Article

2005-07-13 Home Front: Culture Wars

The Pope vs Harry Potter AKA JK Rowlings

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Cheaderhead 2005-07-13 14:10|| || Front Page|| [11129 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 No. They are pretty standard in terms of writing. Rowling does a good job on keeping track of a pretty complex plot and plenty of characters, but does wander off into far too many digressions, takes shortcuts and uses a lot of deux ex machinae. The first book is by far the best, most tightly written and least prone to wandering off. As for the moral issues in these books, I must say that it would take a true nit-picking fanatic crank to find something to complain about. I think the Pope has never read the things.

My daughter (8) has read them all along with a lot of others.

On the whole I would say C.S.Lewis ("Narnia" series) and Baum ("Oz") wrote with a bigger vocabulary and often with better and always tighter plots - though both could let their standards slip; both phoned in a couple of their books too.

Posted by buwaya 2005-07-13 15:12|| 2005-07-13 15:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Heretic!!!

The third book was the best, certainly.

Morally, they are not merely ok, they are excellent. Overcoming adversity, dealing with depression, taking responsibility for yourself, judging people based on their charecter, etc are all themes in the book. And, special for RBers, grim resolve in a long and difficult fight against evil, an evil some would look away from.

Posted by liberalhawk 2005-07-13 15:24|| 2005-07-13 15:24|| Front Page Top

#3 in fairness to the pope, he doesnt so much say he condemns the books, as approves of what the critic is doing. It really seems he is taking her word for it re the books.

Posted by liberalhawk 2005-07-13 15:28|| 2005-07-13 15:28|| Front Page Top

#4 LH,

You're probably right, but it certainly reinforces the notion that one should be careful in criticizing book one has not read and movies one has not seen.

As for me, I don't think any writer has so successfully revealed the evil inherent in the Nietzschean "will to power" (Voldemort = Zarathustra?) to such a broad audience.

J. K. Rowling should be applauded for her work.

Posted by Dreadnought 2005-07-13 15:40|| 2005-07-13 15:40|| Front Page Top

#5 Rowling is probably the most talented writer alive in the world today. I read one of her books, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," when I had surgery last year. Think about it: How many people can write 734 pages in a prose style interesting enough to not only tell the story, but to make the average 12-year-old reader eager to buy the next installment?

Posted by Fred 2005-07-13 17:13|| 2005-07-13 17:13|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm on the Potter roll - awaiting the latest via Amazon. Good stories

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-07-13 17:26|| 2005-07-13 17:26|| Front Page Top

#7 It's all BS read Penrod for vocabulary then Sister Carrie for insight.

Posted by Booth 2005-07-13 19:18|| 2005-07-13 19:18|| Front Page Top

#8 F*ck off ya olde fart. Pr0N should be read before it is viewed! Every boy-man should have read parts of Tropic of Cancer 19 time over.

Posted by Henry 2005-07-13 19:24|| 2005-07-13 19:24|| Front Page Top

#9 I read all the books and found them to be pretty clear about the Good v. Evil concept. The text of the letter didn't read to me as if the then cardinal had actually read the book written by the critic.
My take on his reservations are that he isn't ready to promote them as Catholic books for the same reason that JRR Tolkien's books are not Catholic books despite the fact that JRR Tolkien was an observant Catholic. These type of books are excellent through and through yet cause some minority of readers to cease bathing, cultivate hemp plants in their UV lighted closets and congregate with other asocial males shaking hit-dice in the basement until they beleive that they believe themselves to be 7th level majic-users of the half-dwaven variety.
My three kids of reading age have continued to shower regularly so I am convinced that it is OK for them to read the next installment. Note to parents - Rowlings has iced a couple of major charecters in the last two chronicles so the books may not be the best medicine for depressed adolescents.

Posted by Super Hose 2005-07-13 19:51|| 2005-07-13 19:51|| Front Page Top

23:54 badanov
23:50 Tkat
23:40 GK
23:35 Barbara Skolaut
23:32 Super Hose
23:28 Matt
23:28 GhostOfBonzo
23:27 rjschwarz
23:14 Super Hose
23:10 phil_b
23:10 Asedwich
23:05 Bomb-a-rama
23:03 Jarhead
23:01 Aussie
23:00 anymouse
22:57 Super Hose
22:57 Frank G
22:54 Frank G
22:52 Jarhead
22:52 tipper
22:49 Super Hose
22:47 rjschwarz
22:46 Jarhead
22:44 Frank G