Salon.com > Harry Potter http://www.salon.com Wed, 30 May 2012 06:12:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Majoring in Potterology http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/majoring_in_potterology/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/majoring_in_potterology/#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 19:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12925540 Last week in Scotland, 60 scholars gathered over two days for the U.K.'s first scholarly conference on the Harry Potter series. The Guardian newspaper quoted John Mullan, a professor of English at University College London, questioning the wisdom of organizing such an event. Concluding that the host college, the University of St. Andrews, was primarily after "publicity," Mullan suggested the attendees would be better off forgetting kids' books and cultivating their gravitas. "They should be reading Milton and 'Tristram Shandy,'" he told the Guardian. "That's what they're paid to do."

The criticism brought to mind a lengthy discussion on Reddit last year, inspired by an anecdote from a bookstore clerk who sold copies of all four "Twilight" novels to a sheepish professor. The professor's explanation: "Every time I reference low forms of literature, I always use 'Twilight' as the example. Today a student asked if I’ve actually read them, and I had to say no. They demanded that I do."

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/25/majoring_in_potterology/feed/ 83 “Captain America” corners the box office http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/captain_america_harry_potter/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/captain_america_harry_potter/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/25/captain_america_harry_potter If early estimates are to be believed (at Deadline, Nikki Finke had her doubts on Sunday), it looks like "Captain America: The First Avenger" has flown higher and faster than its summertime superhero rivals, "Green Lantern," "X-Men: First Class" and "Thor."

According to Box Office Mojo:

Captain America made an estimated $65.8 million on approximately 7,100 screens at 3,715 locations, edging out fellow Avenger Thor's $65.7 million as well as Green Lantern's $53.2 million and X-Men: First Class's $55.1 million to top the summer's superhero launches.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/25/captain_america_harry_potter/feed/ 7 Harry Potter: How it couldn’t have ended http://www.salon.com/2011/07/21/harry_potter_ending/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/21/harry_potter_ending/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:22:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/07/21/harry_potter_ending According to Greg Palast -- an American journalist who says he and J.K. Rowling became "buds" when they "shared the bestseller list" in England "years ago" -- J.K. Rowling considered ending the Harry Potter series in what one could reasonably term a highly unlikely fashion. New York magazine was quick to pick up on Palast's relevant blog post yesterday.

At gregpalast.com, Rowling's "bud" writes:

Jo knows that I found the conclusion of her series a sorry let-down, a second-rate “Show Down at the OK Corral” for Wizards. In my opinion (and she does not at all agree), Jo was too distracted by a concern for how the ending would play on film. I bugged her about it until she told me the "other" endings. ... No, Jo wouldn’t show me typed copies, but she told me a couple of "I could have done this" endings. One of them knocked me over, and I have to share it.

Share it he does (with, unsurprisingly, a couple of caveats, e.g.: "If you want to say that I didn’t get her voice and story details exactly, keep in mind that I’m working from mental notes").

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/21/harry_potter_ending/feed/ 12 Wizards or Jedis? http://www.salon.com/2011/07/19/mzs_harry_potter/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/19/mzs_harry_potter/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/19/mzs_harry_potter My daughter Hannah is a ninth-grader, and my favorite person to see movies with. Sometimes we'll see a film and then instant message each other about it later, or tape ourselves talking and do a transcript, then publish the result at my friend Ed Copeland's blog, Edward Copeland on Film. This conversation is on the final Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2." I was really looking forward to seeing this movie with Hannah, not just because it's the final installment in a franchise that's been around nearly as long as she has, but also because Hannah has read all the books and I've read exactly none, which makes her an ideal explainer.

Matt: So here's what I was thinking going into "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2." I was 8 years old when the original "Star Wars" came out in 1977 -- the movie that your generation calls "Episode IV: A New Hope." The timespan between that film and the conclusion of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, "Return of the Jedi," was six years. That carried me from fourth grade through freshman year of high school. Those movies dominated my imagination during that six-year period, and were almost as much a part of my life as any person I actually knew.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/19/mzs_harry_potter/feed/ 18 Harry Potter triumphs at the box office http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/harry_potter_box_office/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/harry_potter_box_office/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/18/harry_potter_box_office The final Harry Potter film has broken the box office record for most successful opening weekend in history -- besting the previous record-holder, 2008's "The Dark Knight," by about $10 million.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" took an estimated $168.5 million in domestic ticket sales between Friday and Sunday; "The Dark Knight" took only $158.4 million on its first weekend (although Deadline reminds us to consider that HP 7.2, unlike "The Dark Knight," was available in 3D -- and thus some tickets were more expensive).

