The Rants of Issachar

Cheers to J.K. Rowling for a fantastic book.

Jeers to the long wait for the next one...



I loved it. I think it's possibly the best so far, but I'll have to re-read the Goblet of Fire to be sure.

Posted by:  Graves

meh.

Posted by:  Major John

From what I have seen, you seem to be in the minority (happy with it/rating it highly). But, what would I know, I've not read a one of 'em.

Posted by:  issachar

Nothing much gets resolved, but that's to expected from the penultimate book in the series.

I'd recommend starting at the beginning of the series though. I'm not sure if I'd like this book if I wasn't already attached to the characters.

I'm also surprised with what happened with Professor Snape. (I'm still a bit suspicious that Rowling's tricking us, but I can't see how...

Posted by:  Lisa

I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books; but just the fact that they are so extremely popular makes me not want to read them.

From what I have read about the books, they really muddy up the line between good and evil with potter's white magic and occult practices. Just the fact that a witch can be "good" is a bit of a contradiction in my view. If I had young kids I would not buy into the hype, and would rather strongly discourage them to read that series.

There are plenty of other books out there - why is it that THIS series, in particular, is SO popular? Harry Potter has been so heavily promoted - by who? What are we promoting by buying into these books? Why would I want to support this author or advance these occultish views?

Furthermore, shouldn't we draw a line somewhere or have some kind of standards for what children read? Or do we think they won't be affected by what they read?

Books like these, which delve into occultish practices, curses, and witchcraft, with no real clarity of what "good" is, are promoting this stuff as legitimate, modern, and acceptable. How can we dismiss this as harmless or merely fantasy? Is it also not desensitizing children (not to mention, adults!) to the serious harm that can come from actual involvement in occult practices?

In my opinion, it is just another thing that leads people astray and further distracts them from the truth of God's Word. For those reading who are Christians, isn't this exactly what Satan's intent is?

Posted by:  issachar

Hi Coul...

Nice to actually meet you yesterday. :)

It's funny that you should write on the Harry Potter posting this week. As you know I started back up at my regular job on Monday, (I teach at a Christian School in Maple Ridge for anyone who doesn't know), and literature selection was one of the subjects covered extensively in our first meeting with a particular focus on fantasy literature.


There's certainly been a lot written about the Harry Potter books and unfortunately a significant chunk of that writing is reactionary garbage.

I've read all six and I simply don't see any muddying of good & evil in the books. It's simply not true to say that the books "delve into occultish practices, curses, and witchcraft, with no real clarity of what 'good' is". On the contrary, there is a very clear differentiation between good (represented by Professor Dumbledore and the Hogwarts establishment) and evil (represented by Lord Voldermort and the Death Eaters). Evil is not a vague, culturally relative term either. It is defined in terms of absolutes. (Voldermort and the Death Eaters kill people and take joy in controlling and/or causing pain to others).


It seems that most of the strongly anti-Potter writings are hung up on the fact that there is magic and magical creatures in the books and that magic is portrayed sometimes positively and other times negatively.

However, it simply does not follow that this makes the books inappropriate for children. C.S. Lewis' fictional series "The Chronicles of Narnia" contains magic and magical creatures that are portrayed both positively and negatively. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" contains the same. Likewise for Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time". (Not my favourite book, but it's considered good by others). All of these fit the criteria, yet are good books for children.

I also think it's false to say that the Harry Potter books promote real-world occult involvement. The joy of fantasy fiction is to be able to take real-world relationships and scenarios and to transplant them to other-worldly realms. Seeing things in a new light as it were. It does not mean that all elements of the fantasy world will be taken as transferable to the "real world".

Desensitizing children to the serious harm that can come from actual involvement in occult practices?

Borrowing and summarizing from my school's Literature selection policy for a moment:

Christians live in the power of the resurrection. This power is greature than any other power, and so Christians need not live in the shadow of fear. Literature needs to be approached with redeemed boldness rather than undredeemed fear.


As for who's promoting the Potter books and why, I'd say that's a pretty easy answer. The publisher's promoting it to make money, and people like me are promoting them because we liked reading them. Why are they so popular? Because they're enormously fun to read. I continue to recommend them to you. You're missing out. :)

Posted by:  westcoastloon

Not to turn this into a 'jump on Coul' debate but the biggest issue I have with what you wrote about the Harry Potter books is in the very first line [quote]I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books.[end quote] It's hard to effectively critique something you haven't read. [And let me just say here that obviously you don't have to experience everything firsthand to be able to speak about it, I know that murder is bad without taking a life, but we're speaking specifically about books here.]

I can sympathize somewhat with the "I don't want to read it because it's so popular" logic. I will never read The Prayer of Jabez for exactly the same reason but I think that the Harry Potter books because they are a cultural phenomenon are worth a second look. Admittedly I don't have kids but I hope to someday and when it comes to picking out books for them I wouldn't want them reading something I hadn't read myself if I had concerns about the content. With something like the Harry Potter books it's pretty unlikely that a 10 year old in 2005 isn't going to hear about them. I'd rather at least have read the books myself and be able to respond to questions about them with more than just "I've heard they're bad." or "You can't read that because I said so."

I'm not saying that every kid in the country should read these books. Personally, I wouldn't let young children read Book 3 because of a particularly scary character in it. But they are well written, they're a fantastic story and I think there are a lot of opportunities for discussion with these books.

I'm always a little wary of "lets circle the wagons and pretend it's not there" thinking. Especially among Christians (and yes, that includes me.) If you choose not to read anything with magical elements in it, that is obviously your choice to make and more power to you. But it's unfortunate to dismiss the books completely, and unread because they contain magic. As Issachar mentioned there are several excellent books that contain magical creatures. It would be a shame to live in a world without them.

Posted by:  Lisa

It was nice to meet you too Issachar. :) Thanks, I enjoyed reading your thoughtful response.

It is good to hear that some clear distinctions can be seen between good and evil; obviously, you are very familiar with the material. Yes, there are a lot of books, like the Narnia series, with some elements of magic in them; I would agree with you that this doesn't necessarily make them inappropriate for children to read. Meaningful symbolism can be drawn from those stories.

I tend to assume the worst about things sometimes; as I haven't even read any of the books I am not in a position to make any type of judgement at all. It was all the cleaning and packing I was doing that week... I felt antagonistic towards everything.

So, picking an argument just for the sake of it.... on a subject I know absolutely nothing about was a great way for me to dig myself into a deep hole, with no way of getting out! Ha.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, even the silly ones. You have peeked my interest in maybe, actually, picking up a Harry Potter book and reading one! :)

Posted by:  issachar

Enjoy... :)