Harry Potter

Not gonna lie, this thread is pretty intense!!

Firstly, I would like to say, that I have many needs when it comes to books/literature whatever, so I guess I must be shallow. I can't say I feel bad for enjoying different things...and I do like shopping for clothes and checking out guys, and dancing and laughing and coffee...whatever. Thats not the point.

The point is if you like Harry Potter then good, I'm right there with you...if you don't then thats prerogative...but I have to agree, Don't judge a book by its cover, genre, MOVIE, etc. Especially if you haven't even tried...as for philosophy/intellecual bits...granted its not nearly as 'smart' as plenty of others, but if you research characters and other things in the book, there is plenty of stuff that is fascinating...a lot of it leads back to Gree/Roman myths.

They are fun books and I respect those that don't enjoy Harry Potter (but have a decent arguement other than the movie was terrible) just as much as those that do enjoy Harry Potter.

Harry Potter was the most gripping book I have ever read. It may not be passing messages or carrying philosophic thoughts in every sentence, but there is no other book for me that is so entertaining and lively. I also found the book pretty original. Perhaps I simply skipped a different fantasy series out there with similar ideas, I don't know. I wanted to extend the book all the time. Back when it was still book 4 the last book, I kept remembering that phrase "What will come will come, and we will have to meet it when it does". And it went darker since then. This book seems to have a "soul". Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it is new and "in production", you can't just finish it all at once. Is there any other recent book of this sort around?

Speaking of comedy...? Oh, I really don't know where you are going there. Sirius dying in book number 5 was very, very sad, if you ask me. And wedding never symbolized happiness for me.

Movies - I didn't like any of them. They are too action-packed. They cut all the details out. When I like a book, I'm really attached to details.

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Originally Posted by Video Drone

Movies - I didn't like any of them. They are too action-packed. They cut all the details out. When I like a book, I'm really attached to details.

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I thought the movies were alright, but I prefer the books. You miss so much because they can't fit it in and still make the time cut. I'm looking foward to seeing the fifth movie to see if they can really capture the same feeling and affect as the book. They do passably well with the movies, but they have to cut something and they do pretty well with keeping the most important events. You miss out on all of the parts that really build the characters and your apathy for them. There is much more intensity in the books, and the characters seem more real to the reader.

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Originally Posted by mkhockenberry

I thought the movies were alright, but I prefer the books. You miss so much because they can't fit it in and still make the time cut. I'm looking foward to seeing the fifth movie to see if they can really capture the same feeling and affect as the book. They do passably well with the movies, but they have to cut something and they do pretty well with keeping the most important events. You miss out on all of the parts that really build the characters and your apathy for them. There is much more intensity in the books, and the characters seem more real to the reader.

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Okay, the thing about the movies is: If you look at them as just movies, then they aren't bad. Sure they cut out a lot of stuff, but hey, what do you expect! The books of course are going to be so much better.

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Originally Posted by Mortis Anarchy

Okay, the thing about the movies is: If you look at them as just movies, then they aren't bad. Sure they cut out a lot of stuff, but hey, what do you expect! The books of course are going to be so much better.

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I do look at them as just movies. It is like I have two separate categories in my head for Harry Potter books and movies. My expectations for each are very different, and I don't really expect the movies to be up to my standards for the books. They also have rating constraints on the movies, I think they are trying to stay PG 13 and some of the stuff in the later books may make this quite difficult. I guess the difference for me is that I like to watch the movies a couple of times, but I own the books and love to read them time and again. They're enjoyable, but to different extents.

I like when movies after books are different from the book. When they try to follow the book, they fail and make it half-baked.

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Originally Posted by NickAdams

There's no accounting for taste.:yawnb: Cheap shot. Sorry.

I liked Harry Potter better when it was called Star Wars.

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Stories based on the Ur myth (the hero's journey) will always enchant kids and a lot of adults as well.

