Christian's corner

Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince is due to come out on July 16. I have to confess that I am jealous of Harry Potter. As a professor and as someone who thinks about what I can do to make class interesting, it is hard not to be. Just imagine going to school and taking classes such as "Advanced Potions: Love and its Derivatives" or "An Introduction to Broomhandling: Dip, Dive, and Duck." I am quite certain that if I or some other professor here at EMU offered such courses, our classes would be teaming with students.

We needn't, however, long for the re-enchantment of our universe in order to gain something of the magic of Hogwarts. The way to deal with a Boggart, for example, is to learn to imagine it in a ridiculous setting and thus to laugh at it. I have encountered a Boggart or two in my lifetime-perhaps you have too. It seems, moreover, that the way to deal with those creatures is not tied to the magical world.

The great comedian Mel Brooks once said as a response to the question of how he as a Jew could dress up as and make fun of Hitler that the only way to deal with such a monster is to laugh and make fun of it. If you do anything else, it will control your life and you will become like it in the end. The ancient Greeks knew this too. They knew that nothing was quite as funny or as politically effective than a good fart joke from Zeus or Socrates (or George or Loren...).

Nota Bene-I would like to thank the editors of the The Weather Vane for giving me this space although I remain somewhat suspicious of the motives lying behind that invitation. Like most professors, I suffer from a mild case of narcissism such that any opportunity to say "whatever comes to mind" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) is a temptation too great to resist.

I should also say that any opinions expressed here are not those of the administration, the faculty, students, or EMU in general. I'm not even sure that they are mine. To make this point clear: if those who control my fate and fortune here in Harrisonburg become troubled by what is said, I will claim that I have been influenced by momentary mental deficiency brought about by drunkenness, drug induced hallucinations, and demon possession...from which I have now, thankfully but perhaps not permanently, been delivered!