So I take it the next movie shall feature ...
??
Posted on 07/18/2005 6:36:15 AM PDT by Kitten Festival
J.K. Rowling is history’s richest-ever author, enjoying an incomparable global readership. With eager consumers lined up at midnight to buy her book on the date of release, she stands as the literary phenomenon of our times.
Rowling resembles no one in popularity so much as Charles Dickens, who inspired excited crowds in America to meet the packet ships from England, calling out for the next installment of the story of Little Nell.
She also rivals Dickens in her ability to create some of the most delightful names in literature. Uriah Heep, meet Severus Snape.
Few authors today write books for adolescent boys, who readily fall away from reading and are lured to the video tube. Daring to write long and complicated plots, Rowling doesn’t underestimate her readers. Her books contain delightful inventions on almost every page: from mail delivery owls to the winged boars (flying pigs) that grace the Hogwarts school gates.
But huge success makes for a big target. Rowling does not lack for critics.
Some are bothered by her abundant use of adverbs, or worry about exposing very young children to the violence in the books’ good vs. evil plot lines. Occasional gross-out humor and love of annoying practical jokes dismay some adults, but meet the literary tastes of the adolescent boy.
By far the most serious criticism of the Harry Potter series comes from those Christians and Jews who believe any mention of magic in literature is completely and automatically off-limits based simply on the Biblical prohibitions against witchcraft.
I respect such critics, but I disagree with them. A few of them go overboard, muttering darkly about bargains with supernatural forces. But many are sincere and intelligent.
There is a basic difference between reading a Harry Potter book and invoking the dark forces. Casting actual spells is one thing. Reading about them while engrossed in a struggle between good and evil on the magical plane of childrens’ literature is quite another.
Magic has become a literary convention of imaginative literature, positing forces fo
Thanks for the explanation - that's much clearer.
You posted while I was mulling my post. Yes, I'm bothered by "the dark side of the Force." It's more Manichean or Gnostic than Christian. Fortunately, it's vague enough to slip by most people without much effect. I don't think the intent is malign, as with Pullman.
Perfect! Sadly, for most people in our current society the world of Harry Potter, and it's ongoing struggle of good against evil is a major step up.
It will be a few steps along that walk for not a few...
I had to chuckle when I read your post. No, the Force was never meant to be malign, but I will admit, the STAR WARS universe has changed a bit over the years. Die-hard fans (Force Freaks) know all the discrepencies, confusions, and ins and outs of the series' evolution--oft times better than most of the employees at Lucasfilm.
your comment makes no sense to me other than it references the bible... which I didn't make comment on...
In high school I asked one of my teachers who didn't approve of Harry Potter what he thought of The Lord of the Rings. He said it was ok because it was a classic. I asked him if that meant in 50 years Harry Potter would be ok. He said no, but couldn't tell me what the difference was between the two books and the magic in them.
Heh heh. I shudder to think the questions and demands-for-explanations that get thrown your way at Lucasfilm...
My kids think the whole Force thing is silly.
I see it as drawing more from the Oriental philosophies and their condept of balance in the universe (yin and yang and that sort of thing).
It's so cute when they try to think...
So I take it the next movie shall feature ...
??
I tend to agree with Tax-chick. If you took that "dark side of the force" business seriously, it would undermine basic Christian ideas about the nature of God and of good and evil. But I believe most people laugh at it.
The same with Harry Potter. People dress up as witches and wizards to go to the opening, but they do it in the spirit of fun and games, not some dark yearning to practice witchcraft. Kids wield light sabers in the same spirit of fun.
Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online
If I remember correctly, the evil witches die and the good prevails.
And, Dorothy does not use any evil and/or witchcraft.
True?
Again, in the Chonicles of Narnia, good prevails and the children do not ever use evil to prevail.
Potter Ping!! This article (and so far the thread) is FREE OF SPOILERS! So click away....
I think parents have to be discerning. Some children and teens are spiritually unstable, and reading Harry Potter books may lead them into investigating ritual magic seriously. (Someone pointed out on another thread that bookstores are marketing books on witchcraft and even Satanism in conjunction with the H.P. blitz. I noticed some of this myself when the new editions of LOTR were issued, in conjunction with the films.) In my opinion, a young person in this situation should be distracted from any fantasy or magic-related literature, not just Harry Potter.
For me, the point where any fiction becomes a spiritual danger is when the reader wants it to be non-fiction.
The end does not always justify the means.
Thanks for the heads up!
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