Thirteen Things about Harry Potter
This was originally going to be "Thirteen Ignorant Things I've Heard or Read Recently about Harry Potter", but surprisingly, I couldn't come up with thirteen. Or maybe not so surprisingly; the anti-Potter crowd does tend to repeat itself.
At any rate, here instead are seven ignorant criticisms of Harry Potter, followed by six refutations, prompted mainly by having to hear from my mom for the umptieth time the other day why Harry Potter is a tool of the devil and I shouldn't be reading those evil, evil books.
The Critics:
- "JK Rowling is a white witch."
- "The incantations in the book are authentic and children who repeat them may unwittingly summon dark forces."
- "JK Rowling has said that parts of the books are based on her own life experiences. Therefore, she has practiced witchcraft and the magic portrayed in the books is real."
- "Harry Potter has caused a rise in Satanism among children. I read an e-mail that says so."
- "Harry Potter causes children to turn to Wicca and Paganism."
- "Harry Potter teaches moral relativism and that there is no such thing as good and evil."
- "Harry Potter is a Christian allegorical tale along the same lines as The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings."
The Rebuttals:
- Re: #1 - No she's not. And saying so, especially on your own political propaganda machine thinly disguised as religious news program, amounts to slander, Pat Robertson.
- Re: #2 - You mean these "incantations"? Really? I mean, really?! Most of these are regular English words with Latin suffixes attached. They're as made up, nonsensical, and also about as authentic and dangerous as "Bibbity-bobbity-boo." I know singing that song never caused any of my pets to turn into pumpkins or coach drivers any more than shouting "Expelliarmus!" has caused papers to fly out of my co-workers's hands. Not that I've tried to do that.
- Re: #3 - JK Rowling has said that she drew inspiration for aspects of the story from her own life. And I'm sure she couldn't possibly have been talking about the parts of the book that deal with being a teenager, dating, navigating relationships, relating to teachers and parental figures or any of the myriad other parts of the story that have absolutely nothing to do with magic.
- Re: #4 - Er, yeah. You mean this e-mail?
- Re: #5 - This essay, which I've linked here before, gives a much more eloquent, studied and thoughtful rebuttal to that argument than I could ever provide.
- Re: #s 6-7 - These arguments are flip sides of the same extremist coin, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I think stories that depict negative consequences for negative actions, overt punishment for rule-breaking, and have clearly defined "good guys" and "bad guys" can hardly be accused of promoting moral relativism. Does it allow for gray areas? Yes. Because the world is not black and white, and in my opinion, neither are good stories. Should parents leave it up to the books to teach their kids right from wrong? Of course not. That would be some seriously lazy parenting right there. But while these books DO depict clear-cut divisions between right and wrong and good and evil, and DO also promote values such as loyalty, friendship and love, they also don't sugar-coat the dangers faced by Harry and his friends, or the issues normal, non-wizard teenagers face every day. And to say that they're overtly and intentionally Christian in their depictions of good is a stretch too far in the opposite direction. Rowling has said that she was inspired by Lewis and Tolkein, but has never said openly that, like them, she's a Christian and set out to promote Christian values. But that doesn't mean she set out to undermine them, either.
In short: Chillax, people, and stop regurgitating alarmist propaganda about books you clearly have never read, because if you did, then you would know better.
And somebody please pass this list along to my mom. Maybe if she read it in an e-mail, she'll finally believe it.
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Mitchypoo
2. qtpies7
3. exhausted intern
4. Comdy Plus
5. J. Lynne
6. Joely Sue Burkhart
7. Nicholas
8. Annie
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14 comments:
Bravo! Great list!
Thanks!
I don't read them and don't have my kids read them, because not doing isn't going to hurt them! (ok, thats not the reason, but not reading won't hurt them)
I don't buy into propaganda, I don't go there because I really believe its something God wants us to stay away from. Personally. I don't judge others for reading it, though. The book isn't going to cause a problem, there would have to be some underlying problem for that to happen.
I enjoyed some of your links, thanks!
