J.K. ROWLING'S HARRY POTTER SERIES FANTASY FOR CHILDREN AND NOTHING MORE
Within the last eight years or so, the literary works of J.K.Rowling, in particular her highly popular series of dark fantasy novelscentered on the character of Harry Potter, has generated a great amount ofsocial controversy based on her use of sorcery and occultism in order torelate the fantastic adventures of Harry, an up-and-coming wizard andpractitioner of the so-called "black arts." Not surprisingly, the mostvocal opponents to Rowling's Harry Potter series can be found within thereligious community which has viewed Rowling's works with much suspicion,due to what they see as a blatant attempt by Rowling to introduceimpressionable young people to the arts and practice of magic, sorcery,witchcraft and occultism via the actions and predicaments of Harry Potter.However, this viewpoint, taken predominately by the Christian community, isbased on the traditional ideals of organized religion which for centurieshas attempted, without much success, to turn people away from any literarywork that goes against the teachings and ideals of Christian thought and Fantastic literature, as represented in Rowling's Harry Potterseries, is one of the most compelling of all literary genres, for a
The plotlines in most fantastic literature, such as those found inRowling's Harry Potter series, are usually set in times and places that arequite different from the ordinary, and are often populated with incidentsand problems that the main protagonist, like Harry Potter, has to overcome. But as previously mentioned, this sortof literature has been in existence for thousands of years and is obviouslynot going to disappear anytime soon, for its popularity is now at an all-time high, thanks in part to J. The majority of these instances have focused onperceived immorality and, in a growing trend, "material with references to"New Age" thought, witchcraft and the occult" have also been included. The question of whether or not dark fantasy, such as that found inRowling's Harry Potter series, affects the psyche and behavior of youngreaders is a rather complex issue that warrantssome discussion. In today's world, dark fantasy is extremely popular, especially withyoung adults aged between ten and fifteen years. But since the books are obviously aimed at young persons,the psychological effects would be nominal, for it must be remembered thatliterature of this kind is often viewed by young readers as being anenjoyable experience that transports them to other worlds and allows themto use their imaginations, not to mention that it is often fun to befrightened. 8)where Harry witnesses the act of transfiguration, "the most complex anddangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts" according to ProfessorMcGonagall who changes "her desk into a pig and back again" (134) and theninstructs Harry and his classmates to change a match into a needle. In conclusion, the question still remains as to whether or not theworks of J. The charm of Oz (much like Rowling's Potter series) lies in directproportion to its distance from reality" (Goldthwaite, 183). Manyof the "banned books" were also branded with the charge of heresy by thechurch which can be defined as "an opinion or doctrine that is at variancewith orthodox religious teaching" (Paradox Staff, 367). Logically, itseems that if children, or for that matter young adults, truly wanted tobecome a witch or take up the practice and art of sorcery that they wouldconsult and be influenced by something far more diabolical and evil thanRowling's novels.
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