Critical Responses to Rowling and Meyer

Welcome, newcomers, to Forks High School Professor, the site for serious readers of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga!

My name is John Granger, aka ‘The Hogwarts Professor,’ and I have written several books as that alias suggests on the artistry and meaning of Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter books. I read the Twilight books on the recommendation of several Potter readers and friends — and was struck by the similarity in how critics responded to both Harry and Bella’s adventures.

I’ve written nine of ten parts in a series of posts at HogwartsProfessor.com comparing and contrasting how Harry Potter and Twilight were received by critics and readers. They are the germ of the idea that become Forks High School Professor — and I hope you’ll check them out.

• For Part 1 on genre criticism, click here.
• for Part 2 on culture war critiques left and right, click here,
• for part 3 on artifact criticism, click here,
• for part 4 on the ‘derivative dismissal,’ click here,
• for part 5 on why there are four layers of meaning, click here,
• for part 6 on using traditional tools to interpret modern best sellers, click here,
• for parts 7 and 8 on what critics missed at the surface and moral levels of meaning, click here and here, and
• for part 9 on allegorical meaning, click here.

I hope to have the concluding chapter up here before I head out to Forks myself later this month for the ‘Summer School in Forks: a Twilight Symposium’ where I will be giving two talks. More on that tomorrow — along with some vampire sightings at Boston Lati, America’s oldest high school.

Thank you for joining the conversation about the Twilight books in the comment boxes below. Your comments and corrections are coveted!