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→Accusations?
:::It would be odd if the world's top bestselling book for children had no flaws whatsoever. Pray don't present the story as immune to criticism. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 13:36, 29 December 2009 (EST)
:::It would be odd if the world's top bestselling book for children had no flaws whatsoever. Pray don't present the story as immune to criticism. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 13:36, 29 December 2009 (EST)
*My views on the whole witch-craft thing -if anyone cares about my opinions- is that, when we look at fantasy novels such as Harry Potter, we must look at it from the in-World perspective. We shouldn't judge it by the real World, since the whole point of fantasy is to imagine and present a World that is different from our's. For example, while in the real World astrology is a sin, in the World of Narnia, stars are living beings, so it could be that Aslan himself tells stars to do certain things that let the centaurs (who were taught these signs by Aslan) know the Aslan is coming or another such event, thus making astrology in the Narnia World, an actual good thing. Now that doesn't make astrology any less of a sin in real life, just in the World of Narnia it isn't one. Now, let's look at Harry Potter. Now, I'll confess that I don't know much about real life witch-craft outside of Wiccan, but I do happen to know enough to know that the vast majority of magic in Harry Potter (for the most part at least) is not based on real life witch-craft. In the World of Harry Potter, magic comes from a magic gene that grants the person the ability to do magic. While in the real World, magic supposedly comes from Satan, demons, spirits, or some inner force within us. Now, if in the World of Harry Potter the good guys got their magic from a Satanic figure, and the bad guys from a Godly figure, then I would have a problem with it. But that is not the case. Furthermore, Harry Potter makes its own definition of wizards the heroes (wizards meaning you have the magic gene). And the whole thing about Harry Potter being in a real life setting, while true, is not wholly true, as most of it is in a fictional setting that is outside of our own settings. If you want to see pagan mixed with real life settings, read Percy Jackson and the Olympians (though I have no problem with that either). It it were making actual wizards being portrayed in real life while advocating magic, Harry Potter would be about a Wiccan boy named Harry Potter who lives in New York with his Wiccan friends, whose group is threatened by the Conservative Christian politician Voldemort and his conservative political friends. While that would make a humorous fanfiction, that is not what Harry Potter is about. The whole point of fantasy is to present a world made of what ifs. Using my Narnia example, that what if would be: what if the stars were living beings? So for Harry Potter, the what if would be something like: what if there was this magical gene that gave people the ability to do magic, and they lived in our world, but hidden away? To compare it with our World would be to destroy the purpose of fantasy. Fantasist then need a discerning eye between fact and fiction, for confusing fantasy with fact would go against its purpose.
<blockquote>
'Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason...On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make. If men were ever in a state in which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth...then Fantasy would languish until they were cured...For creative Fantasy is founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact. but not a slavery to it. So upon logic was founded the nonsense that displays itself in the tales and rhymes of Lewis Carroll. If men really could not distinguish between frogs and men, fairy-stories about frog-kings would not have arisen.'
-JRR Tolkien, 'On Fairy Stories.'
</blockquote>
Harry Potter was meant as a fiction. Its spells are fiction (most of them made be distorting words such as found in English and Latin, and which I doubt that real life witches use), its locations (such as hogwarts and alchatraz) are fiction, its mythical creatures are fiction, et cetera. We tell our kids when they are young that what you find in the fiction section is not true, while what you find in the non-fiction section is true, and then when they find a book in the fiction section, they will think that its not true, because, you know, even small children can connect two and two together. But when they pull out Harry Potter from the fiction section, knowing that since it is in the fiction section that it is not true, when they bring it to their parents, the parents then freak out over the book, thinking that it promotes something which is not real. Kids are gullible, as they don't know any better and haven't developed critical thinking skills yet. They'll believe you when you say that what you find in the fiction section is not true. They believe you without knowing why when you say Harry Potter promotes witch-craft. They'll believe you beyond a shadow of a doubt if you say Allah wants him to blow up Jews. But that's because they're not able to think for themselves. Teens on the other hand can think for themselves. They start to question some (or all) of the things that they were told as children. So perhaps those young readers who have asked the British Pagan Institution for information about witch-craft are teens who want to know if Harry Potter actually promotes witch-craft or not, since they're been told that over and over again.
Conclusion: Harry Potter is fantasy, and as fantasy, it must be evaluated in-World and not by the real World. To enjoy fantasy, one must the difference between fact and fiction, otherwise fantasy loses its purpose. Kids are gullible, and they'll believe everything you say, including that whatever they find in fiction is not real. Now, who is more blind the reality: a person who reads and writes fantasy, or a person who thinks it promotes witch-craft?
-With all due respect, [[User:ToileroftheSea|ToileroftheSea]], September 6th, 2014 9:35 pm (CST)
=Heading off a possible edit war=
=Heading off a possible edit war=