{"id":910,"date":"2007-07-22T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-22T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=910"},"modified":"2007-07-22T15:04:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-22T15:04:00","slug":"this-will-be-my-only-harry-potter-post-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"This Will Be My Only Harry Potter Post Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megan McArdle examines the failures of magics and economics in the Harry Potter books.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet in the Potter books, the costs and limits are too often arbitrary.<\/p>\n

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 the Power, whereupon it becomes simple enough to be taught by an inexperienced fifteen year old. Rowling can only do this because it’s thoroughly unclear how magic power is acquired. It seems hard to credit academic labour, when spells are one or two words; and anyway, if that were the determinant, Hermione Granger would be a better wizard than Harry. But if it’s something akin to athletic skill, why is it taught at rows of desks? And why aren’t students worn out after practicing spells?<\/em><\/p>\n

(Via Instapundit.<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 the Power, whereupon […]<\/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":[12],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-eG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":479,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=479","url_meta":{"origin":910,"position":0},"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":1224,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1224","url_meta":{"origin":910,"position":1},"title":"Harry Potter Fans not all that into Magic, Witchcraft","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1564149560","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":406,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=406","url_meta":{"origin":910,"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":2433,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2433","url_meta":{"origin":910,"position":3},"title":"How to Read an Academic Journal","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"It's not Harry Potter,\" writes Rob \"Instant Mentor\" Weir at Inside Higher Education. Students register surprise when I confess that I share some of their frustrations over academic writing. Quite a few scholars are dreadful writers. There is, in my view, entirely too much pretentiousness, jargon, and affected weightiness oozing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"scholarship\"","block_context":{"text":"scholarship","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=scholarship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1152,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1152","url_meta":{"origin":910,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":988,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=988","url_meta":{"origin":910,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","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=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}