That’s how I feel, yeah.
Mind you, I suppose some other books about magic-using youths could come along that strike me as truly malevolent. But the HP books aren’t among them. One huge saving grace to the HP books is the leitmotif of self-sacrifice, including the sacrifice of one’s very life, to save others. (As others have pointed out, this is a very good and even Christian-by-accident motif by Rowling.) It is hard for me to accept the argument that a book teaching such concepts is evil.
“One huge saving grace to the HP books is the leitmotif of self-sacrifice, including the sacrifice of one’s very life, to save others. (As others have pointed out, this is a very good and even Christian-by-accident motif by Rowling.) It is hard for me to accept the argument that a book teaching such concepts is evil.”
By itself, teaching self-sacrifice isn’t evil (unless you’re an objectivist :)
But HP combines that with the message that “Really cool kids practice magic and summon demons.” My kids don’t get to read that message.
Das Kapital taught about making poor people more prosperous. Does that make a children’s adaptation called “Cool Kids are Communists!” good reading material for your kids?
One, two, or a hundred good ideas don’t make up for marketing evil in kids books.