www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Harry Potter - Any readers here?

My copy of Harry Potter will arrive after I leave for Europe on a few hours. I may pick up a copy in the airport.

Anyone else curious as to what happens to Harry and his companions in their quest to destroy Lord Voldemort?

God bless,

Gordo

St. Amazon is sending my copy today by UPS. Since I have read all the other books in the series, of course I want to see how it ends. For the benefit of those who see evil in the books:

It's a long, long lane that has no turning
And it's a fire that always keeps on burning
Mister devil down below
Pitchfork in his hand
And that's where you are going to go
Do you understand?
Devil's gonna git you
Devil's gonna git you
Oh, the devil's gonna git you
Man, just as sure as you's born

My son is an avid HP reader. We are going to try and secure a copy today and perhaps catch the new movie.

Joe

well please don't spoil it for me .

I'll get my copy soon - but

are you all listening ?

I do NOT want to read it till I go on holiday to France at the beginning of September

Sooooooooooooo please don't spoil it for me - just put a warning up so I know NOT to read your posts

im Counting Down The Minutes To Getting Mine as our all Avid Harry Potter fans WOOT!

as "byzanTN" said

Quote"St. Amazon is sending my copy today by UPS. Since I have read all the other books in the series, of course I want to see how it ends"

God Bless

Gods Eternal Servant

DangerousDan

The movie was "ok" IMHO...better than the last one, but not as good as Prisoner of Azkaban, which is the BEST of all of them thus far.

Actually, I may wait to purchase the book in Europe. The book is usually more compact, as I recall.

And don't worry, m'lady! I won't spoil anything!

God bless,

Gordo

I could enjoy the earlier volumes, but Potter became a brat and rather arrogant later on in how he treated people and how he saw himself.

I sympathize with a desire for a hero, but must it be Potter?

My daughter and sister have been out and back this morning. They are immersed and reading for the last hour, bathroom breaks will be allowed . However talking to them for the rest of the day will be met with a wall of silence ....sshhhh

Don't forget HP became a teen...

My sixteen-year old daughter, who reads the whole series about 4 times a year (no exaggeration, I don't condone it) saw the new movie and was greatly disappointed (but she is a literalist, and objected mostly to what they left out).

Right now, having picked up the book last night at B&N, she's incommunicado somewhere (either reading or unconscious after staying up all night).

I've read the series so far, and I'll read this book (if I can ever pry it out of her hands), because it has given us things to talk about, but I'm still a bit ambiguous about the contents.

Nobody minds doing evil to achieve a good end, but that is not untypical in real life of high-school age kids; on the other hand, the "made up from whole cloth" aspect of the "magic", etc., reminds me more of Roll Playing Games (RPGs) than of "fairy tales", and I'm not a big fan of them.

Teens come in many tempers and I just don't like the one chosen for him. It's hard to like reading the story when I find its protagonist unlikeable for the most part.

There's a beauty in myth and wisdom in fairy tales. About Potter, I must agree with you.

I've liked role playing games, but if in novel form there can be a thread of purpose and deeper 'truth', or natural law, I find lacking. If the author of a work has no grasp of natural law, then much would be missing in the back story and between the lines of the written work. I really enjoy Tolkien, by contrast, his work is meaningful.

Terry

Terry,

I agree with you on all points.

As to RPGs, I don't play them myself -- I'm too stupid to figure out what the next right move should be, or where to look for the "secret jewels", etc. So I watch my daughter and her friends play them sometimes, and that's the extent of my involvement. But I don't like the way the (non-Judaeo-Christian) authors of these games like to mix-and-match from Western culture. So, you'll have "priests" and "bishops" wielding "magic" as part of combat -- although they may also be able to "heal", etc.

I think it's an "age thing", because the kids don't seem to pay much attention to the cultural connections, they just go for the art and the action.

Michael

P.S. Don't get me started on Tolkien: I couldn't say enough about the man and the artist!

Michael,

When I was playing the games, I did not fold its imagery or characters into my understanding of the world. I don't know if the same would go for full immersion RPGs like "Second Life"; that would depend on the interior life of the players and how they distinguish life and game. But about normal role playing games, they can be very fun and if your daughter is spiritually well formed she won't fall in line with the mentality which crafted the game. Though I would be careful of sexually suggestive or explicit material, either in the game or in online chatting during gameplay.

I would say the same goes with Harry Potter, or with youth fiction in general. The books aren't dangerous in the sense that some make them out to be.

It's better to encourage your children to read. Their reading habits may mature with time, and a love for reading can be fruitful to the rest of their life.

What kind of discussions do you have with your daughter?

Terry

Sorry, devil made me do it.