Jk is a Christian, so directly or indirectly she associates the story with Christian events, such as x-mass gifts, eastern break and so on..
Then, the Jewish and the Muslim religion does not have such mythology as the Christianity has, inherited from the old Greek, Celt, German, Slavic, and Saxon old religion. This very same mythology is present throughout the books, be it in legends, myths, creatures or characters. Harry Potter is a very European product in that sense. I'm sure that it’s not meant to underestimate other nations, religions or groups. But writing, requires sinking deep in your own roots sometimes to find words for the feelings you want to put on paper
And to deny that would be the same if one says that Aladin is not a muslim product, or arabic.
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Doesn't mean she ties everything that happens with the book with Christianity. I celebrate Christmas and Easter and Hanukkah and everything else but doesn't really mean much to me.
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I really don't know why Harry Potter is such a big problem to Christians. I mean, isn't the moral of the story the same as the bible? Good against evil? What's wrong with that?
You are right, it shouldn't be a problem but there are fanatics who "protect the faith" by attacking others. The very same thing the bible preaches against
She wasn't preaching a sermon as you put it though. She said she regarded C.S Lewis as a mentor, they never actually met by the way, and from all I can see, through use of Christian-Western themes, by use of religous symbolisn and the explicit morality play of Chamber of Secrets, she is attempting to emualte Inkling literature; good books for children with values needed for a good life.
It makes the religous controversy of the "magic" seem so damn ironic.
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What's even more ironic is most stories and movies and anything kids watch or read try and make the kids believe in magic. A form of hope of some sort or something.
I never said JKR was preaching a sermon. People take it that way though and I hear about it and it just ruins the books a little.
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But the magic of Harry Potter, and say the magic of, sorry to compare these, Dungeons and Dragons, which I know little about, are vastly different. Notice the difference between the world of Hogwart's and the World of Privet Drive. "Magic" is Harry's escape from a dull world of materialist desires, bleak consumerism and people who read the wrong sort of books*. Magic isn't part of the occult in Harry Potter, instead it's a rejection of materialist values, the kinds of values "Christians" should be rejecting.
Dungeons and Dragons is simply about bashing goblins heads in with large clubs and dissolving them with magic. It teaches nothing, but instead acts as a pure escape. While it may not be a kids book per se, there are children's books out there that embellish materialism. Those are the "wrong kinds of books" CS Lewis talks about and which Rowling edifies in the Chamber of Secrets; Tom Riddle's diary.
What Rowling excels at is disguising a moral tale in a teenage fantasty series, with the same engaging action as Dunegons and Dragons or a similar thing.
*Compare Dudley with Eustece Scrubb from one of the Narnia books, forgetton which one.
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Sorry. It may be because it is 4 in the morning when I'm reading this, but all I got out of it is materialism is bad and both Lewis and Rowling show disproving it by writing against it in their books. Is that what you were saying?
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Ok, so if that's all she is trying to get out why do people have to tie it with Christianity? Why can't it just be people against materialism because they don't like the throught of it.
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And we'll also notice that JK Rowling has been very careful NOT to express any religious views, either in public or through her books.
When C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, it was extremely clear that the books were a direct allegory to biblicial people. Aslan equaled Jesus, Edmund equaled the world of sinners, the White Witch equaled the devil, etc. He was very open about his faith, in fact, he published many theological works. He was not a person who separated those two things. Whether or not readers take The Chronicles as Christian or not is still up to them; there's certainly no C.S. Lewis standing over their shoulders, forcing them to think one way or another.
However, JK Rowling, I believe, is more trying to instill general virtues and values into the world, some of which happen to correspond with religious doctrine. Some of them don't.
I would argue that the moral of Harry Potter is not "Good v. Evil," but rather "Making the right decision instead of the easy one," or, more importantly, "CHOOSING to make the right decision over the easy one.
The bible, certainly, does not have such a simple moral. The bible doesn't even have a moral, in the definition of the word. It is supposed to be a guidebook for Christians to live by.
Sure, if you stretch things far enough, you can make the connections. You could say that Harry equals Jesus, if you wanted to.
But the same thing could be said for horoscopes. You can twist those things every which way until they "fit" what's going on in your life.
I think it's important to remember that JK did not "set out to write a Christian book," as C.S. Lewis did with his Chronicles, and J.R.R. Tolkein did with his Lord of the Rings (an indirect allegory, where the biblical characters show up in more than on LotR character, sort of like flashes).
So... yes. I don't really have a good way to end this...
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Jul 12th, 2007 09:16 PM