According to a Warner Brothers press release, Harry Potter's last on-screen hurrah broke three records with its $92.1 in opening-day ticket sales, and sold more than $476 million in tickets worldwide. The studio further reports that fans paid $43.5 million for tickets to midnight Friday showings alone -- another first.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/18/harry_potter_box_office/feed/ 0 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/pop_five_harry_potter_tiger_woods/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/pop_five_harry_potter_tiger_woods/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/15/pop_five_harry_potter_tiger_woods 1. Six degrees of marital separation: No, don't worry. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are fine. But after participating in an ancestry tracing program, "The Closer" star found out she was linked a lot closer to her husband than she may have liked.

2. In memoriam of the day: Sky the kitty, whose 77-year-old owner Luciana Matalon took out a full-page ad in a national Italian paper after the death of her feline friend.

3. Rebound of the day: Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren is dating investor and son of a billionaire Jamie Dingman. You'd think she'd have learned that rich and powerful men don't always make the best husbands ...

4. Obligatory "Harry Potter" quote of the day: Matthew Lewis (who played Neville Longbottom in the films) thinks "girls in general are scarier than Voldemort."

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/pop_five_harry_potter_tiger_woods/feed/ 5 Midnight with Harry Potter http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/midnight_with_harry_potter/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/midnight_with_harry_potter/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:16:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works//2011/07/15/midnight_with_harry_potter The lines started forming around Oakland's historic Grand Lake Theater around mid-day, visible from the 580 freeway that cuts through the city on its way to the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Built in 1926, the Grand Lake is one of the finest venues to watch a movie in all of Northern California. When my family and friends started making plans to pay our proper respects to the final installment in the Harry Potter saga, there was no question were we would end up. The Grand Lake is a majestic and awesome temple to celluloid delight even when empty seats far outweigh the filled ones; but when the theater is packed to the limit with adoring fans, the Grand Lake becomes as magical as Hogwart's.

My ears are still ringing from the ecstatic shrieking. While the average age of the audience seemed to skew around the early 20s, the sound that emanated from their collective throat at every conceivable opportunity was a closer match to the prepubescent ululations that greeted The Beatles in the early '60s than anything I have ever heard. And it was lovely.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/midnight_with_harry_potter/feed/ 40 Ranking the 8 Harry Potter films http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/harry_potter_critics/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/harry_potter_critics/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/15/harry_potter_critics The Harry Potter film franchise's eight blockbuster installments have spanned an entire decade. As we are often reminded, that's a long time for any actor or actress -- particularly a young one -- to stick with a single series; it's also a lengthy stretch (albeit, of course, less gruelling) for a single movie reviewer.

Many critics have passed on one or more of the Potter films, but some have managed to be more steadfast. Here, we've ranked all eight movies based on the combined opinions of four reviewers who've seen the series through -- sometimes switching publications themselves in the process. We've also added Salon's take on each film, as delivered by either Andrew O'Hehir or Stephanie Zacharek. (We used MetaCritic to determine which reviewers had stayed with the series for all eight films, and for some of the quotes below. Rreviews that strayed significantly from the general consensus on a given film have been noted with an asterisk *).

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/harry_potter_critics/feed/ 15 Ralph Fiennes wasn’t in “Harry Potter” http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/ralph_fiennes_harry_potter/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/ralph_fiennes_harry_potter/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/2011/07/15/ralph_fiennes_harry_potter Ralph Fiennes gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter this week, explaining that his character in the "Harry Potter" movies, Lord Voldemort, was actually just a lonely guy. In the same interview, the Academy Award nominee admitted that he originally didn't want to take the role of the main bad guy in J.K. Rowling's teen wizard series.

You just know that there are days when the British thespian wished to God that he hadn't been working on these films since 2005. In fact, that's probably every day for Ralph Fiennes, now. Wondering what could have been...

Ralph Fiennes woke up with the sun streaming through his loft windows in New York. Even though he was British, Ralph loved to travel. He had just flown in from Barcelona the night before, where he had been hanging out with Geoffrey Rush, with whom he co-shared a private villa and a deep friendship. The two men had been drinking 'til dawn, swapping stories about their experiences on the set of "The King's Speech," which had brought Fiennes the third Best Actor Oscar of his career for his portrayal of the stuttering ruler.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/15/ralph_fiennes_harry_potter/feed/ 21 “Harry Potter’s” gifts to pop culture http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/slide_show_what_harry_potter_gave_culture/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/slide_show_what_harry_potter_gave_culture/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/14/slide_show_what_harry_potter_gave_culture  Since the first release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in June 1997, author J.K. Rowling and her young wizards have helped define more than a decade of pop culture. Where would we be without the homosexual-Dumbledore controversy, sorting-hat jokes, and the knowledge that these books and movies are secretly turning our children into godless heathens?

