When the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, came out and there was talk of a movie to follow it, I happened to hear some radio show on which a guest was prophesying the corruption of childrens' minds and souls because of the witchcraft and wizardry advocated by J.K. Rowling's vision for the pre-pubescent and pubescent set. I seem to remember that he was a minister, who, no doubt many would denominate fundamentalist, but I am not given to automatic disregard of those so denominated. But neither am I given to an automatic grant of credibility. The warnings seemed a bit over the top to me. I mean, the children's fantasy stories of my childhood had been Hansel and Gretl, Rapunsel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, wherein children were subject to being baked, beautiful maidens were locked in towers, a large giant was sniffing out Englishmen to eat them and a witch was trying to get another lovely maiden to eat a poison apple. And then, there were the books and movies of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, and they were, well, grim was the operative word. And pray tell (sorry minister), what is so bad about wizards and witches? Remember when they had those machines that pressed out a personalized good luck charm in places like Woolworths? I got one that announced my name with the title, "Wizard". The wizard I was modelling myself on hailed from Oz. I heartily sang, "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!" at age 6 or 7 and wondered if Good Witches all had the high pitch of Billie Burke. Though I had no prior interest in Harry and company, my curiousity was piqued, and I read the first Harry Potter book. Aside from being gratified that children from say 8 up were able to read anything quite that long with actual big words, I fell in love with the franchise. Packrat that I am, I re-located my old wizard badge, delighted at the continuity of life.
I won't disregard the concerns of the commentator. Children might think they really can be wizards or witches and that they can work magic. Some kids thought they could fly back in the 50s because George Reeves did as Superman, but most understood, that they couldn't, just like most kids today know there are no such things as wizards. But they, like the rest of us, like to pretend that there is a world in which they have special powers (kind of like owning an iphone or blackberry), particularly where the one they are currently negotiating reminds them so often that they have none at all. Children might become seduced by dark things. Well, indeed in the world of Harry Potter, there is darkness, even a devil in the form of Lord Voldemort. And a lot of other wizards and witches join him. But this is what Harry and company, Hermione, Ron, Neville, fight from the moment they join the House of Gryffindor. They fight in the name of good magic, truth, light. And this is what they advocate by action. Where is God in all this? I understand a church goer's concern that He isn't mentioned anywhere. But then, to the extent that anyone is looking for Him in this children's book, or movie, seems like He is there, in context. I don't mean to be flippant here, because she was an award winning serious writer, but Flannery O'Connor's books are about God and Grace, but boy if you don't know that going in, you could easily miss it for all the grotesque people and behavior that inhabit her stories.
Harry Potter has been discovering himself all these years. In the Order of the Phoenix, he is fearful of dark magic within himself, just as we fear the Shadow within us that a minister would say is the result of sin. Whatever it is the result of, it is there. Harry aims towards good, but is not sure he is capable of it. He cannot even be sure what it looks like, because evil is so often disguised as good and turns others against what is truly good. He could go the way of Tom Riddle, once a beloved son of Hogwarts School for Magic, where Harry now goes, and of its headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. That boy became Voldemort. He was no different than Harry is now. As Harry's godfather reminds the flailing Harry, we all have light and dark within us. It is the choice to embrace one or the other that defines us. That choice has defined us since the beginning of time. The failure to choose the good got us kicked out of Paradise.
And sometimes, even when we do the right thing, sad and horrible things happen. And still, if the light prevails, in religious terms if God prevails within us, we are somehow victorious.
Harry Potter is engaged in the journey of the hero. We need heroes, wherever they may be found, and however they may befound, to walk with us on our own journeys.
1 comment:
Well said, Djinn. Perhaps it's "temptation" that the minister was warning against. And yes, it's true that to not be "led into temptation" is an easier way to avoid it and the flirtation with doing "wrong", but it's also a very narrow life, lived with blinders on. I think some of my strongest life lessons were the mistakes I made -- some of them "sinful" as the minister would say. But if I had not made them I think my life would be full of more fear than it already is. Isn't temptation, in some ways, a fear of the unknown? A temptation to do something which you don't know what the consequences may be, and it must be "bad" in some ways, otherwsie everyone would be doing it and openly speaking about it?
My concern is that censorship of reading, or activities, or thoughts, is anti-growth, and anti-curiosity, and anti-creativity, and you get the idea. My 12 year old son (who loves the books as I do) has a friend who lives in a very strict Christian family. He has never been allowed to visit our house, never had the joy of sharing in the parties and boys' explorations of youth that my son and his friends have enjoyed. He's a "good boy", this is true, but what effect will that fear of exposure/temptation that his mother has instilled in him have on the rest of his adult life? His mother has succeeded in saving his soul for his eternal life, but at the expense of living the life he's been given on this earth to learn from. ME
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