Thread II: A Catholic Homeschooling Father Reads Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

Gloria Romanorum blog ^ | 8/20/07 | Florentius

[Antoninus]

Here's the next installment. Here's a link to the previous one:

Buried in Potter's Field? A Catholic Homeschooling Father Reads the Harry Potter Series

[Tax-chick]

May I suggest you give a cooling-off period, followed by editing, to your next installment? You’ve got Homophonia.

[Antoninus]

Nahh. "Cooling off periods" only take me farther from my original impressions. I will be happy to eat my words in the reviews of the future books, though, if necessary. I'm going to refrain on making a judgment on the series as a whole until I'm finished Book VII.

I'm happy to squash the homophones, though.

[Religion Moderator]

Drop the tagline.

[Antoninus]

Roger. It’s a vestige from a previous thread. Not appropriate here.

[Bigg Red]

You’ve got Homophonia.

&&&
You are just too clever. I had planned to comment on the homonym problem, as well, but your summation was brilliant.

[Bigg Red]

The greatest gift parents can give their child is siblings.

&&
That tagline is great!

[Antoninus]

You are just too clever. I had planned to comment on the homonym problem, as well, but your summation was brilliant.

Arrrggggh! I now know what you're referring to. This is especially annoying because I actually fixed this error on the blog (straights = straits) but it didn't take for some reason.

Typos truly are the bane of my existence. Amusingly enough, I found a pretty obvious one in Prisoner of Azakaban. It's astounding to me that a book with such a huge budget and so many publishing resources associated with it would have an error like that, but such is life. I certainly won't criticize it for that.

[CholeraJoe]

Chamber of Secrets, eh? Attempted murder, kidnapping, slavery, animal cruelty, bad table manners, theft. Did I miss any? The inter-racial dating doesn’t start until book 4.

[Antoninus]

Pinging from the previous thread.

[Antoninus]

Chamber of Secrets, eh? Attempted murder, kidnapping, slavery, animal cruelty, bad table manners, theft. Did I miss any? The inter-racial dating doesn’t start until book 4.

Let's not forget about Hagrid and his strangely intimate relationships with flobberworms.

[Claud]

Good observation on the history of magic.

I think it’s particularly funny that wiccans want to be medieval and pagan at the same time—thus proving that they understand neither paganism nor the Middle Ages.

I think folks today are getting their history more from the D&D Players’ Manual than, say, Ovid and Malory. :)

[Tax-chick]

I meant “cooling-off” after writing, in order to see one’s homophones with a clear eye.

As the leader of the Typso and Allied Verbal Mayhem ping list, I have a set of shorthand diagnoses for grammatical gaffes: “Homophonia” is one of the most common problems, followed by “Comma Chaos.” Then there’s “Semicolitis,” for those inclined to Faulknerie.

[Tax-chick]

Antoninus, your new tagline has subject-verb disagreement.

[Claud]

Antoninus, your new tagline has subject-verb disagreement.

LOL...what's he supposed to do? The greatest gift ARE siblings? You have a singular subject and a plural "object" connected by "be". You can avoid the problem by pluralizing "gifts" but let's suppose you want to keep it singular.

[ArrogantBustard]

Arrant pedantry, up with which I shall not put!

[Tax-chick]

Rephrase the whole statement to avoid the linking verb. (When I get in a really bad mood, I torture my children by making them write without linking verbs.)

[Antoninus]

I think it’s particularly funny that wiccans want to be medieval and pagan at the same time—thus proving that they understand neither paganism nor the Middle Ages.

And it's just too convenient to claim that the "persecution" of witches (or is that whiches? Which is it??) started in the Middle Ages when the Catholic Church was ascendant when pretty much every ancient pagan culture made the practice of sorcery an offense deserving death.

I think folks today are getting their history more from the D&D Players’ Manual than, say, Ovid and Malory. :)

LOL. I think you're right. Rowling's got lots of inadvertent (or not) D&D references in the books. Every time she brings up a new creature, I think to myself, Monster Manual, 3HD, 1-8 hp damage per attack.

[Claud]

I wrote “object” but predicate nominative was the phrase I was trying to think of.

before I get corrected too! ;)

[Tax-chick]

A big kiss for your correct use of “arrant”!

I’d better start the school year on Monday, instead of putting it off until after our vacation. Then I won’t have time to niggle my FRiends’ grammar!