Continuing the Harry Potter theme….

this was an assignment promt to “write a letter to someone who does not like Harry Potter/in defense of the books” I had a little bit of fun with it….:)

Dear Bibliophile,

It appalls me that they can continue to release Harry Potter books. That witch JK Rowling is just promoting her Satanism and turning our innocent children on to her occult. How can the publishers allow this catastrophic immorality to go on and what can we do about it?

Sincerely,

Harry Potter is the Antichrist

Dear Antichrist,

I have to disagree with you for several reasons. Number one, JK Rowling is just a regular old human being like the rest of us, albeit a brilliantly intelligent one with a knack for successful and enthralling story telling. But that is the extent of her “witchy powers,” the ability to weave a story so intricately as to appeal to children aged seven to 99. Secondly, there is nothing in the entire Harry Potter series that even hints at Satanism, let alone encourages our young children to practice it. Have you actually read even one Harry Potter book? Yes, there is magic in the books. But that is why they are categorized as “fiction” instead of “non-fiction.” Neither Rowling nor any of her supporters ever claimed that children in London actually receive letters by owl at age 11 that whisk them away to a mysterious boarding school to be taught magic tricks. Rather, Rowling, like so many other fantasy writers, presents the world with a fresh new canvas on which to examine themes like good and evil, friendship, laughter, justice, self sacrifice and death. The magic is that she is such a good storyteller that we hardly notice we are learning a thing until it is all over. This point also refutes the argument you may have that fantasy literature causes our children to loose touch with reality. When you finish a Harry Potter book, you are not left with a confusion as to what is real and what is not, but rather, you are left with profound knowledge and lessons to help you deal with the very real evils in the real world. No, Lord Voldemort and house elves do not exist. But Hitler did, and Stalin did, and Mussolini did. Slavery did exist, and similar evils and people exist today and will exist in the future. By watching Harry grow and learn, you learn along with him. As Harry learns the value of friendship and loyalty, so does the reader. As Harry stands up for what is right, not what is easy, the reader learns to do the same. As Hermione stands up for elfish rights and Voldemort ignores them entirely, we learn the value of not mistreating our inferiors. Rowling teaches us to value friendship and family, she teaches us that “it matters not who or what we are born, but who we grow to be.” She teaches us that “it is our choices that matter far more than our abilities” and that “we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” She teaches us to greet death as an old friend, for that is the only way to truly “conquer” it. She teaches us to laugh even in the darkest of times, to never give up, and most importantly, that love is the most powerful magic on earth.

Ephriam Biblow has done a study that proves “contrary to popular belief, frequent trips into the land of faerie make for creative thinkers and problem solvers who are less physically aggressive” (Levine and Mass 153-154). Harry Potter is no different. Rather than instilling a love of Satan, the books instill a love of reading and goodness, which results in knowledgeable, intelligent, savvy, kind adults, and isn’t that what we all want our children to become? Defending fairy tales and fantasy in general, C.S. Lewis famously stated, “Since it is so likely they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage” (156). Many writers have pointed out that fairy tales and fantasy deal with basic good and evil, which are the most universal core human issues. In this way Harry Potter is universal in a way that the Bible can never be. Harry Potter does not demand that you believe. It does not require you to be Christian, Catholic, or Jewish. It extends universally to all humans, believers and non, and in a very clever way, teaches our children how to be good and fight evil, which, after all, is what Christ teaches his followers as well. I cannot see God taking issue with a story that extends a message of general goodness, bravery, and most of all, love to anyone willing to pick up the book. Which, incidentally, is exactly what I suggest you now go do.

Sincerely,

Bibliophile

Mort by Terry Pratchett

thoughts on Terry Pratchett’s Mort

If there was one word to describe Terry Pratchett’s writing, it would have to be “unexpected.” For a book that is titled Mort and is about the apprentice to death, the story is surprisingly upbeat and hilarious. While the plot is rather heavy business: love and death and fate and mortality and wizardry and time and reality all coming head to head, it is also completely and utterly ridiculous. Death deciding he would rather try out being human is what sets the wheels in motion. There is also frequently such a casual irreverence in his tone and in the characters that it catches you off guard aand you have to laugh. More than the ridiculous plot, however, the book is uproariously funny because, I believe (or would hazard a guess anyway, never having met the man) that Terry Pratchett himself is funny. He is witty and clever and most of all, unexpected. He has an uncanny knack for telling a story in such a conversationalist style to make it familiar, but then just when you think you know where he’s going with a a thought, he turns everything upside down on you, and again, all you can do is laugh. Perhaps it is the way in which he makes such ludacris and absurd references and happenings seem perfectly normal, like when Cutwell nonchalantly sits on an old pizza, the description of Albert’s porridge “which led a private life of its own in the depths of its saucepan and ate spoons,” or the descriptive phrase “with all the apparent acceleration of continental drift” that make the book so comical. Or perhaps it is the wry sarcasm that all the characters seem to use on eachother, with comments like “You wouldn’t believe how many horses we don’t get up here.” and “What time is sunset around here?” “We normally manage to fit it in somewhere between day and night.” Pratchett is a pro at subverting expectations (even expectations that you wouldn’t think could be subverted), and it is there that his comical genius lies. Mort is a hilarious book because Pratchett himself is a casually but ridiculously hilarious person. As if his writing style and the language of his characters is not proof enough of that, the description of the author in the very back of the book stands as enough evidence to solidify the case. It reads, “Terry Pratchett lives in England, an island off the coast of France…” and goes on to explain how by writing Discworld novels on an island off the coast of France, Pratchett is full-filling a very circular “Very Strong Anthropic Principle,” and thereby proving “the whole business true. Any questions?” My only question is, which hugely entertianing Terry Pratchett novel should I read next?