Close Reads

Editorials Main | F.A.Q. | Editorial Archive | Submission Rules and Writing Tips | Level 9 | The MuggleNet Quibbler | The Three Broomsticks | Close Reads | Opinions | Shipping Quibbles | Cross-Text Analysis
A practice that is most often taught to college students pursuing their English Major, close reading is the exceedingly enjoyable activity of sitting with a passage of text, (or a sequence of passages), and pulling out the implications that are derived from a reader's subsequent mental work.



In this sub section of the MuggleNet Quibbler, you can check out all of our quibble-essays that can be considered close-reads. Whether you agree with them or not, the writers of the pieces below have worked hard, striven to back up their theories and interpretations with real text evidence. They are finding meanings in the Harry Potter book series - both the kinds that are indisputable and kinds that were not expressly written. The close-reader, whoever he or she is, sees no distinction.

If you would like to submit a close read free write to us, peruse the rules for submission right here. Have a book theory but you haven't yet formulated it into quibble form? No prob - discuss your thoughts with the Editorials community at large on the bottom of this page.

- Is Hagrid Prejudiced?

- The Sorting Test: A Look at the Houses' Personalities

- The Mirror of Erised: From the Heart?

- Severus Snape's True Disposition

- Nature and Hagrid

- The Symbolism of the Shack on the Rock

- The Secrets of the First Smashed Prophecy

- Narcissa Malfoy and Regulus Black and the Downfall of Voldemort

- The Mystery of the Paintings

- Why Harry and not the cat?

- Voldemort and Harry: Connected but Not Alike

- Harry Potter: The Primary Color Issue

- Could Nicolas Flamel be Beedle the Bard?

- I open at the Close: How Sorcerer's Stone anticipated Deathly Hallows

- The Two That "Might Have Been"

- Harry Potter: A coming of age story

- Was Dumbledore really Beedle? - A quibble response

- The Tales of Albus Dumbledore

- House-Elves: A History

- What Would a Boggart turn into if Your Worst Fear was Heights?

- Severus Snape: Shedding some Light on this Dark Soul

- A Theory on the Origins of the House Traits

- J. K. Rowling: Secretly, A U.S. Performance-Car Enthusiast?

- The Defense Against the Dark Arts jinx

- Did Albus Dumbldore sacrifice James and Lily Potter in order to stop Lord Voldemort?

- "The Hallows" - Not So Hallowed

- The Dangers of Stereotypes

- A Theory on the Origins of the House Traits

- Harry Potter: The Primary Color Issue

- Does Ron Weasley really deserve his place in Gryffindor house?

- The Master of Death

- Critical Commentary of King's Cross

- The Pensieve

- The (Figurative) Assault of Harry Potter

- Parental Sacrifice

courtesy of Sebastian

Back to Essays