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Originally Posted by grace86

I don't really think that the majority of people against the books are Christian Right. I am not sure it matters what religion you apply yourself to to be against it. Some people here who criticize it do so out of non-religious purposes.

As a Christian myself, I think the books are awesome to read myself and have recommended them to many other people Christian or not, child or adult.

I too have wondered myself on the Hobbit and LOTR, and C.S. Lewis. I've thought about the supposed qualifications are supposed to be regarding Christianity and fantasy. I've enjoyed those novels too.

What you read is read because you enjoy it. Otherwise you wouldn't read it.

Stieg I'm not trying to seem offended with your point, just adding to it.

This probably doesn't belong here on this thread, Logos edit it if you need to...I was just trying to clarify, not trying to be offensive. :D

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I agree...everyone has their own opinions, oh well. I think the books are very good (I'm Catholic)...every interesting and easy and fun. Who cares about age when you like the book!

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Originally Posted by mkhockenberry

I do look at them as just movies. It is like I have two separate categories in my head for Harry Potter books and movies. My expectations for each are very different, and I don't really expect the movies to be up to my standards for the books. They also have rating constraints on the movies, I think they are trying to stay PG 13 and some of the stuff in the later books may make this quite difficult. I guess the difference for me is that I like to watch the movies a couple of times, but I own the books and love to read them time and again. They're enjoyable, but to different extents.

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Oh, I didn't mean any offense or anything...I was agreeing with you....I enjoy the movies!! Not ones I can see every day, but hey!

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Originally Posted by Mortis Anarchy

Oh, I didn't mean any offense or anything...I was agreeing with you....I enjoy the movies!! Not ones I can see every day, but hey!

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:):):) No offense was taken. I hope I didn't give that impression. If there is one bad thing about online forums it is that you can't see the face of the person talking and so often things that I say don't come out as I mean them. :D

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Originally Posted by mkhockenberry

:):):) No offense was taken. I hope I didn't give that impression. If there is one bad thing about online forums it is that you can't see the face of the person talking and so often things that I say don't come out as I mean them. :D

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Haha, yeah totally agree. I'm always a tad worried that I might offend someone...don't want to do that!

I would not paint all fundelmentalist Christians with the same brush, I was merely giving a example, this caused my mother a lot of trouble at school. The problem grew due to the objections of a Jehovah's Witness.

When the books first came out many groups here is an article I took from an anti-censorship website.

Back to School with the Religious Right


Harry Potter
During the last school year, right-wing groups sought to remove books from the Harry Potter series from schools across the nation by alleging that they are luring students into witchcraft and the occult. On a December 2001 700 Club, host Pat Robertson followed up an interview with an anti-Harry Potter activist by warning that God will forsake nations that tolerate witchcraft. Robertson advised his audience that the Bible said that, "there's certain things that he says that is going to cause the Lord, or the land, to vomit you out. At the head of the list is witchcraft….Now we're welcoming this and teaching our children. And what we're doing is asking for the wrath of God to come on this country….And if there's ever a time we need God's blessing it's now. We don't need to be bringing in heathen, pagan practices to the United States of America."
(XTIAN NOTE: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS WITCHCRAFT, in this form, There is Wicca but this is not the same thing. No where in the Harry Potter books is Wicca mentioned, so what is Robertson so worried about. Maybe we should be scared of SANTA CLAUS because is shift the letters around SANTA becomes SATAN. We should always be afraid of things we have no concept of, I mean really, I know many Wiccans and not one can fly on a broom or play quittich for that matter)

Several national religious right organizations, like Concerned Women for America, the Traditional Values Coalition, the American Family Association, and Focus on the Family, have warned their supporters against the dangers of the Harry Potter books. And across the country, parents and religious groups worked to try to get Harry Potter books removed from local schools.

