If that “deconstruction” could be recycled and made physical, it would fertilize my entire lawn.
Talk about nonsensical analysis. Sounds to me like the writer is ONLY familiar with the Judy Garland movie. Baum wrote 14 (IMS) books about Oz.
Here’s a thought: he made some characters witches because kids like to hear stories about magic. In his day, it was faries and brownies and pixies–they all seem a bit tame today (LOTR excepted). Kids today are not so very different than kids back then–hence the appeal of the classic WofO tale.
No mention of Dorothy actually sacrificing a witch (the East one)-perhaps that escaped this writer’s keen eye and mind. Whatever would he say about that? Or is that some twisted, satanic initiation rite?
As for the claim that Satan wants desperately to reach my family–I say that Satan (in whom I do not believe) has plenty of customers–he doesn’t need to go trolling.
I will never understand this mindset-all imagination is bad, evil , threatening. Dressing in costumes and getting candy is bad, bad, bad. Watching/reading a fantastical story and learning about friendship, integrity, acceptance and a simple life is perverted into a threat to a child’s character and soul.
It’s disgusting. To quote Cecil: “these people would find something suggestive in a dial tone.” (still one of his best lines for me).
Well, a lot of neopagans call themselves “witches,” and if your coworker is a Christian then she might well be concerned that her daughter might be attracted to that religion. Or is she actually afraid the girl is going to start doing black magic that works?
Oh, and it’s “coworker” or “co-worker.” “Cow-orker” evokes a disturbing mental picture.
A lot of the objections I heard to the books by evangelical Christians was that they were too popular, and that anything that could inspire kids to put down their video games and videos to read books (!!) must be inspired by Satan. The fact that sorcery is glorified and uses spells, incantations, etc, sets it apart from other fantasy books that merely mention magic in passing. The same thing was said about teh wildly popular Pokemon cards. Why were kids becoming so obsessed with these stupid cards? As I was told, it was because each card represented a Demon and the kids were being influenced/ (controlled?) by demonic forces.
:smack: You can’t “hide” lies inside of a book intended to be fictional. It’s all SUPPOSED to be lies. There’s probably even a disclaimer saying that nothing in the book is true. (“All characters and events in this book are purely a work of fiction, yadda yadda…”)
It’s been a while since I read any of the HP books. Can someone remind me where in the series we see:
[ol]
[li]sacrifice of animals[/li][li]emphasizing power over goodness[/li][li]blood sacrifices[/li][li]boiling babies alive[/li][li]possession by demons[/li][/ol]
The only one I can think of is, for #2, that I believe Harry and Voldemort are both said to have “done great things.” But if anything that causes you to stop and think for a second to reflect on the fact that both good and evil can be very powerful.
i think u guys are getting to philisophical about all this and anyone who thinks the HP is promoting black arts and evil is just somone who has nothing to do besides complain about every little bit of crap that pops into their head
Let’s see…
Sacrifice of animals?
Exodus 12:1-8
Power over goodness?
Deuteronomy 7:2
Human sacrifice?
1 Kings, 13:1-2
Deuteronomy 13:13-19
Boiling babies?
Well, not so much. But four out o’ five ain’t bad.
Demon possession?
Matthew 9:32-33, 12:22, 13:18 for starters
Nope, that shit’s all IN THE BIBLE. God, but these Bible thumpers make me want puke infected needles.
Yeah, and for that matter I know SOMEbody got boiled in oil in the Old Testament somewhere. So neener.
Hey Globalhawk, welcome to the board.
The point is that fuckheads who want to point at a work of fiction as a bad influence on their little zealots-in-training need to look at the book they claim is ENTIRELY FUCKING FACTUAL first.
Except that “a baby” didn’t get boiled and turned into Voldemort - it never was a baby, it was just Voldemort growing and emerging from the potion. No babies were boiled.
I’ve never gotten this either. And even if it is the “neo-pagans” we’re talking about, that’s still boring. Not to mention the piddly stuff in Harry Potter. Call me when you have a way for me to throw around the Dragon Slave or at least a couple level 9 arcane spells. Though the ability to turn undead (think it would work on DeLay?) could come in handy as well. Has anyone tried multiclassing a sorceror with a cleric?
Video games and videos? They obviously weren’t playing the games or watching the videos I did as a kid. Or do they not have a problem with kids playing GTA but with them playing the FF series? As for the Pokemon cards, I figured that it was: A. It was Pokemon B. The kids weren’t able to handle a more complex CCG like Magic (I’ve played both games, and while the Pokemon CCG is okay, it’s too simplistic for my taste.) Each card represented a demon? Well, maybe Jigglypuff.
I mostly figure it’s because these people have too much time on their hands.
Not a problem
And welcome! Just didn’t want any fundies who already believe the books are evil to think there was an actual baby involved, rather than just a Mini-Mort.
It’s not just Harry Potter. My fundie father disapproved of Narnia (yes, Narnia!), when I was a kid, because he thought it was Satanic. He also feels the same way about Halloween, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Enya’s music.
Fortunately, my father never had much say in what we read, saw, or did growing up, and my mother is eminently more sensible.
As for the dark magic in Harry Potter, yeah, it’s there. We do see something that looks like a baby being boiled alive, and discussions of human sacrifices, and the like. But here’s the thing: It’s always evil folks who do these things, and it’s always made abundantly clear in the books that we should strive to oppose this evil at every turn.
