Wet Squibs, Islamic Cub Names, the Seven Strike Series Structure Theories, and How a Human Being Reads a Story

Nick Jeffery and John Granger sat down to discuss four Hogwarts Professor posts. Here are links to those posts with an excerpt from each and the most relevant urls embedded in them. Enjoy!What is a Squib, Really? And Where Would Rowling Have Met the Word? (John Granger, 27 April 2026)I confess that I assumed the word for barely magical witches and wizards born into magical families in J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, the folk she calls ‘Squibs,’ were given that name because of its onomatopoeic source in fireworks; per the Harry Potter Lexicon invaluable online resource, a squib is English idiom for “a dud firework that will not ignite properly.” It sounds like its meaning (as does “dud”) and a reader can feel in it the disappointment of magical parents when their child turns out not to have the gift that will make them full members of their community.I learned this morning, however, that a squib is not a dud firework, or wasn’t originally though it may have that meaning today, and that it is mentioned more than once in one of Rowling’s known literary influences.* ‘Squibbing’ at the Bridgewater Carnival Fireworks Festival (YouTube video)* Toyohashi Tengu: Japanese Quidditch Team (Harry Potter Lexicon)* Tengu — Japanese Fantastic Beast not in Newt Scamander’s textbook (Wikipedia)* Toyohashi Tezutsu fireworks 2022 (Tezutsu-hanabi — Wikipedia)* Dimitra Fimi’s ‘A Kind of Elvish Craft’ Substack site* The Fireworks of Gandalf: in which ‘squibs’ are discussed (not duds!)* ‘The Slow Lord of the Rings Re-Read’ Prof Fimi’s Tolkien Reading Day Introduction* Reading Rowling as Myth Maker and Myth Re-Writer: A Conversation with Dr Dimitra Fimi * ‘Sleep Tight, Evangeline,’ Miniature Psalters, and the Head of Persephone: A Conversation with Dimitra FimiHogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Ray Livingston's 'The Traditional Theory of Literature:’ Chapter 2: Man, Society, Art (John Granger, 30 April 2026)In brief, the Perennialist reading of literature begins with a different idea of what a human being is, which reflects the social environment or society and culture that best fosters his achievement of his end or telos, which reflects what role art in general and story specifically plays in his best life. The human being as primarily spiritual, his end as profound communion with what is most Real, and story as non-liturgical sacred art (not necessarily or even usually ‘religious’) which supports him in his vocation to that end are the premises of the traditional or theocentric understanding of man, society, and art.Which is the title of Livingston’s second chapter and a description of its organization as well as of its contents. It’s not easy reading; the subject matter is quite dense and he covers an enormous amount of ground relatively quickly so he can get to the ‘literature’ in the remaining chapters of the work. Without setting out the premises of the Perennialist understanding with respect to what it means to be human, how a community is designed to make a fully human life possible, and how the art of everyday objects as well as set pieces for appreciation or entertainment — there being no meaningful difference in the value of practical and fine arts here — bring that polity to fruition, discussion of literature from the traditional view would be a waste of time.The Allegorical Cryptonyms of Hallmarked Man, Part 2: Ten More Cratylic Character Names and Best Guesses about their Embedded Meanings (John Granger, 1 May 2026)This is the second part of at least a three part series of articles with supplementary video discussion in which I take a long look at Rowling-Galbraith’s choices for character names in the eighth Strike-Ellacott novel, The Hallmarked Man. For the first posts in this series, in which I explain why this is a worthwhile effort, one critical to Rowling’s intentional artistry and complementary to her other Shed tools, see ‘The Allegorical Cryptonyms of The Hallmarked Man, Part One’ and my conversation with Nick Jeffery about it ‘What do Tyler Powell, Rupert Fleetwood, Jolanda Lindvall, and Lady Jensen Have in Common?’Almost half of today’s ten posts are about characters named ‘Lion’ or variants on the leonine theme. I think the number of lions prowling through Hallmarked Man, not to mention the dogs from Hell and the bears benign and grizzly, deserve their own post, especially to contrast it with the predominant swan symbolism of the first seven books. Or are they conjoined in Jonny Rokeby, whose middle name is the lionesque ‘Leonard’ and who plays the part of a Jovian swan in the Leda mating that produced Cormoran Strike (we think?). [Be sure to check out Ed Shardlow’s full catalogue of the lions afoot in the pages of Hallmarked Man!]* ‘I’m an Essex Girl’ (YouTube video)The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? Seeking Pointers to the Hermetic Meaning of Strike 8 within (a) the Extended Play and Tetractys Ten Book Series Pictures and (b) the Parallel Series and Reverse Alchemy Ideas (John Granger, 8 May 2026)There are currently seven theories that I have read about of how best to think of the Strike-Ellacott series structure:* (1) straight up Decalogy, no structural connection between books;* (2) Big Ring Composition, Double Wedding Band (Louise Freeman);* (3) Seven book series with Trilogy finale (Nick Jeffery, John Granger);* (4) Extended Play theory (John Granger per ‘Kathleen’),* (5) Sonnet Corona Form (Robyn Gomillion);* (6) Tetractys theory (Evan Willis with back-up explanations here, follow-up from Evan here); and* (7) Celtic Cross (John Granger) scroll down to bottom).The first idea is that there isn’t a series structure worth noting, which is the default position of the great majority of readers. They (we?) enjoy each book and appreciate the over-arching story parts and conflicts without wondering about the author’s intentional narrative scaffolding. Rowling has repeatedly said that special sauce secret of her success is structure but as story organization artistry is very rarely discussed today in English classrooms even Literature wonks neglect it. The other six ideas have