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amoskowi's picture

On interconnected texts...

Well, I'm a Harry Potter person, so it was one of my first thoughts when you were asked about texts that you saw moving into each other. It's pretty common (but no less true) to hear about all the different past influences for the series, and to follow the allusions, explicit or none, made in the series. One of its enduring characteristics, I think, is how it carries on traditions established in pieces like Lord of the Rings which is possible because of Beowulf and the like. But I know in class you seemed frustrated with the linear track of our thinking, and I was trying to consider ways to challenge that. Can a text be created in part by things that come after or at the same time?

Harry Potter proves yes, I believe. I mean, the books are good, but a large part of the appeal has to do with the culture, with the craze, with how the movies, and fansites, and fanfiction color people's ideas, both for the devoted fans and the bystanders who keep hearing about it on the news. Not to mention the controversy. So...yeah. I think looking at Mugglenet postings, as well as, for instance, their podcast, and the like would be a very interesting way of understanding how literature evolves (or, at least, the perception of it) even after it's conception. And Harry Potter's awesome. 

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