Hogwarts Professor

In celebration of the first anniversary of The Hallmarked Man’s publication, I created an annotated index of everything written at Hogwarts Professor or discussed in Rowling Studies podcasts since last September, an index with urls to the relevant posts all neatly arranged by subject matter for easy perusal.

The ‘Index for the Hogwarts Professor Hallmarked Man Index’ looks like this:

1. First Thoughts, First Findings, First Fandom Theories, First Flights of Cupid and Psyche
2. The Big Finds: Shanker’s Secrets, The Incest Golden Thread and Series Backdrop, and the Letter ‘G’ Revealing the Series Structure (with Rowling Extras)
3. The Projects and Partners: Hogwarts Professor exclusive Deep Dives into Rowling’s Artistry and Meaning and the New Voices Speaking Here and Nowhere Else

Check it out at ‘Happy Birthday, Hallmarked Man! A Hogwarts Professor Celebration‘ over at the Substack sister site — and let me know what you think in the comment boxes below!

[Left image source, Right image source]

‘Coloration’ is a term used to describe background information that lights or shades the foreground material in such a way that the reader’s experience of the narrative is moved in a particular direction subliminally. ‘Coloration’ is not exclusively about colors, though that can play a part as in alchemical sequence symbolism; it is at least as much about prevalent symbols and types that create contact, if you will, between the immaterial referents, the greater realities, which the symbols represent and the reader’s imagination. C. S. Lewis’ use of traditional astrological tokens for the seven planets in each of his Narniad novels as detailed in Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia is all about coloration, as is Charles Williams’ use of Tarot imagery in his archetypal thrillers and Rowling’s use of Christian and alchemical symbolism in her Potter and Strellacott series.

C. S. Lewis famously observed in an essay on The Literary Impact of the Authorized Version that “An influence which cannot evade our consciousness will not go very deep,” i.e., will not have a lasting or profound effect. Whence Twain’s injunction to writers to instruct their readers not overtly, which instruction they will resist instinctively, but only covertly, implicitly rather in explicit heavy-handedness.

[Source: Jeremy Harwood’s heavily illustrated, oversized, coffee table book, The Freemasons]

To explore the possibility that Rowling-Galbraith’s subliminal didactic message to her readers in Hallmarked Man involves the letter ‘G,’ I am first obliged to provide evidence of the frequency of this image and examples of how the Freemasons interpret this letter as provided within Strike 8 and from properly Masonic texts.

That is the bulk of the first post in this series, which ends with reasons why this isn’t a sufficient explanation for all the ‘G’s.

The Symbolism of the Letter ‘G’ in ‘Hallmarked Man’ (Part One): Why did Rowling-Galbraith flood her Strike 8 story-line with references to the letter ‘G’?

In Part Two of this three part Deep Dive I review other meanings ascribed to the letter by traditional and other sources before I  explain the effect of its use by Rowling-Galbraith as coloration in the book.

The Symbolism of the Letter ‘G’ in ‘Hallmarked Man’ (Part Two): Rowling-Galbraith is Working the Subliminal Route to Transform Her Readers via Their Unconscious Imaginative Experiences of Repeated Symbolic Freight

In Part Three, Nick Jeffery and I talk about the Letter G and why it matters especially with respect to the structure of the series.

A Conversation about the Symbolism of the Letter ‘G’ in ‘Hallmarked Man’ — Nick and John become G-Men!

Would you believe the Tetractys, Tetragrammaton, Gammadion Cross, and the shape of the Strike-Ellacott decalogy are involved? It’s all there, believe it or don’t, in the letter ‘G’ and the Murdoch silver hallmark…