OVERANALYZING THE TEXT

The notorious Voldemort!Elkins TBAY. More discussion of Peter Loved Lily, followed by a character analysis of Pettigrew - and SYCOPHANTS in general - as exemplars of Fromme's totalitarian personality.

More about Voldemort's original plan for the Triwizard Portkey. Includes a short defense of Fudge's skills as a bipartisan political leader.

Discussion of that Magic Quill, which JKR has claimed (in interview) writes down the names of all of the magical children born in a given year in a book kept in Hogwarts. Also a discussion of whether the wizarding world practices infanticide on baby Squibs.

An explanation of why I do not believe that Hagrid's "neither a witch nor wizard who went bad..." comment can be taken as evidence for Sirius having been a member of House Slytherin.

A reiteration of evidence for Hagrid's tendency to bigotry, and more on the "not a single witch or wizard" comment.

In which I offend nearly everyone by tackling the issue of class (and of real world politics) in HP. Had the moderators not been so overwhelmingly American, I suspect that this post would not have been allowed on the list, as it is not only provocatively political, but also really quite insulting towards English conservatives. Argues that JKR's overt progressive message is subverted by the unconscious conservativism of the world-view underlying her novels, a la Richard Adams' essay, "Harry Potter and the Closet Conservative."

On the "double-nostalgia" of JKR's world, the way in which not only the wizarding world, but the universe as a whole seems (in spite of the contemporary social markers of the Dursleys) to be faintly archaic. Suggests that Aunt Marge's connection with the Dursleys implies a link between the older English conservativism her archetype represents and the more recent Thatcherite conservativism represented by the Dursleys.

More on social class as one of the HP series' "fault lines," those areas of ambiguity or inconsisstency which fuel reader anxiety with the text as a whole.

Argues that the particular nostalgic tradition in which JKR has chosen to write sits uneasily with her own progressive values, and that this may be largely responsible for the ambiguities and inconsistencies evident in the series' approach to social class.

Calvinism in HP: the extent to which Harry is portrayed not only as a member of the "elite," but even perhaps as a member of the *Elect,* and the extent to which this aspect of the books may stand at the epicenter of reader anxiety with the series as a whole.

More on class distinctions in the wizarding world, with a few asides regarding the designation of canon and other theoretical subjects.

Historical analogues to the wizarding world, specifically in terms of the conflict between the values of House Gryffindor and those of House Slytherin. Also, an analysis of the specific nature of JKR's nostalgia, and an argument that it is not so much focused upon the Middle Ages as it is upon the aesthetic of the Quaint, a generalized sense of "past-ness," which has more to do with the nineteenth century than it does with the Medieval period.