It's hard to imagine a world without "Harry Potter" and its various franchise tie-ins, and though I'm not the hugest H.P. fan out there, I'm eternally grateful to Ms. Rowling for making Quidditch a real sport played by college students, and for bringing "Doctor Who" scarves back in style.

Below, a guide to some of the best gifts "Harry Potter's" world has bestowed on our own.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/slide_show_what_harry_potter_gave_culture/feed/ 4 “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″: An action-packed curtain call http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/deathly_hallows_part_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/deathly_hallows_part_2/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/07/13/deathly_hallows_part_2 Conclusions to fantasy epics and quest narratives pose a diabolical problem for their creators, one that calls to mind a remark I once read in a journal by Edmund Wilson, one of the 20th century's greatest cultural critics. Late in his life Wilson had decided to give up reading history, he wrote, because "I know the kinds of things that happen." Epic fantasy is, if possible, even more familiar than history, in that we know exactly what will happen: Good will triumph over evil at great price, but only after the hero endures a crisis of self-doubt and agrees to sacrifice himself for the greater good. So the execution of such a conclusion becomes largely a technical matter, a matter of How more than What, and still less Why. In the case of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," a movie with no beginning and no middle but two-plus hours of thundering, momentous ending, all of this is carried to a comical extreme.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/14/deathly_hallows_part_2/feed/ 51 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/pop_five_buscemi_dress/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/pop_five_buscemi_dress/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:13:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/12/pop_five_buscemi_dress 1. Fixer-"Up"-er of the day: Yes, there's already been a home that floated away on balloons, but this house is an exact replica of the one from Pixar's "Up"! 

It's for sale in Utah for $400K, meaning that someone put that much time and energy into creating a life-size model of a cartoon home, only to put it right back on the market. And in this economy? Feh, forget about it.

2. Celebrity defense of the day: Kanye West, as explained by Justin Bieber:

"He’s not really an asshole like everyone makes him out to be. I mean, he can, he can do bad things, but he’s really generally a good guy."

"He can make bad decisions, you know, as well as everyone can," he added, "but generally I think he is a good guy."

Now you have Justin Bieber's word: Kanye is not an asshole; he just makes bad decisions. Like acting like an asshole.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/pop_five_buscemi_dress/feed/ 4 “The Dark Knight Rises” and the art of the teaser poster http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises Today the Web is buzzing about just one image. It's a pretty cool picture -- looking up at a crumbing city skyline that is falling away into the shape of a bat -- but without knowing the context of the photo, most people would be left wondering why the Internet is in an uproar over the pic.

Of course, the teaser poster for Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" (the second of its kind, after the Bane photo) is obvious to anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last year. Teaser posters, which often come out way ahead of the film itself, can be self-explanatory, or totally baffling. They're like puzzle pieces leading up to the movie itself, and with the hyper-aware Web culture that grabs on to every leak and spoiler, they can be used to raise a film's buzz to a near-deafening screech.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/12/teaser_trailer_dark_knight_rises/feed/ 13 Draco Malfoy to become a rapper? http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/tom_felton_rap/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/tom_felton_rap/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:12:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/music/2011/07/11/tom_felton_rap Many of the "Harry Potter" films' young actors and actresses have already branched out into non-Potter-related artistic territory; for example, Daniel Radcliffe has landed major stage roles on both sides of the Atlantic, and Emma Watson has found success as a model.

What of 23-year-old Tom Felton, who played Harry's on-screen arch-rival, Draco Malfoy? Now that the "Potter" films are finished, U.K. tabloid The Sun quotes Felton as saying he is "looking to get into the grime rap scene." ("I'm going to change my image -- backward caps, the lot," he reportedly adds.) According to the paper, Felton has even "clinched a recording deal with an independent label."

Felton has a YouTube channel with five music videos (none of them raps). Here's one from 2009: 

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/tom_felton_rap/feed/ 0 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/viral_videos_toe_wrestling/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/viral_videos_toe_wrestling/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:12:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/11/viral_videos_toe_wrestling 1. Toe wrestling, the wave of the future (Warning: Video automatically plays)

This is not a joke, people. Did you see this guy Alan "Nasty" Nash, one of the world's premier toe wrestlers? Because that dude looks like a blacksmith from a medieval war movie and I bet his toes are not playing around.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/11/viral_videos_toe_wrestling/feed/ 1 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/07/07/viral_videos_pawlenty_lady_gaga/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/07/viral_videos_pawlenty_lady_gaga/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:08:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/07/viral_videos_pawlenty_lady_gaga 1. Once you go Black

Everyone is saying this Lexi St. George kid is the new Rebecca Black. Some are even saying that her song "Dancing to the Rhythm" is a better Ark Music Factory production than "Friday," which must be such a proud moment for her and her family.

