I’m starting to get excited now, waiting for the arrival of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Of course, I’m also feeling sort of iffy about the book. What with war brewing the wizarding world after the events of Order of the Phoenix, there’s bound to be more character deaths. OOTP really was a turning point in the HP series. Everything’s darker, and with HPB being the second-to-last book, it’s like this is the trumpet song before the end. Hopefully, HPB meets everyone’s expectations. OOTP was definitely a shock when it finally arrived, partly, I think, because of the gap in publishing time between it and Goblet of the Fire.
I saw an article in the newspaper related to HP this morning that started me thinking. Apparently, Pope Benedict XVI believes that the Harry Potter books “erode Christianity in the soul” of young people. This was said in a letter he wrote two years ago, as Cardinal Ratzinger, to Gabriele Kuby, a Roman Catholic sociologist who wrote a book criticizing the HP series. Kuby “contends…that the Potter novels blur the boundaries between good and evil and impair young readers’ ability to distinguish between the two.” (see the article here)
I think that is just stupid. That’s precisely part of the reason I like the HP series, because it’s realistic (in terms of character morals and development), and it doesn’t adhere to that childish black-and-white good and evil morality. It’s naive to think you can separate the world into good guys and bad guys. There’s always going to be shades of grey in between. Sometimes good people mess up and lose their way temporarily. Does this necessarily make them “evil” forever? And vice versa, does that mean a “bad guy” is not allowed to reform and change? And you know, sometimes people aren’t motivated by purely good or bad intentions. The world doesn’t work that way. Sure, there are people who refuse to believe anything other than what they are taught, be it good or bad, but most people believe and are motivated by in something in between. Circumstances may arise, situations may occur, where you have to compromise your beliefs in order to achieve the so-called greater good. It doesn’t necessarily make it right, but that’s just life. Life is unfair and cruel, and if you can’t learn to compromise, you’re never going to get anywhere. Black and white, dark and light, there will always be a middle ground, and that’s where most of the real world lives.
Well, that’s my two cents for the day.
My favorite out of all the HP series would have to be the Goblet of Fire. I’m SO EXCITED! I can’t wait to get my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. You’re right, OOTP was a turning point in the series. Ugh, I don’t like how they say that Harry Potter is denouncing religion or something. It’s just a book! Well, a great book.
While I agree that the pope has some crazy ideas sometimes and I don’t agree with him here, I also think you have some of your information wrong. The current pope (Pope Benedict) could not have written something two years ago, as the current pope was newly appointed in the spring after the death of the “current” pope (Pope John Paul II, now dead) who wrote that letter about denouncing Harry Potter two years ago. Just making sure you got your facts straight :)