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Old 02-24-2004, 06:17 PM   #51
Theron Bugtussle
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Blowing the froth off a couple in this quaint little pub in Michel Delving.
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Theron Bugtussle has just left Hobbiton.
Tolkien "dook"? Is that dook-ey? :D

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Originally posted by Lush
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 think it's kind of cartoony and obvious in HP. It is literally the whole backdrop of the stories. In LotR it is a side issue. So the Harry Potter series really does advertise 'magic.'

Tolkien confronts the issue by defusing it--changing it into a different issue, by using an old English term "wizard" relating to wise with age, experience, wisdom.

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Stick the character of Galadriel into the world of HP, and what do you think her title would be? "Sorceress," at least.
Not necessarily. What is the quote when the hobbits are in Lothlorien, they ask about some elvish article, Is it magic? Elvish 'magic' is explained in a way that definitely does not imply anything like witchcraft (either the Bible kind or the Harry Potter kind).

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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.
I am sure we can both agree and disagree here on the semantics. "Explicit Christian themes" - Everything in the book comes from an implicit Christian worldview--not just the author's background worldview. The story, however, explicitly takes place in a fictional pre-Christian era, i.e., after the fall (initial sin) of man, but before Christ is revealed as the redeemer.

Rowling wanted to write a book about a witchcraft world--wizards and witches among us. She could have written it as a Science Fiction style, some other planet with nearly parallel "evolution" producing a race of wizards. She chose to put it in the "known" modern present world, possibly a relatively confrontational choice. But then to sidestep the religious prohibition/taboo on witchcraft, she invokes the "witchcraft gene" hole card.

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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.
I don't understand your point here.

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Furthermore, I doubt that Tolkien neccessarily wished a specific Christian agenda to be attached to the books in the minds of his readers.
"Agenda" as in baggage? As in allegory? I don't understand. The Lord of the Rings is not an evangelistic salvation tract that would be fit to hand out on street corners....

I think Tolkien would have been pleased and humbled that a reader could have taken from the book a strong appreciation for many clear Christian virtues, though his purpose was to write a great story, that pleased his interests.

P.S. Lest you get the wrong idea, I love the HP books, and encourage my children to read them.
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For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying. -Gandalf, The Two Towers
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