Comments | hp_essays: Love as currency in Harry Potter

jazzypom in hp_essays

Love as currency in Harry Potter

Sep 11, 2006 15:19

Comments 26

Right on! anonymous September 11 2006, 16:26:51 UTC

The whole story is about Love overcoming Death. What could be more Christian than that?

Quite! jazzypom September 11 2006, 17:30:39 UTC

Thank you very much for reading. It's stange to see how people dismiss the series as nothing but witchcraft, when it's a whole lot more.

sambethe September 11 2006, 17:25:47 UTC

This was an enjoyable read. Thanks for posting it.

The series has always struck me as one about love, loyalty and family - both the one you are born with and the one you collect along the way.

Sometimes love is clear and true, a saturation of the purest hue, but more times than not, the erotic love expressed in Half Blood Prince is downright disturbing.

I think she does a good job of showing both the good and the disturbing sides of most of the forms of love you discussed. I also think the series manages to show how these different forms can blur together or change depending on what is happening between two characters.

Thanks for reading! jazzypom September 11 2006, 17:29:30 UTC

I think she does a good job of showing both the good and the disturbing sides of most of the forms of love you discussed.

Yes, she does. It's definately something that sings of the page, which is why I'm gobsmacked that armarth (sp) dismisses the series outright.

The books aren't really about the magic (although a few witches that I've been acquainted with do praise Rowling's depiction of pratical magic), but its the love that makes the series.

(The comment has been removed)

Fair enough jazzypom September 11 2006, 21:41:00 UTC

I can't fault your argument. In terms of Harry, I'm hesistant to damn him, in the sense that the series is not finished as yet. He's self-centred, true, and certain actions that he's exercised has been questionable, but (I'm loathe to say it), he's a teenage boy that needs to be knocked around somemore ( ... )

forgive the spelling errors, please jazzypom September 11 2006, 21:42:53 UTC

my hands type faster than my brain!

Re: Fair enough focusf1 September 11 2006, 23:02:29 UTC

I think people forget that we are reading about CHILDREN through a CHILD's eyes.

The series started off very catered to children and I think adults find that a difficult adjustment to read from that point of view.

Thread 10

felicitys_mind September 11 2006, 22:53:24 UTC

FYI--As Leaky Cauldron is reporting, the remarks Rev. Gabriele Amorth supposedly made last week were pulled from an interview he gave in 2001 and included in a recent article as if he had just spoken them ( ... )

I see jazzypom September 11 2006, 23:10:32 UTC

To be fair, I've had my concerns re: the Harry Potter series, and my meta over the years has shown that. I do understand a parent's concerns about various things in Harry Potter, and as a minority, I've even expressed concerns with interracial relationships and how they are treated ( ... )

Re: I see felicitys_mind September 14 2006, 15:33:33 UTC

In a way, the whole notion of 'magic' and 'christianity' are essentially mutually non-exclusive terms in terms of the christian faith.

Randall Garrett and Katherine Kurtz have both written fiction in which magic and Christianity co-exist.

Part 1... blpurdom September 11 2006, 22:58:31 UTC

You have some good points here about love being a driving force in the series and the Vatican rather spectacularly missing that point, but I have more than one problem with this analysis. First, I don't believe that it is useful at all to go on ad infinitum about the different types of love in the HP series. JK Rowling has never shown that she cares at all about distinctions between types of love and there is no evidence that this sort of analysis adds anything to understanding the books ( ... )