Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: JenB

Not yet. ;-)

(later)


460 posted on 07/13/2005 2:15:45 PM PDT by Corin Stormhands (Join the Hobbit Hole Troop Support - http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 458 | View Replies ]


To: Corin Stormhands; JenB

When I read a lot of the argument for and against Harry Potter, LoTR, etc that end up in arguments about the occult, I find myself torn...

On the one hand, we could argue that there is good to be learned from them in that there is virtue and strength, and good and evil, and that the good guys win, etc.... Certainly we all believe that there's worth in the study of the well-drawn characters of these books.

But the other part of me thinks when talking to someone who wants to talk about the occultish and unChristian ethos of these books, we shouldn't get into that argument because it's a trap. The thing to defend here, is the worth or value in FICTION. The right to write and read stories that are totally made up. These stories are fiction and we would be foolish to try to learn anything from them.

These are imaginary stories and tales where nothing has to be true, nothing has to be possible in this world, and the limitations of religion and science don't apply in these worlds. The fun in the fantasy, if you will, is imagining what might happen in a world unlimited by what we know in our own.

Of course, thinking people can compare and contrast life in those worlds with our own. We can find things in common or things to like about them, we might even find inspiration in them. But the inspiration only works if the ideas we take from the story work in our world. Some do, like loyalty or honesty, some dont... like magic. But then we get into the trap again. I'd prefer to defend fiction's right to not be real.


465 posted on 07/13/2005 3:03:45 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 460 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson