Sunday, July 31, 2005

NYT found someone who likes Harry Potter

And, if you read all the hype about the present pope warning about HP, I followed the links...turns out that in a 1998 interview (In German HERE...can't find it in English) with someone else, a sociologist named Gabriele Kuby, who claims in a letter to her, that he had voiced some misgivings...

As I told my stepgrandchildren, the "problem" is that it has a worldview where humans, if they use certain manipulations, can get supernatural powers...and Rowlings actually uses spells that are found in witchcraft books in her books...

Now, if you look at Harry as fantasy, "real" like Superman, or Spiderman, then it is a good book, both well written, exciting, and with a world view of good vs evil that allows children to identify with a person similar to themselves who can fight for the good.

But if you see Potter as "reality", it shows a gnosticism world view: Certain people are powerful, the "higher power" means power to manipulate nature and others, the person to be admired is one with such power, and it is okay to manipulate spirits and powers on the other side to get such power yourself.

So there IS a problem...but as my kids always told me: MOM, we know the difference between reality and fantasy, do you think we are stupid?

As for Tolkien, the entire point of LOTR is that humans DO NOT have such power, and if you seek power beyond your fate, you end up being corrupted to evil...

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