you that i also loved juno! sorry it was 5 months too late!