18/36 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA SEPTEMBER 2007 ...
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The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 18/36 SEPTEMBER 2007 It seems that magic is in the air once again with the recent release of the seventh and final instalment of the Harry Potter series of fantasy novels written by renowned author J. K. Rowling, entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This article will firstly give a brief outline of the Harry Potter series before addressing the important issue of whether or not the occult references in the Harry Potter novels and films can have an adverse effect on young children. For those who aren’t familiar with the exploits of the diligent young hero, here’s a short summary: the world of Harry Potter is analogous to our own, although in the former magic is a reality which can be harnessed by those in the population who are inherently wiz- ards and witches. Against this back-drop, the orphaned Potter and his two close friends, Ron and Hermoine, are enrolled at the prestigious school of Hogwarts where they learn to master the magic arts and overcome many trials, tribulations and evils which arise in the midst of undertaking personal growth and forming new and often volatile relationships. Without giving too much away, the Deathly Hallows outlines the events which lead to the final confrontation between Potter and his arch-nemesis - the evil wizard named Lord Voldemort - and has proved to be a huge success amongst its increasingly growing fan base, making millions of dollars within weeks of its worldwide release. The recent film enti- tled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, based on the fifth novel in the series and released to coincide with the publication of the Deathly Hallows, has also been a huge success, grossing a total of $771 million worldwide in a mere twenty six days and developing notoriety for it’s darker tone in comparison with the former films, which were evidently geared towards a younger audience. Harry Potter fever has indeed affect- ed both young and old; it is a more subtle phe- nomenon amongst adults, who can sometimes be heard drawing analogies between situations from the fictional stories and real life circum- stances. The effect it has had on children, how- ever, has been profound. If one were to flick through the television channels around the same time as the release of the Deathly Hallows one would see hundreds of children dressed as one of their beloved characters, wielding broomsticks while insatiably assail- ing the countries’ book stores. Exaggerations aside, kids love it, so much so that the recep- tion of this series, despite its unprecedented and overwhelming success, has varied signifi- cantly. Experts have praised it, stating that it has encouraged children to read more often and as such it is conducive to the improvement of literacy skills. Moreover, many of the books’ exponents have exclaimed that it ranks amongst Lord of the Rings and Star Wars as a breakthrough fictional tale which will be her- alded as a cultural phenomenon for years to come. Critical reception amongst religious groups, however, has been mixed. Some of its Christian – even Orthodox – exponents, have stated that the books obviously advocate posi- tive themes such as love, courage, and justice and that one can draw parallels between the fantasy realm of Harry Potter and traditional fairy-tales and mythology. Its critics, on the other hand, particularly those belonging to fun- damentalist groups in the United States, have argued that the subject matter, which includes, however disjointedly, certain occult concepts, can be subversive to young minds which are highly susceptible to influence. Although most of these critics believe that the Potter series can facilitate the imitation of occult rituals, some have gone as far to assert (somewhat absurdly) that the books can encourage demonic posses- sion and, to quote a source whose name I will not divulge, “will put untold millions of kids into hell.” No doubt, these people seldom, if ever, represent the official position of their reli- gious denomination or tradition and the unfor- tunate misconception that most Christians sub- scribe to this fanatically negative view of the books is highly exaggerated and unjust. I’ve always found reassurance in the fact that fun- damentalism is almost always comprised of an aloof minority, and this case is no exception. The sort of vehement opposition to fantasy trends in pop culture reflected by these critics isn’t a novelty. It has certainly happened in the past and for all sorts of reasons: The Lord of the Rings was once erroneously criti- cized for depicting racism in its portrayal of light-skinned protagonists and dark-skinned antagonists, and that wholesome television series from our parents’ generation, Bewitched, was also accused of promulgating witchcraft. Harry Potter, therefore, is only the