A Conversation about Cormoran Strike, Literary Alchemy, and Structural Models for the Ten Book Series

Nick Jeffery and John Granger sat down last weekend to discuss John’s post, The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? They’d talked about this subject briefly before John had written it up and he came to rather different conclusions in the process of writing and preparing slides for the post, all of which are rolled out in this inquisition.

The questions Nick asked are below after the links in the post in case you want to follow up on what is said above about literary alchemy, the sequence of colors and symbols, and about the structural models for understanding the Strike series, especially Extended Play and Tetractys Theory.

Enjoy!

Links for Follow-Up and Easy Reference: Strike Alchemy

* Literary Alchemy – A Primer for Those Interested in J. K. Rowling’s Artistry

* ‘Literary Alchemy’ Pillar Post

* Metallurgical, Literary, and Psychological Alchemy: Is Jung a Good Guide for Understanding J. K. Rowling’s Artistry and Meaning?

* The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us?

* , ‘The Connection of Ring Composition and Literary Alchemy in the Layout of the Seven Book Harry Potter Series.’ (William Sprague)

* ‘Parallel Series Idea’ Pillar Post

* Robin Ellacott and Reverse Alchemy: Transformation Through the First Three Strike Texts (Louise Freeman)

* ‘Troubled Blood: Strike’s Transformation’

* ‘Water, water everywhere: Baptism, baths, rivers, rain and showers as unifying themes in The Running Grave’ (Louise Freeman)

Seven Structural Theories for Strike Ten Book Series

* (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).

Tetractys Theory in Depth:

* Alastair Fowler’s Triumphal Forms

* 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]

* See The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? for excerpts from and discussion of each.

* The Tetraktys Tarot Card Spread!

The Charts!

The Ten Questions and John’s Answers (notes!)

1. So, John, you finally got the alchemy post you promised an age ago; what was the hold-up?

· Tried to put too much into the posts…

· Changed my mind several times as I was writing them!

· had to relearn Tetractys ideas!

2. You start off this Alchemy of Hallmarked Man discussion with a review of the literary alchemy of the first three Harry Potter novels; why did you have to reach that far back?

· Because of the Parallel Series Idea, not alchemy at all, oddly enough.

· Rowling seems to be writing Strike decalogy in parallel with Potter to include its alchemical sequences so I reviewed the ‘Reverse Alchemy’ theory, how that worked for Strikes 1-3 but broke down at 6 and 7

· To get Hallmarked Man‘s alchemical stage right, I wanted to figure out why Ink Black Heart and Running Grave weren’t the alchemical stages we’d expect

3. Some of our listeners may not have the literary alchemy three stages firmly in mind; can you go over what they are and why they’re important in Rowling Studies?

· Black, White, Red stages: what each represents in metallurgical and literary alchemy;

· Rowling’s one interview comment about alchemy, her PotterMore notes about colors;

· Rowling’s use in Harry Potter‘s last three books, fourth book, and first three books;

· Galbraith’s use in Strike series’ first three books, fifth book, and six and seven;

· Ward on astrology in CSL’s Narniad (’Donegality’); similar use of alchemy in Rowling-Galbraith

4. So the alchemical parallelism seemed to stop at Ink Black Heart but the other correspondences continued?

· That’s right, the first seven books paralleled their Harry Potter apposite numbers in structure, plot points, and some symbolism but the last two broke from the alchemical pattern;

· I decided that the best place to look for a way that the new pattern could be explained would be looking at the seven theories about the Strike-Ellacott series structure;

· If a specific structure had a very clear idea about the alchemical stage sequencing in the books, then I’d have a real head-start in what to look for in Hallmarked Man.

5. The Seven theories -- last time we talked it was six! Remind me what they are and what each says about the alchemy...

· No structure, Big Ring/Double Wedding Band, Septology and trilogy combo, Extended Play, Corona Sonnet, Tetractys, and Celtic Cross (see links above!);

· Only Extended Play and Tetractys theories had clear theories about the alchemy; and

· Oddly enough, they both explained why Hallmarked Man had to be considered an albedo or white novel even though they disagreed about what Ink Black Heart and Running Grave were...

6. We’ve got slides here that help make what seems hopelessly nerdy something you can see. We’ll start way back with the ring structure of The Harry Potter series and work our way toward Evan Willis’ Tetractys ideas.

· Harry Potter series, Sprague/Thacker ‘Reverse Alchemy:’ Slides 1 and 2 (see above)

7. And via the Parallel Series Idea we should see those same relationships that were found in the Potter books in the Strike series?

· Extended Play idea: Slides 3 and 4 (see above)

· Where it breaks down -- Running Grave like Troubled Blood an “aquatic Nigredo“

8. And you think the Tetractys idea is better. We really need to have Evan on the show to talk about where he learned about this figure, its use in English literature prior to Rowling, and why he thinks Rowling is writing her second ten book series. Can you summarize his two Hogwarts Professor posts on this subject and why Rowling Readers will benefit from learning about this ancient ten point peg board model?

· See Tetractys pyramid slides above;

· Four levels: meaning of monad, dyad, triad, quaternity symbolism; (first Evan Willis post above)

· Pyramid to climb, something akin to four levels of reading and knowledge; [Fowler, Triumphal Forms]

· Benefit to Rowling Readers: Willis thinks the second Quaternion parallels Rowling’s first -- and the differences explain the alchemical stage of Running Grave;

· It also was used to predict three things about Hallmarked Man: it was all about silver, it would be an albedo or White stage novel, and it would parallel The Ickabog

9. Three bullseyes with a special merit badge for figuring out the silver part before the title was announced. Let’s go to the Tetractys slides for the Potter and Strike series:

· All above!

10. Both the Extended Play and Tetractys theories, then, have Hallmarked Man as an albedo. How will that influence your examination of Strike 8 for its alchemical symbols and sequences as well as your interpretation of them?

· I’ll be looking for the alchemical signatures of the second stage, leukosis or the ‘whitening,’

· I’ll be looking for evidence that contradicts the albedo dyad idea, and

· I’ll be researching if alchemical ideas, as in, say, incest, ‘Jason and the Medea,’ and ‘dog and b***h,’ are best read as white stage tokens