I Interviewed a Harry Potter Scholar

I recently Skyped with Peter Appelbaum, a professor of curriculum studies at Arcadia University, the father of our very own Noah Appelbaum, the author of a number of books on education, and—drumroll—a prominent figure in the world of Harry Potter scholarship. This means that his “work” includes reading, re-reading, thinking, talking, and writing about Harry Potter. Yup, he’s living the dream. Read on for a peek into what his world:

On how he fell into Harry Potter scholarship:

When the first book was written, I was surprised how popular it was because I didn’t get it. I didn’t think it was a very good book. But, more importantly, I was surprised because it seemed to be a plagiarism of another book by a very famous children’s author named Jane Yolen. Yolen wrote a book called Wizard’s Hall about this little boy, who gets this note saying, “You don’t know this, but you’re a wizard and you should come to school now.” So he goes to a school called Wizard Hall, where there’s an evil wizard trying to destroy not just the school but the whole world and this boy helps save the world by defeating the evil wizard. Then a year or two later, this Harry Potter book came out, which, to me, seemed like the same book.

I was trying to figure out what distinguished the first HP book from Yolen’s book and I noticed the first book tapped into this popular culture trend of having the latest, updated gadget of something (like, “oh there’s a newer broom, there’s a fancier broom”) and that this was similar to the way people were starting to talk about cellphones, computers, and expansion sets for games. It’s about consumer culture.

After writing about that, I became known as someone who does Harry Potter things, so I would have to “update” myself to be able to speak about it, but I wasn’t an insatiable fan that was always interested in Harry Potter.

*Where I admit that I prepared an interview assuming I’d be speaking to a Harry Potter super fan.*

I’m not really a super fan yet there’s so much in these books to talk about. I think there’s so much to talk about in terms of what education is, what society is, how do young adults learn to be full members of society. So I am a fan in that way. It speaks to all the things I care about.

On coming to appreciate the books:

I did grow to appreciate some things about it as literature. When I first read it, I thought, why are people raving about this? All she does is write dialogue. But looking back on it, she’s a pretty creative writer who knows to communicate a lot of things through dialogue. If I were a fiction writer or a playwright, I think I could learn a lot from reading her books.

On how Harry Potter makes a philosophical statement about the best kind of education for a young adult: 

I saw a lot of connections between HP and what’s considered the first bildungsroman, Goethe’s Wilhem Meister’s Apprenticeship. [Note: bildungsroman is a fancy, German word for a novel about the education and maturation of a young adult protagonist.] Wilhem Meister’s parents think he’s doing work for a business, but actually he’s running his own theater troupe, nearly dying, and getting into all sorts of risky situations. At the end of the book, he finds out that his father’s part of this secret society, which was lurking behind the scenes all along making sure he didn’t die during his adventures, that everything was part of the plan.

Harry Potter is similar: Harry, Ron, and Hermione are always learning really important things because they’re out saving the world and they’re aided by people who are watching out for them. It seemed like Dumbledore knew maybe in the beginning that things were going on and he not only lets them happen but enables them—you know, “oh, Hermione, here’s this special gadget, we’ll let you travel through time.”

It really smacks to me of the whole basis for a lot of so-called progressive education, where you want children to design their own experiences or experiments. Teachers are there just provide support and create an environment that’s rich for learning. School, then, becomes a front to make adventures happen.

On what the books are really about: 

The books aren’t about Harry; they’re really about Snape. I think Alan Rickman is to thank for why the Harry Potter books are so great. Rickman’s such an amazing actor that he added complexity to Snape as a character which, I believe, led J.K. Rowling to change the character as the series developed.

To me, as an educator, these books make this argument that Snape is the emblematic greatest teacher ever and it fits right into the bildungsroman tradition because so often the super awesome has to sacrifice himself for the student.

I’ll reiterate: the books aren’t not about Harry, but about Snape and how he has set everything up so Harry can do all these things.

On how professors of literature react when they find out he’s a Potter scholar:

A lot of comp lit and English professors these days write about any kind of genre. Maybe there are people that think it’s not legitimate literature…but at most universities, you’ll see graphic novels, comic books, blog sites, and even fan fiction being talked about as literature.

*Where I ask the obligatory question: What house would you be in?*

Well, I think it’s sort of obvious given my status as a professor who talks academically about bildungsroman…

*So you’d be Ravenclaw?* 

Yes. What house would you be in?

*Where I admit that I’d probably be Slytherin.*

Well, Snape was.

*Slytherin wasn’t always bad.*

It’s funny cause they keep saying, not everybody in Slytherin is evil…

*But then there are no characters they introduce you to that aren’t.*

They do make Gryffindor seem like it’s the best.

Okay, who’s dying to take Prof. Applebaum’s class?