Love the list, JJ - I'm with you! Thanks - Happy TT!
e.i. - Thanks!
qtpies7 - It certainly won't hurt them not to read. I'm not advocating that everybody read the books, just that people stop going around repeating false pronouncements about the content of books that they clearly haven't read. That's one of my biggest pet peeves, and not just in the case of HP--that just happens to be the thing I'm hearing about most often (mostly in my own home, from my own ultra-conservative relatives).
I definitely agree that if the books cause those kinds of problems, there's something deeper going on.
I understand that people have perfectly valid reasons for staying away from these books and keeping their kids away from them, and I respect that choice and those reasons.
Don't have a clue about Harry Potter. Never read one of the books or seen a movie. It does look like you put a lot of work into this so BRAVO. Have a great TT. :)
comedy + - thanks for stopping by!
Love the list! And do you ever wonder why staunch conservative Christians who love the Chronicles of Narnia hate Harry Potter, especially when there are "good" wizards mentioned in the later Chronicles? What about the Wizard of Oz and Glinda the "Good" Witch? -sigh-
I keep my Harry Potter books right by my "Of Mice and Men" and other "controversial" books in my bookshelf. A portal to hell, some may say, while I refer to it as an area of superb literature.
I remember one of my really bad insomnia nights finding some paid programming talk show on where they were talking about the evils of Harry Potter and the preacher on the show was explaining how Harry's "best friend Draco Malfoy" blah blah blah...and I thought to myself that if you are going to criticize the book and argue that it's evil, you should at least have done the research. You can't fight evil unless you know the enemy.
Since I also once had a debate with a Baptist preacher that C.S. Lewis was not a Satanist simply because he wrote The Screwtape Letters, I feel very strongly that people, particularly religious types, shouldn't judge books by their cover descriptions.
And, yes, I'm a Christian. I certainly think that if you think your children are o.k. to read The Chronicles of Narnia, then Harry isn't so bad...just darker with more of a good vs. evil bent and less of a specific Christian symbolology.
That Man (my husband) believes she's a witch too. Sigh. But then he was against my SIL trying to be "vegan" because he thought that meant "pagan." I'm serious. *boggles*
Good list. I am always amazed at the pig-ignorant drivel that so-called intelligent adults come up with when talking about these delightful books.
Valerie - Right?!! My mom loves Gandalf, and every time she starts in on me about HP I remind her of that and ask her what's the difference? That usually hushes her up for a while.
I think the biggest difference is that Tolkien and Lewis were known Christians, and Rowling keeps mum about her beliefs. If she were a Christian and made it known publicly, then she'd probably be a regular guest on TBN and the Christian community would be all over promoting her.
J. Lynne said: I also once had a debate with a Baptist preacher that C.S. Lewis was not a Satanist simply because he wrote The Screwtape Letters
Seriously?! The Screwtape Letters is considered one of the seminal pieces of CHRISTIAN literature of our times, and C.S. Lewis is as well known for his books and essays on Christianity as he is for Chronicles of Narnia. What kind of Hobbit pipe-weed was that preacher smoking?
JSB - That's just... yeah. This stuff has a way of bringing out the irrational in people.
Nicholas - Same here. It just boggles my mind.
Thanks for commenting!
Some mothers should be banned from having email... Well, they can have it, but just don't give your mom your email address. I get the weirdest emails from my mother... alarming, earth-shattering emails that are all some bored individual's original idea of "let's see how far this stupid rumor can go"... then I go look up the retarded rumor and email her back with the truth and request that she pass it back up the line to whoever sent it to her...
I'm a Christian and once she sent me an alarm that the government was going to legislate Christian broadcasting... well, the complaint was 30 years old - so passing it on made everyone look all the more ridiculous... If you're going to make a stand for your faith - make sure you know what you're standing up against so we don't all look stupid! :)
Great list and the variety of opinions in the comments are wonderful - everyone able to respect one another's decision for their own families. So refreshing!
Heh. My mom, for the most part, has stopped printing stuff like that off to show to me since I almost always debunk it for her. She still tries to make me read prophecies people send her, though.
However did Christianity survive the 2,000 years before e-mail?
If you're going to make a stand for your faith - make sure you know what you're standing up against so we don't all look stupid!
That's what I'm saying.
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