 

2. Tim Pawlenty was just born this way

You know, leaving aside his feelings on Lady Gaga's talent  (which starts at 1:50), can we just discuss what it says about the GOP candidate that he is agreeing to interviews with a site called Glittarazi?

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/07/viral_videos_pawlenty_lady_gaga/feed/ 3 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/07/06/viral_videos_jay_leno_bombs/ http://www.salon.com/2011/07/06/viral_videos_jay_leno_bombs/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/07/06/viral_videos_jay_leno_bombs 1. "Independence Day" on Independence Day

While most of us spent July 4th blowing up fireworks to celebrate our emancipation from the Brits, comedian Sean Kleier made us remember the true meaning of Independence Day by reciting Bill Pullman's speech from the movie all over New York City.

 

2. "Glee" goes viral

The stars of the Fox musical stopped by Internet star Keenan Cahill's to cover Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night."

 

3. Field of "NFL" Dreams

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/07/06/viral_videos_jay_leno_bombs/feed/ 5 The lost chapters of “Harry Potter” http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/harry_pottermore_fan_fiction/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/harry_pottermore_fan_fiction/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/06/24/harry_pottermore_fan_fiction This week, J.K. Rowling announced that her new site Pottermore.com would be a portal for a sort of extended "Harry Potter" universe, with new information about the books' characters. We're guessing that means that it will include some of the "Harry Potter" chapters that didn't actually make it into the final book. Luckily, I majored in Potter fan fiction in college, so I'm pretty confident that at least one of the following scenarios will end up on Pottermore's website. Enjoy!

___________________________________________________________

Albus Dumbledore looked down his long, white beard at the latest applicant for the teaching position at Hogwarts.

"So, Miss Winterloon, you've seen our grounds and our games of Quidditch. You've explored or grounds. Your resume is quite impressive. Do you have any questions for us?"

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/24/harry_pottermore_fan_fiction/feed/ 12 J.K. Rowling reveals Pottermore secret http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/pottermore_announcement/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/pottermore_announcement/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:24:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/06/23/pottermore_announcement [UPDATED BELOW]

J.K. Rowling has revealed the secret behind Pottermore, the mysterious website for which she started a viral marketing campaign about a week ago. The "Potter" author's newest project turns out to be "a free website that builds an exciting online experience around the reading of the Harry Potter books."

In a YouTube video posted on the site, the author also addressed her readers directly:

"No author could have asked for a more wonderful, diverse and loyal readership," she said, thanking her fans for their support. "[Pottermore is] the same story, with a few crucial additions," she explained. "The most important one is you."

Rowling added that Pottermore will eventually include "additional information" about Potter and his universe that "[she's] been hoarding for years," as well as digital audiobooks and (for the first time) e-books -- which will be sold exclusively through the site (that's big news for online booksellers).

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/23/pottermore_announcement/feed/ 6 J.K. Rowling does some viral marketing for Pottermore http://www.salon.com/2011/06/16/pottermore_j_k_rowling/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/16/pottermore_j_k_rowling/#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:17:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/2011/06/16/pottermore_j_k_rowling J.K. Rowling has some very big news! Of course, you're going to have to wait a week before finding out what the "Harry Potter" author has to say, but that doesn't mean that her fans didn't get all lathered up in geek oils today when 10 H.P. sites were sent special coordinates that ended up spelling out "POTTERMORE" on Google Maps. Neeeeeerds!

Go to Pottermore.com, and you can see that there isn't much going on. I mean, the name is super-exciting, don't get me wrong, but for right now the site is just owls that are exactly what they appear. Click on J.K.'s scrawling signature, and you are transported to the world's most boring YouTube video ever: a countdown clock of the amount of time left before J.K. lets us in on her big announcement.

Seeing as the final "Harry Potter" installment is due out in a month, now would be the perfect time for J.K. to start drumming up buzz on her next project. Though I had hoped she would go in a different direction and try to branch out, it seems like we're going to be seeing some "more Potter," unless that anagram happens to just be a coincidence.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/16/pottermore_j_k_rowling/feed/ 14