latest fanta- sy series to inadvertently leave itself open to such incessant public scrutiny, and, as men- tioned earlier, the main focus of the argument seems to be whether or not the Potter series can have an adverse effect on children, although there doesn’t seem to be any documented evi- dence of any children developing an obsession with the occult as a direct result of having read the books. There are a few important factors that must be taken into consideration before addressing this controversial issue. A common perspective held amongst the Potter series’ critics is that after reading the books, children will become exposed to and eventually research occult practices. One may question if there really is a problem with this, and I would be inclined to affirm that if, hypothetically, the Harry Potter series did glamorise such nega- tive subject matter, then a serious problem would indeed exist. However, and as is proba- bly implicit throughout the article thus far, I am not entirely convinced that the Harry Potter books do advocate the occult. Therefore, we must firstly outline reasons as to why the occult is intrinsically subversive and, secondly, we must inquire into whether or not the Harry Potter series does in fact glamorise this phe- nomena. It is only after addressing these issues that we can legitimately assess whether or not the books have a negative impact on young minds. The term occult derives from the Latin word occultus which can be defined as meaning ‘the hidden’. It encompasses many spiritual practices such as magic, divination and spiritualism and is linked with both ancient and modern forms of witchcraft and paganism. Ever since the advent of traditional Judeo-Christian religions these spiritual move- ments have been viewed pejoratively. Why? Well, to put it very simply and without illus- trating an entire metaphysical scheme, the gen- eral Christian perspective held by most HARRY POTTER – A STORM IN TEA CUP? A personal reflection by Mario Baghos
Transcript of 18/36 TO BHMA The Greek Australian VEMA SEPTEMBER 2007 ...
The Greek Australian VEMATO BHMA18/36 SEPTEMBER 2007
It seems that magic is in the air onceagain with the recent release of the seventh andfinal instalment of the Harry Potter series offantasy novels written by renowned author J.K. Rowling, entitled Harry Potter and theDeathly Hallows. This article will firstly give abrief outline of the Harry Potter series beforeaddressing the important issue of whether ornot the occult references in the Harry Potternovels and films can have an adverse effect onyoung children.
For those who aren’t familiar withthe exploits of the diligent young hero, here’s ashort summary: the world of Harry Potter isanalogous to our own, although in the formermagic is a reality which can be harnessed bythose in the population who are inherently wiz-ards and witches. Against this back-drop, theorphaned Potter and his two close friends, Ronand Hermoine, are enrolled at the prestigiousschool of Hogwarts where they learn to masterthe magic arts and overcome many trials,tribulations and evils which arise in the midstof undertaking personal growth and formingnew and often volatile relationships.
Without giving too much away, theDeathly Hallows outlines the events whichlead to the final confrontation between Potterand his arch-nemesis - the evil wizard namedLord Voldemort - and has proved to be a hugesuccess amongst its increasingly growing fanbase, making millions of dollars within weeksof its worldwide release. The recent film enti-tled Harry Potter and the Order of thePhoenix, based on the fifth novel in the seriesand released to coincide with the publicationof the Deathly Hallows, has also been a hugesuccess, grossing a total of $771 million
worldwide in a mere twenty six days anddeveloping notoriety for it’s darker tone incomparison with the former films, which wereevidently geared towards a younger audience.
Harry Potter fever has indeed affect-ed both young and old; it is a more subtle phe-nomenon amongst adults, who can sometimesbe heard drawing analogies between situationsfrom the fictional stories and real life circum-stances. The effect it has had on children, how-ever, has been profound. If one were to flickthrough the television channels around thesame time as the release of the DeathlyHallows one would see hundreds of childrendressed as one of their beloved characters,wielding broomsticks while insatiably assail-ing the countries’ book stores. Exaggerationsaside, kids love it, so much so that the recep-tion of this series, despite its unprecedentedand overwhelming success, has varied signifi-cantly. Experts have praised it, stating that ithas encouraged children to read more oftenand as such it is conducive to the improvementof literacy skills. Moreover, many of thebooks’ exponents have exclaimed that it ranksamongst Lord of the Rings and Star Wars as abreakthrough fictional tale which will be her-alded as a cultural phenomenon for years tocome.