their advocates and rather than review each I’ve embedded links above to these proponents’ online arguments in favor of their best guesses.All of these structure theories have advantages and support from previous work we and others have done in the field of Rowling Studies; all of it, however, it must be remembered is laughably speculative guesswork – we’re not going to grasp the series structure with any certainty until it’s done or Rowling actually answers questions about it or shares the information gratis (neither of which is likely given her history). Those of us who give any time to this, not to name those who are pre-occupied with it, are hunting phantom fandom garlands (as well as having a lot of fun).There actually is, however, a reason beyond personal insecurities and a search for redemption for thinking about how the ten book series is organized before all the books are out. If you’re trying to figure out the alchemical quality or stage of a book already in print, understanding the sequence of books should theoretically reveal the sequence of stages (and vice versa). As explained above, Rowling seems to be writing the Strike series in parallel with her Harry Potter seven books. Until we got to the sixth book in Robin and Cormoran’s adventures, those parallels included the alchemical coloration or stage the Potter numerical equivalent had. Other correspondences between the series continued, most notably, the seven book ring structure and playful plot point parallels (see my conclusions post Running Grave here, here, and here). The alchemy did not.In terms of alchemy, the most compelling ideas I think are Extended Play (EP) and Evan Willis’ four-three-two-one pyramid, the Tetractys figure of the ancients, the ‘Great Quaternion.’ Let’s look at each.* Why the Cormoran Strike Novels are a Ten Book Series: Mythological Clues and Tetractys Parallelism with a Touch of Tarot Reveal the Strike Series Structural Echoes with Rowling’s First Ten Book Set [Evan Willis, 10 July 2023]* Is Tetractys Theory the Best Explanation of Why the Cormoran Strike Series is Ten Books in Length? First Thoughts on Evan Willis’ Numerological Exegesis of Rowling’s Two Ten Novel Series and the Meaning of This Structure [John Granger, 18 July 2023]* Evan Willis: Running Grave Review In which the Tetractis theory is revisited in light of Strike 7 and the Theory is Updated [Evan Willis, 30 September 2023]* Literary Alchemy – A Primer for Those Interested in J. K. Rowling’s Artistry* Metallurgical, Literary, and Psychological Alchemy: Is Jung a Good Guide for Understanding J. K. Rowling’s Artistry and Meaning?The Ten Questions!Introduction: It’s been a busy week, John, with posts on traditional reading, cryptonyms, and literary alchemy. I’ve got a bunch of questions about each subject so let’s jump right in -- with some thoughts about Squibs in Bridgewater and Toyohashi, Japan!1. Ray Livingston: You’re sending out a chapter of The Traditional Theory of Literature every week to our Paid Subscribers which I think everyone has access to, at least for one or two chapters. It’s no small effort to type up this public domain book that isn’t available anywhere on the internet, especially with the embedded links to the obscure references in the footnotes; why are you bothering?2. Ray Livingston: The first chapter you sent out went to everyone and included the glossary of terms as well as the Table of Contents, preface, and prologue (chapter one). I’m guessing this is more than throat-clearing and publisher’s data; why does a literary theory text, for example, need a glossary?3. Ray Livingston: The second chapter, ‘Man Society, and Art,’ was a dense read, I confess. Am I right in thinking this was Livingston’s attempt to introduce the Perennialist ‘Theory of Everything’ in one short chapter to lay the foundation for the literature chapters?4. Cryptonyms 2: It’s been a minute since Part One of the Cryptonyms series, why the hold-up?5. Cryptonyms 2: [John] And part of my cryptonym-hesitancy was how much of this post was UK specific, as in the Branfoot = Branson idea and the Essex Girl bit, all of which was new to me. As a Brit living in Wales, should I have resisted the urge to speculate on those subjects? And is the anti-Semitism part of my Hafsa Mohamed interpretation just looking backward from current events?6. Cryptonyms 2: Do we have a Cryptonyms, Part 3, in queue? [Ottolie, ‘Jim Todd’ (‘Jim Philpott,’ Todd Jameson), Calvin ‘Oz’ Osgood, Sofia Medina, Gretchen Schiff, Sapphire Neagle, Susan Iverson, Kim Cochran, Trevik Nancarrow, Peggy (Margaret ‘Leda’) Nancarrow,, Carmen Ellacott (Dirk Ellacott, Barnaby Ellacott), Ralph Lawrence/ John Auclair – Open Invitation to readers to make name-deciphering requests in the comments; there are more than 150 names in Hallmarked Man so tell me the ones you want to hear more about]7. Alchemy (Series) We’ve been writing and talking about ‘how to understand literary alchemy best,’ i.e., by taking a Jungian or a Perennialist perspective on how Rowling uses it, but this latest piece on the Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man is much more straight-reading or interpretation, no? And it starts out with how to understand Strike 8 in light of the series sequence of alchemical stages; what’s the struggle with this kind of reading that we’re only getting to this six months after the book came out?8. Alchemy (Hallmarked): How does your reading of specific alchemical images in Hallmarked Man differ from how you read them in, say, Troubled Blood?9. Alchemy (Hallmarked): There were quite a few finds in the ten images you found in Abraham’s Dictionary that resonated with subjects we’ve been talking about -- the mythological backdrop to the story, to incest, to Lions and Masonry. What are we to make of this? Do you think it’s a coincidence that Rowling-Galbraith’s plot points and other artistry reflects these alchemical glyphs or is the hermetic symbolism driving the other elements?10. Coming Week: So what can we expect in the coming week, John? Lots and lots! Please send in your cryptonym deciphering requests — and your ideas for Hogwarts Professor merchandise (AI generated logo designs welcome)!Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe