Comments | terrylj: HP link and kidstory

terrylj

HP link and kidstory

Jan 12, 2005 13:02

Firstly, this essay by hesychasm is awesome and you really need to read it if you're an HP fan. If you're not, try reading it anyway, to see why others like it. (WARNING: Language.)

Also: When someone said that some other book was "Harry Potter for grown-ups", Stephen King replied, "No. Harry Potter is Harry Potter for grown-ups ( Read more... )

harry potter, danae

Comments 6

masteralida January 12 2005, 19:54:25 UTC

To this day, I'm hurt because a friend railed on me for not only letting my daughter read HP, but for (gasp) taking her to the movies! This same person, no longer a friend, now happily reads HP and adores Ron Weasley... haven't had a real apology yet, but I'm not holding my breath ;-) Apparently, I was a "bad Christian" for letting my daughter get into "that stuff". I guess I shouldn't tell her about the flight of dragons we're having painted on her bedroom walls?

As a Christian, let me tell you how I feel about that cross-thing... Crosses are big. Crosses can be hollow. Crosses like that can conceal things, that's a simple fact and they need to suck it up and get on with their lives. It's not like they're not allowed to have a representation of a cross there... geeeez. It's people like that I want to smack and ask if they've had a reality-check at any point in their lifetime.

Oh, and really? Who wants to be lugging a cross around in that crowd anyhow? ;-)

terrylj January 12 2005, 20:07:32 UTC

My dad gets on the "anti-HP" bandwagon regularly. He's never read the books, never seen the movies, but he's positive that I am exposing my kids to devil-possession because the books promote witchcraft. He knows this because somebody told him. *eyeroll* Have any of the anti-HP Christians ever watched Mary Poppins? Do they not spot all the magic in that movie?

Re dragons: my mother went through a minor spasm when I read the Dragonriders of Pern series as a teenager. My aunt had told her that there were kids all into witchcraft and demons and stuff who were getting it all from some type of "Dragon" series of books. Fortunately, my mom was just sane enough to trust me to have enough common sense about what I read, and she dropped it quickly ( ... )

sunbrae January 12 2005, 20:53:20 UTC

Mmmmm, linky goodness.

If my 8-year-old can see that HP can be viewed as a good-vs-evil allegory (and of course there's more to it than that, but unfortunately not much else comes through in the movie), why can't any of the grown-up whacko-people see that?

Your daughter is clearly brilliant.

terrylj January 12 2005, 20:54:42 UTC

Your daughter is clearly brilliant.

Well, of course. :D

mollyringle January 12 2005, 23:05:19 UTC

Glad you feel this way, and can enjoy the HP series w/ your kiddos. One of my sisters, a Christian, will not let her kids read or watch HP, as she's heard it's evil/Satanic/etc. Yet LOTR is okay, as are most violent action movies. They can't celebrate Halloween, though, because that is Satanic too. I don't try to reason with her on the subject, but it does kinda make me want to beat my head against a brick wall. :)

terrylj January 13 2005, 00:11:50 UTC

Sometimes I really do feel that Christian=check your one remaining brain cell at the door. And I AM Christian. I am the really strict-style "we-don't-believe-in-ANYTHING" peanut-brittle-selling type of Christian.

Yeesh. Here's my anti-the-anti-Halloween-people rant if you're interested:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/terrylj/64817.html

It's kinda long.

Yeah, my favorites are the ones who say, "We're Christian, we don't watch/read that kind of stuff!" Meanwhile, they're letting their kids watch prime-time network TV and play the most gory video games ever.