Mr. Harry Potter!

Please note. I wrote this as a reply to a post on USEnet. Since I got "on my high horse", I figured it's make a good rant. Here it is.

Subject: Re: Harry Potter Rant
Newsgroups: alt.religion.kibology
References: 
Organization: The Armory
Distribution:

Zixia (zixia@btinternet.com) puffed after smoking:

: So I caved in and bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,
: despite my writing not a month ago that I wouldn't read it.  But I was
: buying a handful of other books and had some time over the Christmas
: holidays, so I thought I may as well see what all the fuss is about.
: Before you read any further, I imagine there will be spoliers (although
: the very nature of the book makes the spoilers pretty insignificant,
: but I'll get to that) so if you think you want to read the book at some
: time, you had better not continue with this post.

: After reading it, I have to ask myself, "What -is- the fuss all about?"
: The book is readable, I guess, but it's nothing special.  The humour is
: obviously aimed at kids, as is the action and just about everything
: else.  That makes sense, as it is meant to be a children's book, but it
: doesn't explain why so many adults are going crazy over it.

the reason a lot of adults are screaming bloody murder about it is that it
"teaches bad concepts" whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean.

if the parents were to get past the mythological and pagenistic references, 
they would find that it's a good children's book. no swear words, minimal 
violence, and a handful of good concepts being passed over. (trust, loyalty, 
etc).

The whole "it teaches witchcraft" thing is crap. that's just the background.
that's what is making the kids WANT to read it in the first place.

On the other hand, lets take a quick skim of Lord of the Rings. It's a bloody,
violent book that is not quite suitable for kids under a certain age. (I 
leave up to a RESPONSIBLE PARENT to decide what age that is)

I've read the first two books. the "magic words" appear to be latin base.
the witchcraft concepts are rather tame in comparison to some of the stuff 
I've seen and read. (reaching back to high school lit and the Salem witch 
trials)

Again, the resonsibility falls to the parents to decide what they should be    
exposing their kids to.  But there is such a thing as going overboard. 
(usually from the Moral right and the ultra conservatives)


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