Dis(h)course in Literary Sauces: "I'm so hungry, I could eat a Hippogriff..."

They see me Rowling, they eatin'...


HP food in real life

The journey of this blog has come to an end. It began with A Hobbit's Adventure and how else should it end than in a magical journey? I believe I looked that some examples of the most prominent English writers of their time and without a doubt, one of today's top writers is J. K. Rowling.

What makes Rowling unique? "Rowling has led a "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on state benefits to multi-millionaire status within five years. She is the United Kingdom's best-selling author since records began, with sales in excess of £238m.^[12] The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in the United Kingdom.^[13] Forbes ranked Rowling as the forty-eighth most powerful celebrity of 2007,^[14] and TIME magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fans.^[15] In October 2010, Rowling was named the "Most Influential Woman in Britain" by leading magazine editors.^[16] She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and Lumos (formerly the Children's High Level Group)." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling)

In addition, Forbes magazine declared her to be the first dollar-billionaire earning money from writing.

What is Rowling's writing style then? What makes her a great writer? Is it only the story?
Let's face it, there's a lot we can take away from Rowling as a writer. Or rather as a person. Let's have a look at what Michelle Rafter thinks about her. (http://michellerafter.com/2012/09/27/10-things-j-k-rowling-taught-me-about-writing/):

1. Persistence counts.
2. Think things through.
3. If the story’s good enough, the writing can be secondary.
4. Go for it.
5. Write when you’re on.
6. Don’t be afraid to make things complicated.
7. Leave stuff out.
8. Write what you love.
9. Be good to your people.
10. It’s OK to goof off.

My personal favourite is no. 10:

After she gave up cigarettes, Rowling took up Minesweeper, the game that comes bundled with Windows, when she needed a writing break. She got so good she even brags on her blog about her expert-level times.
The takeaway: If Rowling can play mindless computer games for a little mental R&R, it’s OK if you check Twitter or Facebook during the work day.

Naturally, these points will be always up to debate. Language-wise, most bloggers agree in the following:

"J.K. Rowling is a fantasy author. There are several items that distinguish her from other writers, such as making up her own words, creatures, and spells; using Latin words as spells (for most of the spells); using contemporary events for ideas for her Harry Potter series (the war against Voldemort was most likely based on the war against terror, due to their similarities); and her knack for making up the most unusual names (like Mundungus, Dorcas, Tiberius, etcetera)." (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080809115703AATQQmX)

The remaining question now is... What do people eat in the Harry Potter books? A comment on the internet I particularly liked is the following: "In one of her many interviews, JKR said that wizards generally live longer than Muggles. After a thorough research about food in the Harry Potter universe and, above all, its magical part, the only possible conclusion is that wizards don't have problems with cholesterol, otherwise their life span would be considerably shorter than that of the average Muggle."

It made me even more curious, so let's look at food now.

"Pumpkin juice seems to be the only drink, water is never mentioned for meals (although Harry had a drink of water when he woke up in the middle of the night).

Roast beef, roast chicken, fried sausages, stew, casserole, tripe (which McGonagall ironically offers Trelawney in PA), pork chops, shepherd's pie, steak, Cornish pasties, lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, steak and kidney pudding, steak and kidney pie, black pudding, sandwiches (chicken and ham, for Harry and Ron in CS5); bread, marshmallows and crumpets (Harry and Ron roast them over the common room fire during the Christmas holidays in PS12), baked pumpkin (at Halloween), roast potatoes, jacket potatoes, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, sprouts, carrots, gravy, ketchup, custard tart, mint humbugs, ice cream, apple pies, treacle tart, spotted dick, chocolate éclairs, chocolate gateau, jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, and rice pudding. An impressive list of heavy, traditional British food. Only in GF14, when the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive, two non-British dishes appear on the tables: Bouillabaisse and "some kind of strange blancmange".
Breakfast is a little healthier, it becomes more understandable, though, why the students mostly sleep in Professor Binns' classes: porridge, rolls, orange juice, kippers, eggs and bacon, toast, buttered toast with jam, corn flakes. Again, no fresh fruit, no yoghurt...
And then, there are of course the Christmas treats: turkey, chipolatas, thick rich gravy, cranberry sauce, turkey sandwiches (for tea), Christmas pudding, eggnogg, crumpets, trifle, Christmas cake. And when it gets really cold in the winter, the house-elves supply teachers and students with warming stews and savoury puddings - no wonder that Fleur Delacour criticizes "zis 'eavy 'ogwarts food", which might also be regarded as evidence by an objective witness that not only Harry is giving us a comprehensive view, but also that identical food is served at least at the Ravenclaw and the Gryffindor tables." (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-food.html)

After finding out all these information, let's try to recreate magic:

Renard Brothwell was nervous. That was his first ever chocolate frog. He was standing between Cowell's Clothily Clothes Shop and Delicious Dave's Delightful Desserts confectionery. His family was a bit out of place in Diagon Alley. His parents were muggles and he had only received his Hogwarts letter a week ago. He looked around to see what to do. His father was drinking a Fire whiskey, while his mom was gulping Butterscotch. They urged him to open the box. He did and unexpectedly, the chocolate frog flew out of the box, seeing its chance to flee. Renard acted quickly, drew his wand (performing illegal under age magic) and shouted "Exfroggiliano!", the freezing spell he just saw in one of his books. Instantly, the frog stopped dead and was only moving its eye desperately trying to escape. However, there was no escape for him now. He became the first item of Renard's magical journey into wizarding confectionery, closely followed by the magical beans for which he developed quite a magical taste later.