Posted on 07/16/2007 7:52:04 AM PDT by ParsifalCA
Kirk Honeycutt, writing for the Hollywood Reporter, echoes the complaints of a number of critics that the Harry Potter films are becoming darker as the series progresses. This would be a valid point only if there were a consensus that fans (particularly adolescents) should be protected from the darker things in life (or in fiction that has real-world parallels). And though I think the criticism overwrought – the throngs of people who showed up for midnight screenings of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Wednesday night certainly enjoyed the film – embedded in critiques of this kind is the belief that the hallmark of Harry Potter films should be fun. Inadvertently, such critics fall into the same mindset as that of J.K Rowling’s arch-villain Dolores Umbridge: deny the existence of real, malevolent evil and it can’t hurt you.
Oh, but it can.
In the latest installment in the saga of the boy wizard and his friends from Hogwarts, Rowling and director David Yates have constructed not only a captivating film, but a primer on how to – and how not to – respond to transcendent evil. In other words, this movie is about spiritual warfare. By making allusions to World War II – notably contrasting the rhetorical strategies of Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill – Rowling reveals, in her fiction, timeless principles that must be invoked in battling evil. C.S. Lewis – battle-hardened during the trench warfare of World War I (and no slouch as a fiction writer) also knew a thing or two about fighting dark forces. What both of them could agree on is that spiritual warfare involves recognizing a threat, effectively training for battle, and engaging the enemy. [more]
(Excerpt) Read more at exilestreet.com ...
Oh, geez, you better pull out your flame-retardant suit. There will be a bunch of extreme, extreme fundies on this thread soon to type about how Harry Potter is leading children down the path to hell. Just look at the Harry Potter thread of last week...
Interesting post.
Don’t worry, us Potter fans can take care of ourselves.:)
One of the last lines in the last movie was from Dumbledore to Harry:
Soon, Harry, you will have to choose between that which is easy and that which is right.
To me, that is anything but a message of evil. That’s a message about the way life is. Even now, Congress should heed that message and choose that which is right. We all should.
Fire retardant suit is on!
The politician who refuse to see the evil in front of their eyes, and who also attack those who see the evil, via the press.
There is a heck of a lot of Edmund Burke in that movie.
Oh, I agree with you, but I’m still checking over my asbestos suit from last week to make sure that it doesn’t need any repairs after dealing with last week’s “Harry Potter is from Satan” crowd. :-)
He’s certainly right about the response of the critics. Ever since the second movie, there’s been an easy template that the reviewers use: “This one is darker than the last one”.
We’ll see if there is a battle to be joined. =)
I’m a “fundie” and a Harry Potter fan. I think it unfortunate that she called the magic users witches... a fair number of people get no further than that. They have excellent moral principles in places, but fail in one respect: in the early stories, Harry seldom pays a price for breaking the rules. You find out later that the rules were an illusion that was put in place with every expectation that he would break them. Rowling shows that magic, as with any ability in life, it not inherently good or evil. The wielder of the magic determines that.
This is unlike the books that begin with The Golden Compass. This series starts off all wonderful child-like fun and ends with God being the evil enemy of Man as well as being an ineffective Spirit housed in glass to keep the wind from disassembling Him. Of the two, I would think the latter series is better geared to take people down a path that might harm them in the end. Of course the final book that reveals this is the award winning one.
yeah, i don’t get that. my aunt’s like that. all “harry potter is the devil” but she’s the one who gave both my first copy of chronicals of narnia, as well as LotR. not to mention she has a couple fairies tattooed on her.
CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien invented worlds in which magic worked. Both were good Christians, and very focused on the struggle between Good and Evil. JK Rowling is very much in this tradition.
Rowling, I would say, is not a great writer. But she does excel at plotting, and I think she understands characterization and morality quite well. In terms of the popular culture that children are exposed to today, she is hardly a bad influence.
I’ve long noted that many parents engage in a dangerous psychological ploy to prevent their children being exposed to *knowledge* of things they, the parents, consider “bad”, such as violence, competition, death, tyranny, crime, and evil.
Except for the very few children who are psychologically defective, most realize they are being shielded, and it creates in them a neurotic and uncontrollable fear of those things they are being shielded from. They become attracted to that which their parents refuse to allow them to confront.
This can cause deep morbidity, depression, and obsessive behavior in those children.
The parents belong to what I have coined “The Cult of Nice”, and unless their children can evade the parents efforts, and learn the truth, many are condemned to unhealthy and bizarre, even self-destructive behavior.
The most frequent symptom of such accumulated terror in children can be seen in those that become “gothic” in their dress and behavior. They are so frightened by what the adults around them never discuss that it becomes the focus of much of their lives.
The difference between a reasoned fear and an unreasonable fear is that the former have boundaries that can be taken into account; but the latter overwhelms by having endless possibilities.
For example, if you go into a room in your house and see an end table with a strange gun on it, you might have a reasoned fear of the gun. But you know the rules of guns, that it generally has to be fired by someone, and if the barrel isn’t pointed at you, you are generally safe.
It may make you a little fearful, but you probably won’t panic just seeing it sit there.
However, an unknown fear with no parameters can be far more intimidating. Say you enter an unknown room that is very dark inside. The door closes behind you and you hear it lock. Then you hear the loud growl of a large, but unknown animal in the room. That can be very scary, because you have no idea what to do, or what you can do. Acting or not acting could be just as dangerous.
What these children face is the latter, far more scary than something “bad” where at least they know the rules and how to avoid it.
And this brings up the rationale of the “Cult of Nice” parents: they think that if their children are *exposed* to, or *learn* about “bad” things, that they will become “bad” themselves. In fact, the vast majority of children, once they learn about “bad” things, will tend to avoid them, unless other motivations come into play.
Knowing about evil is *not* the same as being evil.
My whole family, including myself, of course, are fairly ranked toward the fundamental end of the Christian spectrum and we all love this series. Books and Movies.
We’ll wait outside with the crowds for the midnight release of the books. Each of the movies have been full extended family events.
The magic aspect of the books is no more offensive than old childhood fairy tales.
Harry and his crew stand up against evil, even when it appears impossible to succeed or survive. To me, the books are all about honor, integrity and loyalty.
Maybe not from Satan but whoever had the idea of showing boys (and now young men) riding on broomsticks should be severely chastised. Our kids are already facing enough challenges to their gender roles.
That is exactly what I was thinking. I think the Order of the Phoenix actually begins with a "terrorist attack" by Voldemort on a London bus, or train (can't remember, it's been awhile since I read it.)
But the parallels are right on to today's WOT, which is one rock-solid reason why I'd have my kids read these books (if I had kids). Sure, magic isn't real, but the situations in these books are very close to reality.
I’m taking my 7 year old boy next weekend to see it. It will be a nice change from having to listen to him talk about Star Wars all the time...
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