KT's Week 4

Why does the religious right in the US condemn fantasy, according to Cockrell (2004)? On what grounds does Cockrell defend fantasy literature, using Harry Potter as an example? 

According to Cockrell(2004), Harry’s detractors attack a work of literature on the grounds that it is not literature at all, but a manual for the evil arts. Cockrell suggests that there are two reasons behind this distinction between Harry and other practitioners of fictional magic. Firstly, Harry lives in our world, making him more of a threat. Rowling has abandoned the realm of high fantasy and laid her story in contemporary England, and she suggests the existence of witches and wizards, and of workable magic, in the world we inhabit here and now, so people considered that Harry Potter books encourage children to rebel against their parents, to question their values, and to assume power for themselves. However, popular culture is everywhere; on TV, at the mall, in magazines, on the billboards, on giant lighted sings, etc. Because, again, harry lives where we live in which it is becoming increasingly impossible to insulate children from unwanted influences, Harry Potter been singled out for the subversive agenda. Also, given the Christian fundamentalist assumption that the monsters and miracles of the Bible are literally true, in all their ferocious splendour, then the unseen world must indeed exist, and the separation of fact from the fiction that deals with that world becomes shaky. Fiction must conform to perceived fact, and when it does not, strange contortions arise. If art may make the unreal real, it may also disguise the real as fiction, and teach witchcraft in the guise of fantasy. Secondly, Harry’s detractors are skilfully parodied in Harry’s books. The Dursleys are parodies of every child’s most awful relatives. The Dursleys consider magic a loathsome, degenerate practice, and their frothing rage on the subject takes on the same tone as that of the anti-Harry web pages. However, Dumbledore makes magic indeed sound like philosophy and Rowling’s magic, although it may behave like a science, is in itself a mystery, as most advanced science is.

In my opinion, fundamentalist Christian parents in US are overacted on fantasy genre, Harry Potter in particular. With a real example, there were many robots on the Fantasy books in the past. One of my friend believed he was an immortal robot, and he jumped from the roof of the house. He got seriously injured, but because of this his parents didn’t prevent him not to read the books. I think Fantasy may be a contemporary trend and personal preference as being the one of popular genres; therefore, it’s not necessary to condemn Fantasy as literature.

P.S. I am still reading the book of ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’. If I compare book and movie of “A Wizard of Earthsea’, the book explains detailed in everything which is described in movie as sceneries or images, while the movie drops the linked scenes so sometimes I couldn’t understand the story. I’d rather read the book than watch the movie.

Reference

Cockrell, A. (2004). Harry Potter and the Witch Hunters: a social context for the attacks on Harry Potter. The Journal of American Culture, Vol 29, No 1

Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In The Earthsea Quartet (pp.13-167).London: Penguin.