I hate being wrong. But I'm glad I can admit it.

Last month I ranted about "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and selected a few scenes as examples of what I didn't like. This was #1:

1) The presence of Barty Crouch, Jr. (BCJ) in the Riddle House in the opening was appalling. Why was that necessary? I can only assume it was intended to help viewers who hadn't read the books understand that there was a prison escapee in cahoots with Lord Voldemort gunning for Harry. But it destroyed the tension. BCJ was in awe of Voldemort and came up with the plan to impersonate Mad-Eye Moody on his own. Like many of V's followers, BCJ hadn't seen V after his failed attempt to kill Harry.

BCJ asked Harry so many questions about what it was like to be in Voldemort's resurrected presence because he hadn't seen him since his downfall, was excited that he'd returned, and knew he'd be rewarded for his evil plot. His presence with Voldemort in the Riddle House in the beginning dampened some of that anticipation at the end, at least for me.

I have all six books on MP3, and I was listening to "Goblet of Fire" again this week. As Barty Crouch, Jr. confessed, I was reminded of a few things I'd forgotten.

First, I was wrong about the plan to impersonate Mad-Eye Moody. Sort of. I wrote that BCJ had no contact with Voldemort since he fell and that he alone came up with the plan so he could surprise V, and that’s not true. V practically tortured Bertha Jorkins to find out what she knew, and she told him about BCJ and his mother switching places in Azkaban. V made contact with BCJ, who wanted a spy inside Hogwarts. It's unclear from the text whether it was V or BCJ who came up with the specific idea to kidnap and impersonate Moody.

Second, the second paragraph is accurate, but I have a clearer understanding why they included BCJ in the Riddle House scene. There was no time for all the backstory about BCJ switching places with his mother or being under the Imperius Curse and locked in his father's house or being watched by Winky, and no time to show Crouch Sr. being put under the same curse and escaping, etc. The director (or screenwriter?) had to quickly establish that BCJ was a bad guy working for the main bad guy.

But…there is no excuse for revealing who conjured the Dark Mark so early in the movie. OK. The obsessing is over…

Update (4/27): The Harry Potter Lexicon, an ecyclopedia of everything Harry Potter, is a must-see for the hard core HP fan. The site is fantastic.

The dedicated editors document practically everything about the books and movies you can think of. For instance, they break down differences between the U.S. and U.K. versions of the books, errors and discrepancies, and differences between the books and movies. Check out the Goblet of Fire update.

I meant to blog about this ages ago…

A college senior is doing her thesis on Harry Potter, and I'm sure plenty other students and scholars are doing the same. I find it all very fascinating. I look forward to attending Lumos 2006 and listening to adults discuss the Harry Potter books from a scholarly perspective.

I don't know what it is about those books that inspire so many people to spend so much time writing and talking about them. From the news story:

Since the fall, Ziznewski has been reading reviews to gain a better understanding of the controversies surrounding the series. Her main goal was to answer the question: Is Hogwarts (the fictional school of magic in the stories) “breeding heathens”?

As her senior year comes to a close, Ziznewski continues to evaluate literary and religious debates, among others. She has established that the books are not a bad influence on children, contrary to the views some groups have held. In her final paper, she will present the messages that children and adults can take away from reading The Adventures of Harry Potter. (Source)

Although I don't wish I were back in school, I do envy the younger generation's opportunities to read, study, and dissect Harry Potter for academic credit.

Addendum: Take The Leaky Cauldron's Harry Potter IQ test. It's a cool time-waster or time-filler, depending on your perspective.

I couldn't resist! I'll move it to the sidebar later. Get the code here.

When I first read J.K. Rowling's hard-luck story about being on welfare and writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in longhand in a coffee shop, I thought it was a very effective selling point for the book, although the story is true.

Can you imagine the determination it took to write under those conditions? JKR was at a low point. I read that her ex-husband kicked her out of the house when their daughter was a few months old; the next day she came back with reinforcements to get the baby and leave the cad forever. She and the baby lived with her sister and brother-in-law for a while, then she lived in Scotland on welfare while she wrote her book, attended classes to earn a teaching certificate, and eventually taught classes. JKR said the story about writing in a coffee shop because her apartment was too cold isn't true; she just liked the coffee.

I was surprised to learn that JKR still writes in longhand. She's writing the final book on lined paper. How charming! On her site, she writes about running out of paper. From her "diary" (via the Scotsman):

"Why is it so difficult to buy paper in the middle of town? What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises to her horror she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag? Forty-five minutes it took me, this morning, to find somewhere that would sell me some normal, lined paper."

Book 7 is being written (in longhand!) as I write this. Will all of John Granger's questions be answered, or will JKR leave us hanging? How will our theories pan out? How far off the mark are we? How close? Whether you love them or hate them, JKR and Harry Potter have changed the culture. Even if the "Boy Who Lived" dies in the book (Don't stone me!), he will live on.

Update (4/5): Or Thursday.

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Hello, readers. I wanted to give you a status report on this blog.

I support myself with ads on my main blog, La Shawn Barber's Corner, and through my blog consulting business. I occasionally speak at conferences, mostly blog-related. That means Fantasy Fiction for Christians doesn't get updated as often as I'd like. Not enough hours in the day.

I enjoy talking and writing about Harry Potter and Narnia, and I will continue blogging about them and other fantasy fiction books. If I can get to the point of updating this blog at least once a week, I'll be happy.

In the meantime, look for fresh content on Wednesday. While you're surfing, visit my fantasy fiction (and other topics) blog friends:

• Sword of Gryffindor
• Muggle Matters
• Quoth the Maven
• The Leaky Cauldron (These guys played a funny April Fool's joke on Saturday. They claimed Mugglenet's founder Emerson Spartz and TLC's editor Melissa Anelli had married in Scotland and merged the two sites into one called The Leaky Mug. Both sites' links were redirected to the new site. I thought someone hacked into TLC and redirected the link until I realized it was a joke. Very creative.)