“Potterversity” Episode 58: “More than Meets the Eye”

Don’t judge a book by its cover – this episode is about how looks can be deceiving in Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.

We’re joined by Elizabeth Baird Hardy (Maryland Community College) to discuss her chapter in The Ivory Tower, Harry Potter, and Beyond, “Muggle Worthy: Deceptive Exteriors and Outsized Interiors in the Wizarding World.” There is an implicit lesson in the wizarding world – one understood by magical children but that needs to be learned by newcomers like Harry – not to trust architecture. Staircases move, paintings hide passageways, unassuming pubs contain entrances to bustling magical streets. People, too, are more than they appear, like the enormous but gentle Hagrid.

Some spaces in Potter seem sensitive to emotional or psychological factors, such as the Room of Requirement, which seems to work in a similar way to a boggart in terms of understanding a person. While the former senses what a user needs, the latter senses what they fear. The Room of Requirement does not appear to judge and can be used for noble or nefarious purposes, whether to fight Death Eaters or let them into the castle.

What about portable, extendable spaces? Hermione has her beaded bag and Newt Scamander his suitcase full of creatures, both of which serve as metaphors for the complex personalities under the exteriors that might be overlooked. Spaces like these are also seen in Mary Poppins, Discworld, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Fantasy itself feels like a space where we cross a threshold from the mundane into a world of possibility. 

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