What do protests about Harry Potter books teach us?
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2017 06:00 AM EST
On Monday, June 26, 2017, Harry James Potter the worlds most famous wizard will celebrate his 20th birthday. His many fans will likely mark the occasion by rereading a favorite Harry Potter novel or rewatching one of the blockbuster films. Some may even raise a butterbeer toast in Harrys honor at one of three Harry Potter-themed amusement parks.
But not everyone will be celebrating Harrys big day. In fact, a vocal group of Christians usually identified as Bible-believing or fundamentalist Christians has been resistant to Harrys charms from the start. Members of this community, who believe the Bible to be literal truth, campaigned vigorously to keep J.K. Rowlings best-selling novels out of classrooms and libraries. They even staged public book burnings across the country, at which children and parents were invited to cast Rowlings books into the flames. These fiery spectacles garnered widespread media coverage, sparking reactions ranging from bemusement to outrage.
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Most readers of Rowlings novel including many Christian readers interpret the characters tutelage in spells and potions as harmless fantasy, or as metaphors for the development of wisdom and knowledge. Similarly, they read incidents in which Harry and his friends disobey adults or make questionable choices as opportunities for characters and readers alike to learn important lessons and begin to develop their own moral and ethical codes.
For some fundamentalist Christians, however, Harrys magical exploits pose an active danger. According to them, Hogwarts teaches the kinds of witchcraft explicitly condemned as punishable by death and damnation in the biblical books of Deuteronomy and Exodus. They believe the books must be banned even burned because their positive portrayal of magic is likely to attract unsuspecting children to real-world witchcraft.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/06/27/what-do-protests-about-harry-potter-books-teach-us_partner-2/
I've read Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'. I didn't turn into a vampire.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)More people are propagandized by the internet than any books about fantasy.
Oh my God. I forgot about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. That warped me for good period I'll never recover.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)books faster than fundies can burn them.
Aristus
(66,075 posts)At least she says she is; she leans further and further to the left all the time, God bless her (literally...)
And she rolls her eyes every time the subject of fundamentalist objection to the Harry Potter books comes up. She loves them, has read all of them at least three times through, and has seen all of the movies. Heck, next month, I'm taking her to see "Harry Potter And The Sorceror's Stone" with the Seattle Symphony playing the musical score live.
She has pretty much turned her back on the church community she grew up with, due to their idiocy, provincialism, narrow-mindedness, and Trump-support.
That's why I liked it when the reporter wrote
"Most readers of Rowlings novel including many Christian readers interpret the characters tutelage in spells and potions as harmless fantasy, or as metaphors for the development of wisdom and knowledge."
hatrack
(59,439 posts)Last edited Wed Jun 28, 2017, 12:45 PM - Edit history (1)
Maybe they're worried about Harry Potter because it's an entertaining, page-turning and imaginative fantasy world, unlike the parched wasteland of begats and poorly reported, dimly remembered Bronze Age tribal war stories that make up their fantasy world?
Maybe they're worried about Harry Potter because the series might encourage their kids to read?
Maybe they're worried because reading leads to more reading, and in many cases leads to thinking?