I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this discussion. I admit to being much more impressed with this book after listening to it a second time in preparation for this podcast. I enjoyed it the first time through but I believe it has taken another two years of understanding Rowling and also maturing in my appreciation of her underlying messaging for me to truly appreciate what she has done in The Christmas Pig. As you discussed, it is the most succinct presentation of her most important elements and themes. I agree with John’s homily at the end explaining that this is more of an Easter story than a Christmas story. And that without Easter, Christmas and the Nativity wouldn’t really mean much to mankind.
As an end comment, I will be amazed if the proposed foreshadowing done by Rowling in 2012 while writing the Christmas Pig towards the end of your discussion actually bears fruit in the 10th Strike novel but - how “Rowling” would that be??!!
Like Kelly Loomis I reread The Christmas Pig and tried to read all the articles you gave links to before I listened to the podcast but I didn't quite manage it. Yet. I was struck by how much more I enjoyed it this time than I did the first time and I've been asking myself why. I think I was still in a Covid slump and also trying to recover from a 3rd surgery in 2 years. In 2021 the whole Land of the Lost bit was either depressing or too weird, but this time I saw the light, even beauty in it. Poem and Compass delighted me, I wept at the Blue Bunny's sacrifice and rescue and the stunning warmth and courage of Happiness and Hope being the agents of a miraculous Christmas Eve was glorious. I loved that Hope is a pink bird with "vast feathery wings...which trailed behind her on the floor like a train," that she ordered Jack to grab a tapestry off the wall. It reminded me of Fawkes and Hogwarts, of escaping Gringotts on a dragon or of one of the Weasley twins' diversions. It was so fabulous that I'm utterly mystified how I could have missed it the first time. I guess pain of various sorts is too distracting or something. Anyway thank you for this!! I'm so glad I read it again and, as usual, wowed at Evan's Dante allusions and the Rowling Lake contributions to this story that you, John and Nick, have talked about in this podcast. This has been a highlight of the season for me. Thank you again, all of you profs, and happy blessed new year!
Thank you for doing the podcasts again! 🥰 I listen while I am working and it is such a delight to hear your two voices discussing your posts and thoughts. Merry Christmas!
You can get a yearly subscription to eg SoundCloud (its something like 100-150 bucks). You upload your audio there. That’s your main library. After you made an account and channel you find the RSS code and use that to make an account on Spotify, Apple podcasts etc. From then everything you upload will automatically also be uploaded to those channels. I think this YouTube tutorial videos should guide you through it: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkKl7WxkbD_arP_OniGE6oJXl8N531NHv&si=pZnPoJnpcjhaXVy-
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this discussion. I admit to being much more impressed with this book after listening to it a second time in preparation for this podcast. I enjoyed it the first time through but I believe it has taken another two years of understanding Rowling and also maturing in my appreciation of her underlying messaging for me to truly appreciate what she has done in The Christmas Pig. As you discussed, it is the most succinct presentation of her most important elements and themes. I agree with John’s homily at the end explaining that this is more of an Easter story than a Christmas story. And that without Easter, Christmas and the Nativity wouldn’t really mean much to mankind.
As an end comment, I will be amazed if the proposed foreshadowing done by Rowling in 2012 while writing the Christmas Pig towards the end of your discussion actually bears fruit in the 10th Strike novel but - how “Rowling” would that be??!!
Like Kelly Loomis I reread The Christmas Pig and tried to read all the articles you gave links to before I listened to the podcast but I didn't quite manage it. Yet. I was struck by how much more I enjoyed it this time than I did the first time and I've been asking myself why. I think I was still in a Covid slump and also trying to recover from a 3rd surgery in 2 years. In 2021 the whole Land of the Lost bit was either depressing or too weird, but this time I saw the light, even beauty in it. Poem and Compass delighted me, I wept at the Blue Bunny's sacrifice and rescue and the stunning warmth and courage of Happiness and Hope being the agents of a miraculous Christmas Eve was glorious. I loved that Hope is a pink bird with "vast feathery wings...which trailed behind her on the floor like a train," that she ordered Jack to grab a tapestry off the wall. It reminded me of Fawkes and Hogwarts, of escaping Gringotts on a dragon or of one of the Weasley twins' diversions. It was so fabulous that I'm utterly mystified how I could have missed it the first time. I guess pain of various sorts is too distracting or something. Anyway thank you for this!! I'm so glad I read it again and, as usual, wowed at Evan's Dante allusions and the Rowling Lake contributions to this story that you, John and Nick, have talked about in this podcast. This has been a highlight of the season for me. Thank you again, all of you profs, and happy blessed new year!
Thank you for doing the podcasts again! 🥰 I listen while I am working and it is such a delight to hear your two voices discussing your posts and thoughts. Merry Christmas!
You can get a yearly subscription to eg SoundCloud (its something like 100-150 bucks). You upload your audio there. That’s your main library. After you made an account and channel you find the RSS code and use that to make an account on Spotify, Apple podcasts etc. From then everything you upload will automatically also be uploaded to those channels. I think this YouTube tutorial videos should guide you through it: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkKl7WxkbD_arP_OniGE6oJXl8N531NHv&si=pZnPoJnpcjhaXVy-
Anchor FM is now "Spotify for Podcasters" and ... for the little podcasting that I've done, it's a free platform that gets on Spotify.
Happy New Year to all, especially John and the others at Hogwarts Professor!