Harry Potter is "inadvertently" racist other mental claims

[AnyaKimlin]

I thought it made wonderful sense of the Dumbledore and Snape relationship personally.

 

[Interference]

I do hope people realise that the Landover Baptist Church is a totally fictitious parody of the religious right-wing fundamentalist Christianity of the US Bible belt...

Not too extreme a parody, I'm afraid. The church where I play music has a similar take on HP. The "magick" portrayed is satanic because only Christ was allowed to do miracles (despite his recommendation to his disciples that they would be capable of greater feats) and, of course, because of the whole "not suffer a witch to live" episode earlier in that series.

An approximate summary might be that there is One True Way and any other way must come from Satan. Teaching children that there's a school where you can learn this spell-casting stuff might actually encourage children to learn this, and other, stuff. Yeah, that's a bad thing if the children in question grow up with an uncertain moral fortitude. But to discourage wonder and thought is wrong, in my view, and also, if I read him correctly, in the Christ's view.

And that doesn't take into account that "satan" is a concept, not a person, meaning (approximately) "choice" (which might be called "uncertainty", particularly in cases of moral fortitude) and is intended as a reference to the conflict we have with ourselves before deciding how to behave, usually under extreme circumstances or duress. Satan's overt characterisation in Job and in the Temptation scene are the basis for most people imagining it as a Being (I'm side-stepping what I think of as the drug-addled portrayal by John in Revelations).

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Cowboy and Indian films/books were racist (wittingly or not) so Westerns had to go out of fashion. Now we have Humans and Aliens instead, which is ok cos Aliens aren't real. When we watch the Alien series or War Of The Worlds or (gawd help us) Starship Troopers and Independence Day, we're allowed to revel in their obliteration, and our genocidal tendencies are sated.

I don't know HP - half-watched one film, never read the books - but I doubt the "racism" is much more horrific in them than in the the average space shoot-em-up, which we all, of course, love.

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Famous gay couples in fiction: Batman and Robin, Holmes and Watson, Wilson and Crick, Morecambe and Wise, Hope and Crosby, good gawd, y'all, does it matter? If it isn't on the page, then it's your imagination (literally) - and that goes for authors' as well. I suspect that Ms Rowling has an active fantasy life that she hasn't yet published. So do we all. Personally, I like when ladies kiss.

 

[THX-1138]

Did you just imply that J.K. Rowling "fantasizes" about old gay wizards?

Also, those you list could be proven false, Batman, Robin, Holmes, and Watson all have had relationships with women.

 

[purple_kathryn]

Beards! All of em!

 

[hopewrites]

Did you just imply that J.K. Rowling "fantasizes" about old gay wizards?

who doesnt?

 

[hopewrites]

I cant remember where or when i heard the rumor that the series mimicked the bible and that Harry was suposed to be Jesus or something.

 

[THX-1138]

Lol what?

 

[hopewrites]

Yeah, because he didnt die or because he came back from the dead. But they had Dumbledore as God and Serious as one of the disciples I forget which.

I suppose its a complement to the way she promotes what is good in human nature, but I just cant see the parallels.

 

[purple_kathryn]

Came back from the dead didn't he?

Course he then went and married Ginny instead of dying again

 

[Moonbat]

which, in a way, could be seen as the ultimate sacrifice and a true representation of how he suffered for us

 

[AnyaKimlin]

which, in a way, could be seen as the ultimate sacrifice and a true representation of how he suffered for us

Ginny's not that bad, poor Ron got stuck with Hermione (did I spell that right lol ?)

 

[Interference]

Isn't a bit of a cliche to base stories on the story arc of the Bible? Though, to be sure, it has it all - love, deception, betrayal, tragedy - but then, so did Hitler's True-Life story.

Anyway, Harry Potter as Christ - I can't imagine a world where Potteranity is the dominant religious dogma.

 

[devilsgrin]

Isn't a bit of a cliche to base stories on the story arc of the Bible? Though, to be sure, it has it all - love, deception, betrayal, tragedy - but then, so did Hitler's True-Life story.

Anyway, Harry Potter as Christ - I can't imagine a world where Potteranity is the dominant religious dogma.

Really? you can't?
Considering the surprising proliferation of "Jedi" in the world... Its not a stretch at all. Of course, HP doesn't preclude "God," in fact iirc they mention God once or twice, and i'm pretty sure the wedding in particular is a fairly standard religious marriage - albiet with ample witches and wizards present.
Poor JK isn't the brightest penny in the fountain (Creative definitely, smart notsomuch. unless HP is a conspiracy/completely plagiarised work then she's brilliant), so she may be forgiven for inadvertently adding generous servings of racism into her world.
On Albus and Gellert... it was not even the slightest bit of a stretch for me to see they were more than friends. A Doomed Summer Romance is exactly what is seemed to me as i read.