One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter

125 Pages·2010·1.029 MB·English

by  Greg Garrett

One Fine Potion
The Literary Magic of Harry Potter
Greg Garrett
Published in 2010 by
Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798-7363
Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd
1 Spencer Court
140-142 Wandsworth High Street
London SW18 4JJ
© 2010 by Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798-7363
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission in writing of Baylor University Press.
Cover Design by Nita Ybarra
Cover image © Shutterstock/Terence Mendoza
Book Design by Diane Smith
E-book ISBN: 978-1-60258-680-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garrett, Greg.
One fine potion : the literary magic of Harry Potter / Greg Garrett.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-60258-198-2 (pbk.: alk paper)
1. Rowling, J. K.--Characters--Harry Potter. 2. Potter, Harry
(Fictitious character) 3. Magic in literature. 4. Good and evil in literature.
5. Spirituality in literature. 6. Christianity in literature.
7. Children’s stories, English--History and criticism. 8. Fantasy fiction,
English--History and criticism. I. Title.
PR6068.O93Z6735 2010
823’.914--dc22
2010007762
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
DLT edition ISBN 978-0-232-52839-8
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper with a minimum of 30% pcw recycled content.
THIS BOOK IS FOR ROWAN WILLIAMS
“All good stories change us if we hear them attentively;
the most serious change us radically.”
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Harry Potter Phenomenon
1 Platform 9¾
Magic, Power, and the Fantastic
2 The Order of the Phoenix
Community, Diversity, and Formation
3 Doing What Is Right
Heroism, Good, and Evil
4 All Was Well
Faith, Hope, and the World to Come
Notes
“If [a myth] works, that is, if it forces us to change our minds and hearts, gives
us new hope, and compels us to live more fully, then it is a valid myth.”
—Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth
“True art is moral: it seeks to improve life, not debase it. It seeks to hold off, at
least for a while, the twilight of the gods and us. . . . Art is essentially serious
and beneficial, a game played against chaos and death, against entropy.”
—John Gardner, On Moral Fiction
Acknowledgments
This book is a close reading of the Harry Potter novels, but is certainly not the
only close reading; it could have been twice as long, although it would hardly
have appealed to most general readers at that length. I hope it will spark
continued discussion, argument, and appreciation for the deep truths and
powerful story so many of us have enjoyed. I owe and acknowledge huge debts
to the readers, scholars, theologians, writers, and speakers who helped me make
sense of the powerful issues in the Potter books, particularly C. S. Lewis, J. R. R.
Tolkien, and N. T. Wright; Barbara Brown Taylor; and Rowan Williams, to
whom this book is dedicated. I’m also grateful to the Potter fan community for
the incredible amount of information they’ve made available on the books and
on Rowling, and I hope that this book will fill a niche in the Potter community
for serious literary, philosophical, and theological discussion of the works.
I thank the Baylor University Press, Carey Newman, director, for asking me
to write this book. It’s a joy to be publishing a work that will (we hope) bring
additional notice to Baylor and to its fine press. Thanks to Elisabeth Wolfe,
former student, fine writer and editor, who copyedited this book. Thanks also to
those anonymous readers who evaluated my first draft and made comments,
many of which I incorporated (and many, perhaps, I should have even if I
didn’t). I’m grateful to the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Baylor,
Lee Nordt; to my department chair, Dianna Vitanza, and to my colleagues in the
Baylor Department of English for their support and assistance in the work I do as
writer. I especially want to thank my friends Tom Hanks, Richard Russell, and
Joe Fulton, who model for me daily the joys of the writing and teaching life; and
to remember my friend Nancy Chinn, a fine teacher and insightful reader who
was, most importantly, a warm, loving, and genuinely good person.
This book was researched and written at Canterbury Cathedral in
Canterbury, England; Baylor University in Waco, Texas; Ghost Ranch and the
Casa del Sol retreat center in Abiquiu, New Mexico; the National Cathedral,
Washington, D.C.; at the Hill Country cabin of my friend Hulitt Gloer outside
Kerrville, Texas; and at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin,
Texas. At Ghost Ranch I am grateful to Jim Baird, program director; Carole
Landess, Casa del Sol host/companion and Debra Hepler, director; at the
Seminary of the Southwest, to Alan Gregory, academic dean; John Bennet
Waters, chief financial officer; Donald Keeney and the staff of the seminary
library; and Stephen Kidd, my research assistant. Parts of this book were
researched or written during my Fall 2008 Research Leave from Baylor
University, and during my time as Fellow of the Cathedral College of Preachers
at the Washington National Cathedral in October of 2008. I remain grateful for
both of these opportunities.
I am also grateful to all those places (and the attendant people) where I
spoke about or taught the Potter books and films as I was thinking about and
writing this book: St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas; the Episcopal
Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, Texas; Calvary Episcopal Church in
Bastrop, Texas; Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas; Ghost Ranch in
Abiquiu, New Mexico; the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston,
Massachusetts; the Kino Communales in Stuttgart, Germany; the AmerikaHaus
in Munich, Germany; the Episcopal Church Women Triennial at the Episcopal
General Convention in Anaheim, California; the Cody Public Library and Christ
Episcopal Church, Cody, Wyoming; the Texas Episcopal Church Women in
Camp Allen, Texas; and Wesley Seminary, Washington, D.C. Thanks to all those
who listened, talked with me about these stories, and shared my interest in
reading Harry.
I give thanks for my community of faith, St. David’s Episcopal Church in
Austin, Texas, for its rector the Rev. David Boyd, and for the Revs. Chad
Vaughn, Mary Vano, Ron Smith, Pat Hazel, Cathy Boyd, and Ken Malcolm. I
thank my bishop, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Doyle, who supports my work as writer
and teacher to the larger church. I thank my friend the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, who
loves and encourages me in all I do. And I thank my friend Rowan Williams,
poet, theologian, father, husband, and exceptional reader, to whom this book is
dedicated.
Thanks to my boys, Jake and Chandler, who have shared these stories with
me, and to Martha, who puts up with the fractured life of a writer—and, more
importantly, with this fractured writer. All three are ongoing evidence in my life
of the Deeper Magic.
And finally, my thanks to Joanne Rowling. The story she wrote makes me
want to be a better person—which is, I know from experience, just about the best
thing you can ever say to a novelist about her work.
Austin, Texas
Epiphany, 2010