- Jun 20, 2014
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People enjoy the fantasy genre because it often draws discernible parallels to the spiritual realities of the world we live in. I had an aversion to Harry Potter for years because a "pastor" tried to illustrate a difference between HP and LOTR, citing that the former sought power while the latter's characters knew they weren't meant to wield that kind of power and tried to rid themselves of it.
I absolutely love LOTR, it remains the greatest body of literature this side of Dante or Shakespeare in my opinion. I always think that at least in the context of the 21st century, Harry Potter is well-written, extremely well-developed and wonderfully engrossing.
My final point is though, that aside from little kids pretending they're wizards the same way they pretend they're cops or cowboys or superman, nobody is going from reading/watching Harry Potter to actively (or passively for that matter) participating in the occult. Nobody takes the Harry Potter narrative and thinks, "hey that's not so bad, I can go ahead and practice witchcraft with no risk to myself." It's a work of fiction. We all recognize it as such and can therefore handle it safely.
Really, aside from plain disinterest, a work of literature or cinematic art should only be avoided if it's poorly made. My sister is the most avid reader I know and she gives everything a shot, back when the Twilight frenzy was at it's peak she tried to read the first book but had to give up because it was a linguistic and grammatical abortion. That's an example of fiction to avoid on principle.
QFT. Storytelling has been a vital part of human culture for millennia, and long before there was Harry Potter or Disney childhood was enhanced with tales of fairies, dragons, and the magic of make-believe. Christian writers have long used fiction as ways of imparting moral messages in a way that captivates the interest of the young, and is comprehensible and memorable to them. I loved A Wrinkle in Time and the Narnia series when I was little, which are by Christian authors. Most of the classic children's literature entails fantasy, like Where the Wild Things Are, Charlotte's Web, and the Dr. Seuss books.
There are propaganda children's books that teach hatred, racism, bigotry, pseudoscience, or promote quantifiably dangerous activities that I would avoid on principle, along with the grammatical travesties. Such as: Melanie's Marvelous Measles and the N.R.A's reimagined classic fairy tales with guns. Other than those aberrations I think we should be happy when kids choose to pick up a book (or to read one on their tablet) instead of playing a video game.
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