[HP4GU-California] Re: If there was only one HP panel...

[Carolyn Kayta Barrows]

The convention I had in mind is pretty small, and this is pretty esoteric 
stuff for such a venue.  But there's a lot of good stuff in here.  I'm 
forwarding it to the programming chair-person of a local convention, in its 
entirety, because it might suggest something that her convention could use.

><< If there was only one Harry Potter discussion panel at a
>fantasy/science fiction convention, what should that panel be about?
>Should it be about the costuming, or on some other specific topic, or
>speculation about what will be in books 6 and/or 7, or just a casual
>get together where general topics are discussed? >>
>
>It shouldn't be about costuming unless there are a lot of costumers in
>the potential audience, and it may well turn into a casual gathering
>discussing general topics regardless of what it is designed to be
>about. I think panels at sf con tend to have the 'moderator' state a
>question and the panelists take turns answering it and the third or
>fourth panelist says 'What they said". It might be better if each
>panelist gave a short prepared talk before the questions began -- the
>moderator could ask what they thought of each other's theories.
>
>Possibly my favorite HP presentation ever was attorney Susan Hall's
>talk at Nimbus on how the pathetic-ness of the rule of law in
>Wizarding Britain is related to the low point of rule of law in Muggle
>(historical) Britain at the time the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy
>sign-posted the separation of the two worlds.
>
>It might be possible to turn that into a panel on 'Law in Harry
>Potter's Wizarding World' (or 'Law and Government in Harry Potter's
>Wizarding World). Maybe one panelist presenting the major ways in
>which Wizarding Law differs from modern Muggle law, and Hall's points
>about it more resembles mid-18th century law. Another panelist
>presenting the idea (it is an essay on-line somewhere) that the rule
>of law has been suspended in Wizarding Britain under State of
>Emergency principles since the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was
>passed. Another panelist on laws that may be inherent in Potterverse
>magic, such as magically binding contracts -- how can Harry be bound
>by someone else putting his name into the Goblet of Fire without his
>knowledge? What makes Unforgivable Curses unforgivable, and what makes
>Dark Magic dark? Someone pontificating on the tangle of international
>wizarding organizations, treaties, etc could be squeezed in here to
>increase the number of panelists.
>
>Related topic: "Muggle Politics in J.K.Rowling's Fantasy Stories" --
>does the House Elf situation refer to slavery, social class,
>housewives? What should  we take from Dumbledore's statement that
>Kreachur is what wizards have made him, and why does no one sympathize
>with SPEW?  Are there bits mocking Thatcherism that non-UK readers
>just overlook? Wizards' prejudices regarding Giants, Goblins, Veelas:
>are they valid or just racism? What is the message about killing bad
>guys and capital punishment? Ordinarily I'd shy away from a topic that
>would get the red half of the population so riled up (calling the
>presentation "Muggle Political Correctness" is the *least* they would
>do) but here I'm just babbling.
>
>There are books declaring the Potter ouevre to be Christian or Stoic
>or Freudian or Alchemical allegory (as well as political allegory,
>above) and those who trace similarities to 19th century novels. Maybe
>you could gather together proponents of some of these different ideas
>and have them argue.


         CarolynKayta Barrows
doll maker, fibre artist, textillian
           www.FunStuft.com

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