Subject: On Harry Potter? |
Bible Note: Tim, the perspective from which I view the power of imaginative literature (fiction) to influence one's thinking regardless of his age differs somewhat from yours, I'm afraid. I began to learn to read and enjoy simple stories and rhymes at the age of six or so and have continued to read for what approaches sixty years. Literature and English were my major fields of study in school. I therefore feel at least mildly qualified to opine about books and writers. Fiction, simply because it is fiction and understood by the reader to be fiction, is not diminished in its ability to influence, and sometimes to influence profoundly, the mind of the reader. In the hands of a skilled author, fiction can, in fact, do a much better job of bending the reader's mind to a certain point of view than other kinds of factual or documentary material can. A highly sensitive writer can, by the art and craft of fiction, rivet the reader's attention so raptly in the story line and capture his sympathy for the characters so completely that the reader's mind is made receptive to virtually any message the writer wishes to convey. Imaginative literature is filled with examples wherein the author had a message to deliver that went far beyond the mere entertainment aspect of his novel or play. Examples are not hard to find, but for the sake of brevity, I'll cite just a few. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", while mere fiction, had a profound influence on the way America viewed slavery. Dickens' beloved novels, while being enormously readable and entertaining, do, many of them, lash out harshly at the social ills prevalent in the England of his time; and they helped to effect, in some measure, sweeping national reforms. Melville's "Moby Dick" is far more than a fish story. A young boy may well form his initial ideas of good and evil from "Treasure Island" or "Tom Sawyer." When I think of imaginative works with a message -- a popular term we toss about is "hidden agenda" -- my mind is flooded with names and titles. Faulkner, Goethe, Sarte. Ibsen, Swift, Rabelais. There is indeed an impressive number of fictional works (imaginative literature is the better term) that have served to form and shape the thinking of Western civilization and that have done much to mold our own worldview, whether we realize it or not...... Accordingly, I could not urge Christian parents enough to be keenly aware of, and supervise the kinds of, literature their children are exposed to. It is during these formative years, when the child's mind is so malleable, his appetite for new ideas so voracious, and his ability to exercise discernment between what kinds of reading are good for him and what kinds are not is so limited that the guidance and counsel of a Christian parent is so crucial. There are many, far better, substitues for the popular, but from a Christian perspective, unwholesome and undesirable, Harry Potter series. The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S.Lewis comes immediately to mind as offering an equal if not even better fare of adventure and fun to the young reader without the possibly adverse side effects. --Hank |