Critical reception amongst religiousgroups, however, has been mixed. Some of itsChristian – even Orthodox – exponents, havestated that the books obviously advocate posi-tive themes such as love, courage, and justiceand that one can draw parallels between thefantasy realm of Harry Potter and traditionalfairy-tales and mythology. Its critics, on theother hand, particularly those belonging to fun-
damentalist groups in the United States, haveargued that the subject matter, which includes,however disjointedly, certain occult concepts,can be subversive to young minds which arehighly susceptible to influence. Although mostof these critics believe that the Potter series canfacilitate the imitation of occult rituals, somehave gone as far to assert (somewhat absurdly)that the books can encourage demonic posses-sion and, to quote a source whose name I willnot divulge, “will put untold millions of kidsinto hell.” No doubt, these people seldom, ifever, represent the official position of their reli-gious denomination or tradition and the unfor-tunate misconception that most Christians sub-scribe to this fanatically negative view of thebooks is highly exaggerated and unjust. I’vealways found reassurance in the fact that fun-damentalism is almost always comprised of analoof minority, and this case is no exception.
The sort of vehement opposition tofantasy trends in pop culture reflected by thesecritics isn’t a novelty. It has certainly happenedin the past and for all sorts of reasons: TheLord of the Rings was once erroneously criti-cized for depicting racism in its portrayal oflight-skinned protagonists and dark-skinnedantagonists, and that wholesome televisionseries from our parents’generation, Bewitched,was also accused of promulgating witchcraft.Harry Potter, therefore, is only the latest fanta-sy series to inadvertently leave itself open tosuch incessant public scrutiny, and, as men-tioned earlier, the main focus of the argumentseems to be whether or not the Potter series canhave an adverse effect on children, althoughthere doesn’t seem to be any documented evi-dence of any children developing an obsession
with the occult as a direct result of having readthe books.
There are a few important factorsthat must be taken into consideration beforeaddressing this controversial issue. A commonperspective held amongst the Potter series’critics is that after reading the books, childrenwill become exposed to and eventuallyresearch occult practices. One may question ifthere really is a problem with this, and I wouldbe inclined to affirm that if, hypothetically, theHarry Potter series did glamorise such nega-tive subject matter, then a serious problemwould indeed exist. However, and as is proba-bly implicit throughout the article thus far, I amnot entirely convinced that the Harry Potterbooks do advocate the occult. Therefore, wemust firstly outline reasons as to why theoccult is intrinsically subversive and, secondly,we must inquire into whether or not the HarryPotter series does in fact glamorise this phe-nomena. It is only after addressing these issuesthat we can legitimately assess whether or notthe books have a negative impact on youngminds.
The term occult derives from theLatin word occultus which can be defined asmeaning ‘the hidden’. It encompasses manyspiritual practices such as magic, divinationand spiritualism and is linked with bothancient and modern forms of witchcraft andpaganism. Ever since the advent of traditionalJudeo-Christian religions these spiritual move-ments have been viewed pejoratively. Why?Well, to put it very simply and without illus-trating an entire metaphysical scheme, the gen-eral Christian perspective held by most
HARRY POTTER – A STORM IN TEA CUP?
A personal reflection by Mario Baghos
The Greek Australian VEMA TO BHMA 19/37SEPTEMBER 2007
Churches is that occult movementsadvocate an esoteric spirituality which is notbestowed by God, who is the source of all life,goodness and being, and therefore their spiritu-ality must be associated with malevolent enti-ties, namely the devil and his demons. Thesemovements are foreign to the spirituality andmindset of, for example, the Orthodox Church,and espouse beliefs which not only contradictthe fundamental beliefs of Christianity, butwhich are, for the most part, immoral from theChurch’s perspective. How so? For the sake ofbrevity, it will suffice to state that many occultor pagan sects encourage the propitiation ofmorally ambivalent spiritual entities or powersin order to suit mostly selfish purposes. Thiscan be particularly dangerous if, hypothetical-ly speaking, one were to become involved inone or more of the darker, inimical cults suchas those which espouse debauchery and licen-tiousness and are in fact replete with inherent-ly evil themes and imagery. The occult, there-fore, is antithetical to religions such asChristianity, particularly Orthodox Christiani-ty, which espouses virtues such as love, peace,justice and humility.