In York, Pennsylvania, a parent, along with a local pastor and elementary school teacher, urged the Eastern York School District to ban the Potter series from district schools. The parent, Deb DiEugenio, complained that the Potter books were "against my daughter's constitution, it's evil, it's witchcraft. I'm not paying taxes to teach my child witchcraft." Tony Leanza, who is a pastor at the New Wine Christian Center as well as a local elementary school teacher, attempted to argue that "Wicca is a religion" and thus the Potter books should be banned because they violate the separation of church and state. The school board eventually voted 7-2 to allow teachers to continue to use the Potter series, provided that students first received a parent's permission.
(Where in the books are the tenets Wicca taught? Oh, right, "do harm to none." Isn't that the same as "treat others the way you be treated"? Is the bible teaching the same thing as Wicca.)

In July 2002, parents in Cromwell, Connecticut sought to have the Potter books, along with Newbery award-winning book The Witch of Blackbird Pond, removed from a local middle school because they supposedly expose children to spells and witchcraft and provide a negative portrayal of Christianity. Dr. J Michael Bates, a pastor in the Emmanuel Baptist Church, urged taxpayers to protest such books, even if they do not have children in the school system. "The public school needs to know that there are people out there who resent this stuff," Bates said. The objectors plan to petition the school board at an upcoming meeting.

(I would love for just one person to show me where these books insult Christianity?)

These sorts of attacks on the Potter series were not isolated incidents. Right-wing groups in cities around the country attacked the series. In Florida, Kansas, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Maine and California, individuals and organizations attempted to keep Harry Potter out of the reach of children.

Perhaps the most intense attack on the Potter books came from the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where an actual book burning was held on Dec. 30, 2001. Hundreds turned out to join Pastor Jack Brock's "holy bonfire," where they smashed CDs, videos and records with a baseball bat and burned magazines and books, including the Harry Potter books, which Brock called "a masterpiece of satanic deception."




WHat a bunch of nonsense, I have a better term but I believe that would violate a language code. Just for the record however, I am not a Christian, I am not Wicca, I support the rights of everyone to practice what ever religion they choose, and even though the belief of any particular religion goes against much of what I beleive in, "Religion is the OPIUM of the Masses" I will fight for that right until the practice of any religion infringes on my right to believe in nothing.

Just a correction though, CS Lewis was a strict Catholic from Belfast and JRR Tolkien living in Great Britian was a non-believer until he converted to Catholicism because of the influence from his friend CS Lewis. The Christian mythology is easily seen in Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan sacrifices himself for the sake of a traitor. The Christian mythos can also be seen in Tolkien but it is hidden in allegory.

But back to the topic, I just saw a preview of new Potter movie, I loved it even though it is differant from the others, it is very dark but I am sure as last book is the darkest and Rowling did say she was killing off a major character, odds are on Harry himself to get killed.

But other questions arise: When Padfoot stepped into the curtian did he die or go into a differant deminsion, after all he would have appeared as a ghost like Nearly Headless Nick, the victim of a violent death? What of Dumbledore is he really dead, could he not have the magical powers to survive, (Ben Kenobi transcended death) as did Myrtle, The Bloody Baron etc.?

I can't wait the next few weeks until the last comes out. What will Rowlings write next? Or will she follow Anne Rice into vampyres, religion, werewolves etc.?

Trust me I loved the movie. The book should be great

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Originally Posted by Xtian

What of Dumbledore is he really dead, could he not have the magical powers to survive, (Ben Kenobi transcended death) as did Myrtle, The Bloody Baron etc.?

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The whole ghost thing was explained in the end of the fifth book, when Harry asked Nearly-Headless Nick if Sirius would come back as a ghost. I certainly think that Dumbledore was not a man who would want to become a ghost like Myrtle and Bloody Baron.

(I do wish that Sirius comes somehow back from death and that Harry survives without getting killed, but I don't believe that either will happen :()

I started reading Potter when i had my wisdom teeth out. Now it is the last one of the series i may as well read it!

I heard that most adults are afraid to admit that they read the Harry Potter series. I don't know why its an awesome book that everyone can read.