Episode #83: Patterns in Potter – Deathly Hallows
We’re back for another action-packed episode of Patterns in Potter. This time, we take on the latest contender in the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. We begin with an analysis of the prologue, of both The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus, and William Penn’s More Fruits of Solitude
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In the news:
- Harry Potter makes it to Entertainment Weekly’s “1000 New Classics”. Greg has big time issues with this.
- Thirty new international release dates for the Half Blood Prince movie. My guess is that the movie will be released internationally before we see the teaser trailer.
- You can now buy the Deluxe Edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for $13.00!!! Wow. Good deal.
- JK Rowling gets an Edinburgh Award. Greg imitates Sean Connery.
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Tags: aeschylus, death, Deathly Hallows, faith, Harry Potter, Patterns in Potter, trust, william penn
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:25 am
Rosie and agreed on the trust theme for book six a few episodes ago see: http://www.hpprogs.com/2008/05/16/episode-79-harry-potter-and-godels-theorem/ in the comments. I think if we lobby aggresivly enough Greg will evetually come around.
Just a random thought but I think you should make an Odeo_Kids dot com (just like Audible).
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I just stopped listening to the podcast to get a copy of the Deluxe edition of Deathly Hallows, and the thousands of the hpprogs fans must have beat me to amazon and cleared out their inventory because the price is $65 again. Oh well. Thanks for letting us know though. I don’t have time to check the web that much because of my job.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Concerning your reference to Elphias Doge and Colin Creevey… I think you’re missing the obvious. Colin was probably interested in Harry.
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I’m not sure how we got back on this thing about people’s attractions to each other, even without any textual evidence, but come on, even Freud said it’s not always about sex.
The simplest explanation is probably the best, & the simplest explanation for Elphias Doge & Colin Creevy, without any further clues in the text itself, is that they were star struck. And especially in regard to Doge, C. S. Lewis talks about in his autobiography of the desire to want to be part of the in group & of the wonder & pride of somehow ending up hanging out with the movers & shakers.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
revgeorge- I agree with you 100%. I sort of ignored Greg’s line ofhtought there because I don’t think a “mutual attraction” has anything to do with sex necessarily. You can be attracted to someone’s ideals, their excitement or to them as a friend.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Thanks, Penny. Certainly Doge’s slavish devotion & puppy dog following around of Dumbledore isn’t healthy but it doesn’t seem to be anything other than that. It’s almost like Pettigrew’s friendship with James & Sirius. I mean, how in the world did they all become friends & what was the nature of their friendship? Was Pettigrew just tolerated because James & Sirius liked to have a buddy they could feel superior to or because they liked to have a sycophantic admirer of their great deeds/mischief?
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:31 pm
RevGeorge- is there a difference between the two?
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Penny, perhaps there’s a few differences but in Pettigrew’s case I think it may be one & the same. But there’s a lot of unhealthy and/or weird friendships that turn up in life.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 am
Lol…”Susan Bones Neville Longbottom”….lol.. Sorry had to comment coz i was at work listening to the podcast and burst out laughing when heard that. Im just getting a bit excited about Portus!!! Rgh not long now
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:50 am
On Elphias Doge – on my last re-listen of OotP I noticed that when Mad-Eye shows Harry the photo of the original order members he says about Elphias, “He did insist on wearing that stupid hat.” I mean, how stupid would this hat have to be for a wizard (who is hardly know for his sense of style) surrounded by pointy hats, lime green bowlers, vulture hats, etc., to notice? Not that this is a reflection of Doge’s sexuality.