Whether or not any of these cults areactually legitimate or the result of years ofspeculation and hearsay (and many of themare) is beside the point. For even if one werenot to subscribe to the traditional religious orChristian disposition towards these move-ments, one cannot deny the fact that their darksubject matter, which a child can be exposed tosimply by browsing the internet or going to thelocal bookstore, can be potentially damagingon a psychological level.
Now that we have assessed, howeverbriefly, the dangerous nature of occult phe-nomena, we must inquire as to whether or notthe Harry Potter series advocates these prac-tices. Although the books do in fact includemany concepts which can be found in ancient,medieval or even contemporary occult move-ments, the ritualistic nature of this sort ofmagic with its links to actual occult move-ments is not emphasised. The framework ofthese magical concepts, therefore, is notexplicitly associated with any real forms ofwitchcraft or paganism. Rowling, workingwithin the framework of the fantasy genre, hasonly employed occult themes in an abstractway, depriving them of their explicitly danger-ous association with any real magic and ritualby ‘mythologising’ them. The content oftenremains the same: divination, which consti-tutes the ancient pagan practice of prophesy,has precisely the same definition in the Potteruniverse. But the occult context within whichthese concepts can be found is replaced by afantasy world akin to that of Middle Earth orNarnia, therefore posing very little risk ofbeing imitated.
It is humble opinion, therefore, thatthere is very little evidence to support thehypothesis that the references to the occult inthe fantasy realm of Harry Potter necessarilyhave a negative effect on children. This, how-ever, may be of little consolation to parentswho do not want their children to be exposed
to occult themes at all, no matter how ‘watereddown’ or ‘mythologised’ they may be.Personally, I can’t blame parents who takesuch a hard line. Although I enjoyed the Potterfilms myself, if I had children I would be reluc-tant, for example, to expose them to the latestfilm in the series which, as mentioned above,has a darker atmosphere than the earliermovies and can at times be quite frighteningfor youngsters.
There are, however, many parentswho may take a more moderate view, and whocan blame them? They have probably realizedthat if they were to prohibit children from read-ing the Harry Potter series of novels thenwhere would they draw the line? If parentswere to prevent their children from reading theHarry Potter novels or watching the movies,then they might as well prohibit them fromreading classic fantasy tales such as the afore-mentioned The Lord of the Rings, TheChronicles of Narnia, or even from watchingthe Star Wars films, all of which share in com-mon the fact that their writers have appropriat-ed many elements from ancient mysticism,paganism and the occult and have transformedthem into mythical realities within the overar-ching framework of the immanent and ongo-ing struggle of good against evil.
The Harry Potter series is thereforenot so different from any other fictional fanta-sy series that has been released in recent years.Certainly, it may contain occult terminology,but as demonstrated above, this doesn’t seemto pose any inherent danger. Unfortunately,some people can read whatever they want intoalmost anything and as such the danger is man-ifested in the way people receive and interpretthe books: the fanatical opposition to them isprobably far more threatening to a child’s well-being than the book itself. Instead of derivingerroneous inferences from the books which
can have a potentially damaging effect, readersshould enjoy Harry Potter for what it is – a fic-tional tale created to entertain. I would suggestthat parents use discernment with regards toallowing their children to read these books. Ifthey believe that the themes presented in theseries to be too mature for the intended audi-ence, perhaps it will be necessary for them toreassure their children that the Harry Potterseries is merely fiction and that the magicspells enacted by the Potter gang should not beimitated.
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ABOVE:Hundreds of kidsanxiously await-ing for therelease of thenew Harry Potterbook (right),millions of copiesof which havebeen sold world-wide
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