Sounds like a fun place.
Posted on 11/02/2001 12:32:40 PM PST by Brookhaven
Try and look at it from the Christian perspective. Christians belive the spirit world is real. That is a standard doctrine that is shared by every denomination I can think of, from the most conservative to the most liberal. Christians don't believe in magic per se (that you can say a few words and change the physical world.)
What they believe is that when a person tries to perform actual magic, a spirit (from the spiritual world) actually carries out the actions called for by the spell and thus decieves the person into thinking they have some magic power.
The spirit that actually performs the action is a fallen angel (aka demon). There are plenty of Biblical warnings against having anything to do with fallen angels and magic, and that is where the Christian objection comes from.
Some very liberal denomnations don't belived in literal demons, but they are a very, very small minority of Christians.
If you don't believe in a spiritual world, that's your business. But try and put youself in the Christian's shoes for a moment to understand where they are comming from.
BooHoo... That's a really scary world. Somehow compareable to the world of little children who fear those monsters under their beds.
Pratchett has some really biting political satire and humor, while Rowling is definitely writing more superficially for the younger set.
I never would have thought to compare the two, other than the authors being the same nationality.
Cheers Tony
When will you ever learn to tell the truth?
;-)
Slightly disturbing being good is not enough and it seems that all the Jews as well as Muslims are on their way to hell.
Tony
So do I. Harry Potter's archenemy IS the evil Voldemort, and he defeats him in every book. A classical Good vs Evil battle. I read all the HP books before giving them to my kid. The last one was a little too scary for my taste (I wouldn't recommend it to a child under 12), but Voldemort is (once again) defeated. My favorite is "HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban".
When choosing some feature of popular culture to criticize, I suggest the social conservative move and speak with caution. It is too easy to be portrayed as a petulent crank. Save your energy for better battles, like the garbage that is on our nightly sitcoms.
Keep your perspective, if you would strive to have an inflence on the culture. The Potter books surely do have some accoutrements of the occult, but so do the Arthurian legends and most of science fiction and fantasy. Fairy tales wouldn't be much fun without magic, spells, witches, etc. There are several "appoved" books I read as a child about child-witches being apprenticed by other witches, but no book so commercially popular as the Potter books.
As a former reading teacher, I can attest to the value of a child keeping his eyeballs moving across the words of a page. This increases reading fluidity and skill, even when the quality of what he is reading is negligible. I understand how heartened librarians can be when a series of books, books with challenging vocabulary, becomes popular to children.
In sum, don't waste your resources on the Potter series.
And then Harry heard it. ". . . rip . . . tear . . . kill . . ."
It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice he had heard in Lockhart's office.
He stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall, listening with all his might, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway.
"Harry, what're you -?"
"It's that voice again - shut up a minute -"
". . . soo hungry . . . for so long . . ."
"Listen!" said Harry urgently, and Ron and Hermione froze, watching him.
". . . kill . . . time to kill . . ."
The voice was growing fainter. Harry was sure it was moving away - moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped him as he stared at the dark ceiling; how could it be moving upward? Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didn't matter?
"This way," he shouted, and he began to run, up the stairs, into the entrance hall. It was no good hoping to hear anything here, the babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great Hall. Harry sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, Ron and Hermione clattering behind him.
"Harry, what're we -"
"SHH!"
Harry strained his ears. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, he heard the voice: ". . . I smell blood. . . . I SMELL BLOOD!"
His stomach lurched -
"It's going to kill someone!" he shouted, and ignoring Ron's and Hermione's bewildered faces, he ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over his own pounding footsteps -
Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage.
"Harry, what was that all about?" said Ron, wiping sweat off his face. "I couldn't hear anything. . . ."
But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor.
"Look!"
Something was shining on the wall ahead. They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches. the chamber of secrets has been opened. enemies of the heir, beware.
"What's that thing - hanging underneath?" said Ron, a slight quiver in his voice.
As they edged nearer, Harry almost slipped - there was a large puddle of water on the floor; Ron and Hermione grabbed him, and they inched toward the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. All three of them realized what it was at once, and leapt backward with a splash.
Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.
For a few seconds, they didn't move. Then Ron said, "Let's get out of here."
"Shouldn't we try and help -" Harry began awkwardly.
"Trust me," said Ron. "We don't want to be found here."
But it was too late. A rumble, as though of distant thunder, told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.
The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.
Then someone shouted through the quiet.
"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"
It was Draco Malfoy. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat.
http://www.harrypotterfans.net/books/book2excerpt.html
For instance, one of the kids in the book finds out he is a wizard after his uncle drops him out a window and he bounces down the street. The "magic" in the book is often so unrealistic that only a total moron would attribute it to reality. We are a Christian household and love the books and are anxiously awaiting the movie in a couple of weeks.
Since many chicken littles are busy condemning the Harry Potter series, I would like to ask if the following should be banned/burned?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
King Arthur
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Matilda
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Casper meets Wendy
Any Bugs Bunny with the witch with the hairpins
Peter Pan
A Wrinkle in Time
Cinderella
The Lord of the Rings
The list I have made above is not at all comprehensive, but I hope some people will get the point. Fantasy is just that, and helps expand children's imagination. As long as parents act like parents and monitor and discuss the books that your children read, there is little danger that they will attempt to turn their friends into toads. Could we please lighten up before we turn freerepublic into salemwitchtrial.com?
Where's the picture from?
According to some of the more religious sites I have visited.
What confuses me is how Star Trek has got away with it, after all isn’t the whole population of earth united under a one world government called the federation.
Cheers Tony
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