Posted on 07/13/2007 5:24:05 AM PDT by paltz
If she taught in the English department of the University of Virginia in the 60s and early 70s, her job would be much easier. To those guys, every book was a Christian allegory, if you read at the anagogic level. Too much hermaneutics too soon.
You want to talk evil, I mean real, pure, Elemental Evil? Umbridge, the “teacher” in the latest movie. And it’s clearly an allegory for the state of education in both England and America, as well as a cloaked warning about how Evil infiltrates us.
Presented for your approval: Delores Umbridge, late of Hogwart’s Academy. Brought in at the behest of the Council of Magic, she supplants Dumbledore, and the curriculum changes radically. Defense Against the Dark Arts class, designed to make the next generation of magic-users well informed about the nature of Evil and how it attacks, to give them the practical knowledge of self-defense, is suddenly entirely book learning without any practical practice. Magic deemed “too dangerous” to the children by the State is suddenly off limits. Under her rule, Harry Potter, who KNOWS that the ancient evil is rising, is ridiculed and made to look foolish; like Churchill, his warnings about a very real and horrible danger are brushed aside and ignored. There is every indication to any first-year wizard that she is in the pocket of the Dark Side, actively working to weaken any challenge to Voltemort’s return.
Take Harry as George Bush, warning the West that an evil worse than Hitler is preparing to attack. Take Umbridge as Neville Chamberlain, working to lull everyone back to sleep, sleep, sleep, if not out right working for Hitler. Hers is the condescending, big-government evil of “we know better than you do, little man. Just let us handle it.” Hers is the touchy-feely “If we just put our hands over our eyes, maybe the Big Bad Islamic Terrorists will like us and go away.”
And do you know that in the MSN review of this latest movie, the reviewer had the brass buttons to label Umbridge as “McCarthyian”? Can you conceive of this? Liberals so entrenched, so blinded by their own limited, tiny point-of-view that when greeted with Delores Umbridge, the bleak staring face of fascist totalitarianism, that they don’t see Big Brother? Oh no, they see their poor socialist comrades of the last century, hounded out of jobs in the entertainment industry by old frothing-mouthed Joe McCarthy!
Ugh, it’s a freaking popular series of books people, it’s not the downfall of Christianity. Why not outlaw any book that isn’t the bible. Grow up already.
*note* I’m not bashing you paltz, just the concept of the article you posted.
I have to ask if the series’ underlying moral and spiritual themes were the author’s intent, or just perceived/interpreted by those that read it?
They do NOT compare with Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, Narnia (or even the Space Trilogy) by CS Lewis, etc.
That people in their mid-teens, and adults, are reading and enjoying this series for simpletons, speaks to the deterioration of literacy of the public.
But they are reading, indeed. How many children do you think start off with “Potter” and graduate to more mature fare? A fair lot, I’d say...
I saw a lot of parallels to the war on terror in this movie. My father who I watched the movie with mentioned it as well walking out at the end.
The ministry of magic leaders taking the democrat liberal denial approach of how to deal with it. Just pretend Voldemort and the death eaters doesn’t exist, and it won’t exist. Throw those who try to vocally warn about it under the bus. Character assasinate them in the press.
That whole movie is a lesson about appeasement of terrorist threats, like Nazi Germany or Islamic facists.
Finally an intelligent comment, not an attack.
Did you read the article, or did you assume that the article was bashing the Potter series?
Isn’t that what you accuse bashers of the series of doing?
Said that as the series progresses the books become more dark, and may require guidance. Recommended reading it with the kids.
Our family is catholic, but my sister’s family went evangelical christian when she married her husband whose sister is married to a christian minister. They have a beautiful family and raise their children in a caring, loving home so I don’t have much negative to say about my sister. I love them all very much.
She has banned her kids from reading any of the Harry Potter books or watching the movies because that’s what the church told them. The words I’ve heard from her is that the books contain, “soccery, witchcraft, etc.....”.
But I find it strange at the same time that they enthusiastically allow their children to watch and read the Lord of the Rings, star wars, and Pirates of the Caribean movies, both of which contains massive amounts of the same type of soccery, magic, witchcraft, whatever, in these. The only main difference I see is that in Harry Potter, the main characters are children/young adults.
I find that very strange and have never been able to get a clear answer from my sister on this, so I stopped asking.
I have read the Potter books and enjoy them. I think its really positive thing that in this age where T.V. and video games dominating children’s lives, that these books have gotten millions of children into reading.
I am half afraid to even come on the internet in fear that some git will give it away before I get to read that portion of the book.
I am even afraid to check out the chapter titles.
An astonishing comment, I must say. To get more readable than this series you have to go to the "See Jane run. Run, Jane, run." level. Rowlings is undeniably an outstanding writer of riveting prose. Well, 99.9999999999% of us think so, anyway.
Wow, this is absolute proof that Nancy Brown doesn't have a life. I can't imagine a more trivial issue than whether or not a kid's fiction was "dangerous"
The woman is like Gwinnett county's own Laura Mallory - a complete imbecile (however, unlike mallory she apparently is not also a militant meddling busybody who thinks her own views should be forced on everyone else.
Apparently it is easy to dismiss sales of 300 million+
Yes I read the article. The point of the article is to alleviate the concerns that HP will turn your kids into Satan worshipers.
I didn’t think I had to explain that, but I guess I was wrong.
I flipped through it. Interesting, at any rate, but I don't really read those types of books all too often.
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