Friday, July 27, 2007

What is it about Harry Potter?

'Tis the season to be Potter, tra la la la la, la la la la.
I haven't read the books and I didn't like the first two movies so I may not actually be an expert. I might see the new movie. What is interesting is that the Xtians get their thongs in a bunch over Harry Potter. There's all the huing and crying about witchcraft and devil worship and such. I never understand the panic.
Jon Stewart would say it's just mean-spirited dickery.
To me it's always been a touchstone for the lack of reality in the fundie camp. To not know that Harry Potter isn't real seems plausible for people who only ever read one book. And it's a book filled with magic anyway, so maybe Hagrid really did rescue Harry from wicked step-parents.
Sara over at Orcinus has a really good essay which takes the idea to a deeper level that I ever did.

Orcinus
But once you've rejected the reality-based world in favor of a mythic worldview, you are -- by definition -- building your life on an epistemology that has no verifiable support structure. Which means there are always going to be moments when faith dissipates just long enough to admit a quiet, nagging doubt about the foundations of your reality. It also means that you're going to regard any and all competing myth systems -- no matter how fantastic -- as a serious existential threat that stands in direct competition to your own (equally fantastic) myth system. They have to be treated as equivalent, because they're all made of the same flimsy stuff.


Powered by ScribeFire.

No comments: