It’s hard to believe today that Walt Disney was once fired because he “lacked imagination and had no ideas,” or that the Beatles were cut from a record level because the company didn’t think that they had a future in show business. (Weismen) Still harder to believe is that J.K. Rowling’s world famous book ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ was rejected by no less than 12 publishers before it was finally published in 1997 at the insistence of Bloomsbury chairman, Nigel Newton’s daughter Alice. (Vincent; Lawless “Nigel Newton”) The story of an 11 year old orphan thrust into an unfamiliar world of magic and set on a course to defeat the dark Lord Voldemort who killed his parents transformed into a 7 book series that has sold nearly 500 million
…show more content…
Christian author, Berit Kjos claims that “Christianity clashes with a love for witchcraft,” expressing a fear that children will find the fictional world more exciting than the real one and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for children to resist such threats to their faith. (Dunne) Kjos may be correct in his concern that children will confuse fantasy with reality. As stated in an editorial in Christian Century, "...critics are right in thinking that fantasy writing is powerful and needs to be taken seriously. But we strongly doubt that it fosters an attachment to evil powers. Harry 's world, in any case, is a moral one." This leads to the next argument against the series. Many parents is that Harry is not a good role model. He often breaks the rules, lies and doesn’t listen to those in positions of authority and ends up being praised for his transgressions. However as Mike Hertenstein notes “much of Harry’s rules breaking…involves the principle of disobeying a lower law to keep a higher one-not to say he’s Rosa Parks, but who could criticize Harry’s violation the no-fly rule to broom his way over a bully and stand up for his friends?”
Christian author, Berit Kjos claims that “Christianity clashes with a love for witchcraft,” expressing a fear that children will find the fictional world more exciting than the real one and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for children to resist such threats to their faith. (Dunne) Kjos may be correct in his concern that children will confuse fantasy with reality. As stated in an editorial in Christian Century, "...critics are right in thinking that fantasy writing is powerful and needs to be taken seriously. But we strongly doubt that it fosters an attachment to evil powers. Harry 's world, in any case, is a moral one." This leads to the next argument against the series. Many parents is that Harry is not a good role model. He often breaks the rules, lies and doesn’t listen to those in positions of authority and ends up being praised for his transgressions. However as Mike Hertenstein notes “much of Harry’s rules breaking…involves the principle of disobeying a lower law to keep a higher one-not to say he’s Rosa Parks, but who could criticize Harry’s violation the no-fly rule to broom his way over a bully and stand up for his friends?”