Harry Potter and the Sacred Text 5.13 -- Obsession: Detention with Dolores Chapter 13 Detention with Dolores Casper: Chapter
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Harry Potter and the Sacred Text 5.13 -- Obsession: Detention with Dolores Chapter 13 Detention with Dolores Casper: Chapter 13, “Detention with Dolores” “Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not a pleasant experience for Harry. The news about his shouting match with Umbridge had traveled exceptionally fast, even by Hogwarts standards. He heard whispers all around him as he sat eating between Ron and Hermione ” … Casper: I’m Casper ter Kuile -- Vanessa: And I’m Vanessa Zoltan -- Casper: And this is Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Vanessa: So, Casper, this week we both have some sort of, like, more personal log-rolly things. So we thought we would put them together. Casper: Yes! Tell me about your announcement. Vanessa: Well, I am going to be flying to Eugene, Oregon, and I will be giving a talk in Eugene on Friday, December 7th, and then two in Tacoma, Washington on December 8th. And, I don’t want to say that I am even more fun without you holding me back -- Casper: (*laughs*) Vanessa: I just want to say that because no one will be there to stop me, we will only be talking about Hermione. Casper: (*laughs*) Everyone sign up right now. Vanessa: And Nick Bohl, our musician, is gonna be doing these with me so there will be some live music. We’re gonna be talking about the entire series, all seven books, and we’re gonna be thinking about how we can all live more radical lives. Or, really, just what would Hermione do -- Casper: (*laughs*) Vanessa: In Trump’s America, so I hope to see some of our West Coast listeners in Eugene and Tacoma. And you can go to our live shows page, click on Eugene and Tacoma. And then I’m taking a red-eye back to Cambridge, because December 9th is our Cambridge live show, which my mom will be at. What about you Casper, what do you have to share? Casper: Well I’m really excited about this. I co-created a little project with my sister Rosa and a divinity school student here called Wilson Hood, on trying to re-imagine what the season of Advent could mean. We’ve had so much fun trying to translate, like, sacred reading into a contemporary context with Harry Potter, so we’re trying to translate a liturgical journey through time on Instagram. Vanessa: And you love Advent. Casper: I love Advent so much! This is, like, my favorite season cause it’s all about, like, hope and hopelessness and waiting and fulfilling, but not quite, and what does it mean. And so we’re doing that through a beautiful visual journey with some reflection prompts, and you should come follow us @theadventproject. So, go to Instagram and search The Advent Project and you’ll find us there. It’s like a queer new moon journey, it’s amazing. Vanessa: (*laughs*) Oh my God Casper: Vanessa, this week’s theme is obsession, and I think it’s your turn to tell a story. Vanessa: It is. Casper, as I’ve talked about on this podcast before, my family was very directly impacted by the Northridge earthquake. My grandparents lived right at the epicenter and there house was, I mean like, destroyed in the earthquake. You know, and we felt the earthquake very strongly, we just lived a couple miles away, and highways were destroyed in Los Angeles. This was a really big natural disaster that happened when I was 11 years old. And what happened after, and lasted for a pretty long period of time, is that when I would get into bed at night I would start thinking about the possibility of earthquakes. The earthquake happened in the middle of the night -- it happened around four in the morning. And so there would be something about getting into bed that would trigger this obsession in me. I would just start spiraling thinking about the potential of another earthquake. And so, eventually, my mother, very smartly, was like, “Let’s channel this energy into something.” Cause I would get out of bed and go to her and be like, “What if there’s an earthquake tonight?” And so we started doing research on earthquakes. She took me to the library -- very Hermione of her, looking back. And we just really started doing research about fault lines, and the geological history of earthquakes in California, and the likelihood of these things happening again, and She … and I now differ on whether or not that was successful. She would say that it was not successful, that she just kept feeding my obsession. I think it was successful, because I came to a very logical conclusion with my research. Which was that my family had to leave the state of California. I don’t think my research was quite thorough, because I understood that there was a risk that California could, like, break off from the United States and float into the Pacific. And I for some reason thought that that would happen, like, along border lines, and so if we just moved right across the border into Oregon we would somehow be safe. I started doing a lot of research on Ashland, Oregon, which is basically the southernmost tip of Oregon, and I would try to convince my brothers that we should all move there, like how great it is. There’s a great Shakespeare festival in Ashland, Oregon that I started learning a lot about, and tried to convince my brothers how cool it would be to live in this town that was, like, famous for this theatre festival. They didn’t go for it, interestingly, and in looking back I think that this obsession was both incredibly healthy and incredibly unhealthy. I think it made me aware of the Earth, and has made me really interested in environmentalism, and global warming, and the way that we have to live humbly in relationship to the Earth. And I also think that it fed in me, like, a real fear and, like, an attempt to be controlling with my family in a way that might not be as healthy and helpful. I think we all agree that obsession in certain contexts is a virtue. We want our surgeons to be obsessed with their work and meticulous. And we want our violinists to be obsessed. Itzhak Perlman was obsessed with his violin and we are all the better for it. But then there are obviously obsessions, you know, with one another that can lead to stalking, and to unhealthy behaviors. Or an 11 year old’s obsession with earthquakes and getting their family to move to Oregon, which can be mildly counterproductive. And so I’m interested in talking about that with you today: when is obsession a virtue that moves us forward, and when is it, like, an unhealthy spiral? Casper: Vanessa, I feel like I have gotten to know you even better in just these last few minutes. And I actually think I have a different idea on obsession: I think any obsession is unhealthy. Vanessa: Oh, no. For sure no. Casper: (*laughs*) So, let’s get into that when we get into the chapter. But, before we get there, Vanessa, let’s do our 30 second recap. The chapters are getting longer, so we need to be getting better at our 30 second recaps. Vanessa: You know they say practice makes perfect? Casper: Turns out it’s not true. Vanessa: Yeah, we’ve proven them wrong. On your mark, get set, go (*clock ticking*) Casper: This is the very powerful chapter where Harry has to write lines: I must not tell lies, I must not tell lies. And so, he comes back every evening during the week to, um, to write those lines and it appears on his hand, and Umbridge is horrible. Angelina says there’s tryouts, but why are you missing them? And, um, it’s all bad. And Ron says that he’ll do it, and so Harry watches it from the window in the end and suddenly Har--, um, Ron is keeper and that’s great, um, but like, there’s a lot of stress. There’s a lot of stress. I’m just gonna say: that’s child abuse. It’s bad. (*buzzer sounds*) Vanessa: (*laughs*) Casper: Here we go: 30 second recap. 3-2-1, go! (*clock ticking*) Vanessa: So, Harry has to write lines and he’s lying to Hermione and Ron, and then Hermione and Ron find out that this is what he-- that-- uh. Well, Ron finds out that he’s, like, cutting himself and the-- because of Umbridge, and is like, “You should tell Dumbledore,” and Harry is like, “No”. And then Hermione is like, “You should tell Dumbledore that your scar is hurting,” and he’s like, “No.” And then Fred and George are tormenting young people more and Hermione is like, “I’m gonna write to your mother,” and they’re like, “You wouldn’t.” And she’s like, “Wouldn’t I?”. And, um, Ron makes the quidditch team for sort of weird reasons, but he’s gonna be keeper. (*buzzer sounds*) Bye, Oliver Wood. Casper: (*sighs*) I miss him. Vanessa: Do you? Casper: I had to do actual math to figure out why, if he was a fifth year in Harry’s first year, they only talk about him leaving in this book. But, of course, it’s because there’s no quidditch in book four. Vanessa: Right. Casper: But I had to really think about that.