[Lush]

*tiptoeing quietly around the 'Hillo*

Theron, naturally, I agree with everything you've just said in your latest post. I think our only quibble might be whether what occurs in Harry Potter is any different from what occurs in Lord of the Rings. The Mushroom seems to think so; I do and I don't.

I think the real difference lies in rhetoric: particularly in the word "witchcraft." It's present throughout the HP books and manifests itself in characters that are both good and evil. It's also present in LotR, but with negative connotations.

This might lead anyone to think that HP advertises the occult, whereas LotR explicitly condemns it.

I do not favour that view, because I think it hinges greatly on the use of a specific word, and less so on logic.

Stick the character of Galadriel into the world of HP, and what do you think her title would be? "Sorceress," at least.

I say this because I ultimately do not view the LotR as a book that has explicitly Christian themes; Tolkien intended to write it as a myth, and magic is one of the aspects myth will inevitably deal with. Naturally his creation is unique and its implications are unique as well, coloured by the author's own background, no less.

Yet if we were to read books strictly as the author intended them to be read, we would have no need for literature in general. Shakespeare, for example, would not have needed to bother with his comedies and tragedies and sonnets and etc. He should have just written a laundry-list of truisms on life as he saw it and left it at that.

Furthermore, I doubt that Tolkien neccessarily wished a specific Christian agenda to be attached to the books in the minds of his readers.

Ultimately, I think that people that oppose HP for religious reasons whilst condoning the LotR are failing to see beyond the rhetoric.