Someone posted a rant on a friend's FB page - which she started by saying her kids had never seen the Harry Potter movies. This person on her page went off on a mini rant about how no member of his household would be allowed to either read the books or see the films, alluding to the mistaken fact that it is about Satanism. PAY ATTENTION HERE this person has never cracked a single tome or seen any of the films.
I responded by saying that the themes of the Harry Potter series are friendship, love, good fighting evil and love. I asked the person if they boycotted ALL fantasy genre or just the Potter books. He did not respond.
It got me thinking about things:
The overriding theme of "Potter" is that love will triumph. Harry is saved from death by his mother's love. All of the characters on the "good" side" are motivated by love and even Draco's mother helps Harry in exchange for knowing if Draco is still alive in Hogwarts.
When the Potter books came out, SOME preachers had a FIT ( without reading them BTW) about the "magic" in the books and saying that they were encouraging children to seek Satan ( who must be ROYALLY pissed that he is NOT an actual character the book.)
I wondered about a few things.
Witches are considered evil and in league with the Devil, but Wizards are not. Case in point Merlin, Gandalf and Dr Strange. I didn't see anyone out there protesting Lord Of The Rings or any of the Marvel films. It got me to wondering if this isn't some sort of way to keep women "in their place" After all, witches are powerful beings and if they are equal with their male counterparts well then they MUST be EVIL.
I started to think about all the fantasy genre books I have read that contained magic- if the problem here is that by putting magic "spells" in the story line, we are encouraging something these preachers fear.
Off the top of my head:
Lord of the Rings
Bed-knobs and Broomsticks
Mary Poppins. ( I haven't read the book, but in the beloved film, certainly what Mary does IS magic)
Are those offensive?
Is MARY POPPINS ( gulp) in League with the Devil???
Ok, but you get my point. Literature, good literature, makes you think and dream. Emily Dickinson said it best "There IS no frigate like a book to take us lands away"
If you don't want your child to read the books, then by all means limit their access. DO NOT try to tell me what my child ( or grandchild) can read.
Well, I did read all of the Harry Potter books - didn't see the films because fantasy is not really my genre (except my fantasy that I wake up one morning 35 years younger and 100 pounds thinner!) (and three times as much income!) BUT I never thought about Satan once in any of the books. I got the whole thing about the family, even the aunt SORT OF came around at the end. I find it so interesting (as a librarian) that the people who most have their panties in a bunch have had NO exposure to these titles. In general, I am opposed to censorship (yes, even in the news media!) (hear that herr trump-turd!) and seriously, I do find these current attempts to control the news media chilling. Whenever we observe Banned Books Week, I am struck anew by the titles that made the list - I think even the Bible got on there once or twice.
ReplyDeleteBUT - HEY! They have the right to be fools and idiots.
Tom