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August 28, 2009 in Iconological Criticism | 6 comments

Lev Grossman of Time Magazine interviewed me about all things Harrry and Bella last week and our Q&A was posted on the ‘Nerd World’ blog at Time.com this morning — and the article came with a link to Hogwarts Professor. If you are joining us for the first time after reading that online exchange and visiting Hogwarts Professor (HogPro), welcome! Please make yourself feel at home and join in any of the conversations on the various threads here.

I recommend — to get a feel for what the discussions are like at Forks High School Professor — that you check out my response last week to a Twilight-focused editorial in the Washington Post about damning the series with faint praise, a note on Mrs. Meyer’s denial of profound meaning in her books in August, 2008, and a series of posts comparing the critical receptions Ms. Rowling’s and Mrs. Meyer’s popular series received.

I look forward to reading what you’re thinking about Edward and Bella!Thanks for joining us — and I’ll see you tomorrow.

  1. Arabella Figg’s avatar

    Arabella Figg on August 29, 2009 at 3:39 am

    Copying my comment at HogPro. Fantastic, John! Congrats on a great interview that’s getting good comments. It’s wonderful that you and Mr.Grossman have kept up the convivial connection from LeakyCon. The last paragraph in comment #4 gave me a good chuckle. I do hope she pops over here for some satisfying discussion about her quarrel with Bella.

  2. LibraryLily’s avatar

    LibraryLily on August 29, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    Splendid interview! I really enjoyed that. Favorite line: “The text is not an artifact for deconstruction but an intricate conversation to be had with either an inspired mind or a very deliberate speaker.” Ahh, that’s such a relief to hear.

    I might have to read Mr. Grossman’s book for myself one of these days.

    Mrs. Figg, I agree with you. Commenter #4, come by and talk! :)

  3. revgeorge’s avatar

    revgeorge on August 29, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    Library Lily, that was my favorite line as well. When we set out to deconstruct a text, we make ourselves master over it rather than being a partner in the conversation or a servant of the text.

    Brilliant stuff, John!

  4. Arabella Figg’s avatar

    Arabella Figg on August 30, 2009 at 10:03 pm

    I liked, among many great comments, “They keep inviting me to speak at the good schools, but how could I know what literary academics think?” Zing!

  5. korg20000bc’s avatar

    korg20000bc on September 5, 2009 at 11:59 am

    John,
    I appreciated reading this interview.
    In there, and in other comments you made in the past, you have opined that a comparison with Buffy is short-changing the Twilight books.
    I haven’t read and Meyer but I have watched all the Buffy episodes recently and I think that you are missing a lot of the depth there and discounting the reams of critical analysis of Joss Whedon’s work. I think it would be detrimental to your efforts re Twilight to alienate the serious viewers of Buffy.

  6. John’s avatar

    John on September 5, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    Point well taken!

    Daniel Nexon at Georgetown, too, urged me to study/watch Buffy so I am sorry to have mentioned it dismissively (my reflex with that medium — call it ‘genre revulsion’!). I haven’t watched any of those shows or any television, really, to speak of since the late 70’s.

    My apologies to any Buffy students I have offended.