I got this in a news email today ...
Muggles Gather for Harry Convention
Mickey Mouse took a backseat to a much younger pop culture hero
this weekend at Florida's Walt Disney World, where about 1,000
fans of the teen wizard gathered for Nimbus 2003, the first
international Harry Potter convention, reports the Associated
Press.=A0 =A0 The 2,715 pages of J.K. Rowling's five books -- including
the latest, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" -- inspired
such workshops as "It's Not Easy Being Hermione: Harry Potter and
the Paradox of Girl Power"; "Harry Potter and Stoic Virtue"; and
even "Jewish Perspectives on Harry Potter."=A0 =A0 While the religious
breakdown on the guest roster wasn't made available, including
how many of them were Muggles, the AP does note that 90 percent
of the attendees were women.=A0 =A0 "I think some men are afraid to
be labeled, in part because of the Trekkie-nerdy phenomenon,"
said John Kusalavage, 58, a retired doctor and Harry Potter fan
who lives in Aiken, S.C. "But if they knew there were so many
women here, they'd think again."=A0 =A0=A0 According to the official
Harry Potter Web site, one of the speakers was Diana Patterson,
an English and publishing teacher from Mount Royal College, who
delivered a talk titled, " Technology Meets Magic" for which she
wore a full witch costume, complete with a pointy hat.=A0 =A0 "Basically,
my talk investigates the magical objects in Harry Potter," Patterson
said. "They aren't praying to the gods to use magic, it is simply
a type of technology they use."=A0 =A0 Other speakers from points as
distant as the Philippines discussed such subjects as justice in
the wizarding world, gender roles in the books, comparisons of
Potter books to other fantasy literature and the history of
Potter fandom, said the Web site.=A0 =A0 "For a lot of academics,
it's looking at the greater themes in the books, and what (Rowling
is) saying about gender relations, labor and class issues in
modern Britain," said Penny Linsenmayer, a Houston lawyer and
Nimbus 2003 organizer.
Naomi Gelfand
Media Specialist=20
Cannon Road Elem
Silver Spring, MD
Naomirglmnet@aol.com
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