{"id":1224,"date":"2009-10-14T15:57:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-14T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2009-10-14T15:57:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-14T15:57:00","slug":"harry-potter-fans-not-all-that-into-magic-witchcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1224","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter Fans not all that into Magic, Witchcraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glancing back at Oberon Zell’s sporadic blog, I see mention of the “Azkatraz” Harry Potter convention in San Francisco last July. (Scroll down to the “Escape from Azkatra<\/a>z” subhead in Aug. 1, 2009 entry.)<\/p>\n

The Zells took a vendor space for their Mythic Images business of New Age, Pagan, and Goddess-oriented images, etc.<\/a><\/p>\n

But it was not a very successful show, as Oberon notes:<\/p>\n

And that gets me to the second important lesson we learned: Harry Potter fans aren\u2019t interested in Wizardry, Witchcraft, Magick, an online school<\/a>, or anything that isn\u2019t specifically and only about the Harry Potter stories and characters. The only successful vendor was the one selling licensed trademark Harry Potter merchandise\u2014such as Hogwarts House patches and regalia, movie replica wands, Harry Potter games and toys\u2014and pointy hats. I bought a really nice new one,as well as several books from the book vendors. And we sold two copies of the <\/em>A Wizard’s Bestiary: A Menagerie of Myth, Magic, and Mystery<\/a>\"\" by managing to convince some folks that the magickal beasts featured in the Harry Potter stories could be found in this book. This is true, and I do hope they\u2019ll go on to read about other beasties as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t doubt his observations. It’s not that the Harry Potter books “drive children to witchcraft,” it is more that some Pagan Witches hope that Potter-readers will wonder what real witchcraft is. Most, however, probably will not, having enjoyed the stories just as stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glancing back at Oberon Zell’s sporadic blog, I see mention of the “Azkatraz” Harry Potter convention in San Francisco last July. (Scroll down to the “Escape from Azkatraz” subhead in Aug. 1, 2009 entry.) The Zells took a vendor space for their Mythic Images business of New Age, Pagan, and Goddess-oriented images, etc. But it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[57,7,29,12],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-books","tag-publishing","tag-witchcraft","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-jK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":988,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=988","url_meta":{"origin":1224,"position":0},"title":"When Librarians Strike Back","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A fairly brilliant fund-raising idea in Alamogordo, New Mexico: funding a new library with photos of a local book-burning.The book burning pitted two opposing points of view. It was \"not a book-burning, but a holy bonfire,\" according to the church's founding pastor, Jack Brock.....On one side [of the street] were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"libraries\"","block_context":{"text":"libraries","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=libraries"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":910,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=910","url_meta":{"origin":1224,"position":1},"title":"This Will Be My Only Harry Potter Post Ever","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Megan McArdle examines the failures of magics and economics in the Harry Potter books.Yet in the Potter books, the costs and limits are too often arbitrary.A patronus charm, for example, is awfully difficult--until Rowling wants a stirring scene in which Harry pulls together an intrepid band of students to Fight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":406,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":1224,"position":2},"title":"Labor relations in Harry Potter's\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Labor relations in Harry Potter's worldWendy A.F.G. Stengel tackles the tricky issues of house-elf slavery and other issues of class in the Harry Potter world in the SF ezine Some Fantastic.It is tempting to view the major labor conflict of the Harry Potter world\u2014-the status of house elves\u2014-simplistically: \u201cSlavery is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6930,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6930","url_meta":{"origin":1224,"position":3},"title":"The Greatest “Occult” Movies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"From Ultraculture, a list of nine great movies about the occult and magick \u2014 and nine more. But since there are \"honorable mentions\" as well, you get more! Obvious choices (Rosemary\u2019s Baby,\u00a0The Exorcist), as well as films that present the subject\u00a0in an exploitative manner (such as those of Dario Argento)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"220px-Holy_Mountain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/220px-Holy_Mountain.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":479,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=479","url_meta":{"origin":1224,"position":4},"title":"The Potter menaceTo my mind,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Potter menaceTo my mind, the best thing about the Harry Potter books is that kids like to read them, and I generally think that Reading is Good. But I never made the important connection noted by Christian blogger Dan Edelen: Wicca is the first world religion produced in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1152,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1152","url_meta":{"origin":1224,"position":5},"title":"Gallimaufry with Confusion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 The latest weird search query to bring a visitor to this blog: \"Is New Mexico a polytheistic, monotheistic, or animistic religion?\" Hello? New Mexico is a state. No wonder that for years New Mexico Magazine has had a standing column on geographical confusion called \"One of Our 50 is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Gnosticism\"","block_context":{"text":"Gnosticism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=gnosticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0934223955","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}