On moral ambiguity/loss of innocence – I am not sure if I am just restating what has been said before but for me a well remembered “loss of innocence” was realizing that moral choices are not always clear cut/black & white.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
If you recall the theme we discussed for Book 2, I think we’re safe in saying that Colin Creevy was not attracted to Harry, just obsessed with him. If that later turned into lust, it’s still a symptom of the theme from book 2.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 am
I feel like no one really talked about when Hermione lost her innocence, most likely because she never really panicked and always thought things through so well making the only logical decision she came to, so I don’t think she ever really stopped to think how it made her feel, just the only thing to do. We see her feelings coming out a little more in book 5 but she still has that very logical side to her. Greg talked about how Harry, Ron and even Snape had this lose of innocence, almost security when Dumbledore died, in this last podcast. For Hermione I don’t think this did it for her. For the other three I think they looked up to Dumbledore as not only a father figure but almost like this indestructible figure that not only was not capable to die but had all the answers and could fix anything, and they could always fall back on. When he died I think it became more real to them that they were on there own. For Hermione there were a few other things I think really changed her. The first is when she told Harry she sent her parents away and that she made them forget they even had a daughter, logical thing to do? Yes, but I could not bring myself to do it and she showed she was upset about doing it, even though it was still the right thing she did not want to do it. Than Ron left and she made her self except that he was gone … almost dead to her and this was the thing that I think made she realize it was not just solving mysteries at school any more. That people were leaving and dying and she did not have the control to stop it, and really mourned how different things had become and understood they would never be the same. I mean she was not herself for weeks and cryed all the time, almost giving up in a small way and losing a lot of hope. What do you guys think?
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
count me in the “death” theme camp. it fits in best with my Beedle-the-Bard theory.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Shimon when I first read your comment I thought you wrote “count me in the death camp theme” and I was like. Wow, that is morbid.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Bethel- I think JK Rowling said that Hermione lost her innocence when she didn’t go with Ron when he left the camp, and I think you touched on that so kudos to you!! I think Hermione was never innocent in some regards. I think the fact that she was born as a muggleborn and exposed to so many prejudices in the wizarding world at such a young age combined with her intelligence made her less innocent than the others. thoughts?
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Penny – Whoa, that is plain scary.
I think I gotta be more careful.
There may be a time to be morbid but it ain’t right now.
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Penny I would have to agree with that. I think that she really just grew up fast. She always seemed to just let things roll off her back. Did Rowling say if Hermione knew much or anything about Hogwarts?
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Going back to Brent- I also checked. I can NOT the Deluxe Edition is back to being $65. that is nuts!!
Bethel- I don’t think Rowling ever told us about Hermione’s early life but in SS I got the impression that she had recently found out that she was a witch and did as much research as she could before she started.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Penny- I am sure your right, she most-likely research it right away when she stared doing magic randomly.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Greg, I enjoyed the musical edition of the episode and your……um….great singing voice. haha just kidding.
=)
Good job this week!
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I wanted to order the Deluxe Edition through your site and thought there was a problem since I’m in Switzerland and not the USA, but I’m obviously not the only one with that problem.
Anyway, I’ve just finished the last of your podcasts. I’ve been listening to all of them since they cam out and I’m only missing the one that’s not on iTunes, I believe it was a live-podcast. I’ll get that one from here now. Great work btw. It has been a pleasure listeing to you guys discuss while cooking dinner or driving to work. Yours is really the best podcast out there, despite Greg’s singing.
Keep up the excellent work. I especially loved the episodes where you invited guests like Travis or the addiction professor.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Thanks for this tip. Maybe you can tell everybody this too: when will these deluxe versions actually be in stores? I’ve gone to a couple of bookstores lately and they haven’t been there. Great Podcast as always.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Shimon: I think you meant a “death theme park,” for all the existentialists (and their kids) out there.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Martina: I need to know more about your site. Do you have a still image of each frame of each and every episode of those tv shows? That is amazingly thorough!
July 5th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
yes!
I would definately go for a “death theme park”.
Aren’t they building one in Orlando?
July 7th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I’ve always seen Colin as a foil to Ginny- starting with the same sort of teenybopper starstruck crush on Harry but it not growing beyond that.
April 7th, 2011 at 10:37 am
Who do you all suppose Colin’s friends were? Don’t have the books with me now but I don’t remember any names being given.