White House officials feared J.K. Rowling promoted witchcraft

I agree completely, although he shares that penchant so many English writers have of portraying the Kelt in an ugly light. But that impinges very little on the overall work, which i found delightful, and did not read until i was an adult. I was mad for Arthurian romance when i was a boy, and i picked up that book because i recognized the title from Mallory: hic iacet Arthurus, Res quandom, Rexque futurus.

As for the "USN" designation, i had never encountered it until i read O'Brian, and note that your source (and the United States Navy has an excellent history department) states that "USS" is in use by the 1790s, and that that was by far the more common usage. Speaking of Roosevelt, he published The Naval War of 1812 in 1881, and if i recall correctly, he uses "USS" throughout. His treatment of the subject was sufficiently reliable that in the 1890s, when the RN was doing an official history, they asked Roosevelt to write the article on the American War.

Rats. The "wait what" was my comment.

Since when is Wilma Mankiller a foreigner?

But, don't you realize witchcraft in general, and Rowling in particular, is responsible for terrorism?

If it was so awful, why did you read all of the volumes?

touche

There are two things which no one has brought up. One is that the conception of "witchcraft" and "magic" in Harry Potter is a tired, predictable modern western conception of "witchcraft," which relegates it to the realm of the fairy story.

The other is that the intense Christian disgust with "witchcraft" is born of a completely unreasonable linking of "witchcraft" with "Satan," intending to imply that it is an intentionally depraved and evil system. In fact, almost all of what came to be called witchcraft were relicts of the religion of so-called pagans, and most particularly the Druids. The Druids were enough of a force in Keltic society that from Caesar onward, the Romans made deliberate effort to exterminate them. Christianity had no power to continue the policy, so they associated it in propaganda with so-called pagans in general, and with the Druids in particular. Those holidays and locations which they could engross to their own use they "christianized," and all other practices and locations were anathematized.

The early Christians must truly have feared the Druids. They did not become this obsessive with any other religion or mythology. By comparison, the worship of Wotan or of Thor was pretty easily overcome, and with far less antipathy. Lonely old men and women on the fringes of society, however, could be accused of witchcraft, especially one who was an herb doctor, and therefore thought to have mystical powers or forbidden arcane knowledge. Many such people would probably have been consulted, and not necessarily uselessly either, by those for whom there was no medical option because of their poverty and their station in life. However, it was all too easy to whip up hatred, murderous hatred against them, with charges of witchcraft. In that respect, for all the anti-Catholic hysteria of the Protestants, they (the Protestants) were much more likely to succumb to or at least countenance accusations of witchcraft.

What is pathetic, though, is that it can still be used in our times to whip up fear and hatred. It certainly seems that the great majority of fundamentalist christians are the biggest dumb shits going.

The past few years, I have been meeting more and more persons that want Halloween done away with. I just smile at them and put up my decorations anyway.

You're smiling at me, aren't you?

Both Hallowe'en and Christmas are evidence of the extent to which "pagan" holidays persist--because they tap a deep vein of our psyches in which we want to enjoy timeless aspects of human celebration. The spooky aspects of Hallowe'en and the festives aspects of the Yule celebrations cannot be killed by religious bigotry.

That I agree with totally. The outer trappings will evolve, but the basic needs will be met.

I was being paid to read them; I was asked to evaluate and comment on them as part of my job.

What was your job ?

Yes, I'd like to know that as well.

BAcking up Sets recount of the USS Constitution. From naval records even at the Philly museum, the single archived drawing is titled USS contitution when it was filed for posterity in the early 1800's.


"Once and Futuer King" a book that I made available to my kids early in their lives so they would get an introduction to the grand story and all the hmor and travail that good writing exposes. Other than that, I recall my kids devouring everything they could lay their hands on from cereal boxes to Tom Clancy Books.

I dont think Id be concerned about Rowlings "poor writing", Good storytelling can often be attributed to the editors skills after several rewrites.

Id want to know how many rewrites did Rowling go through in her FIRST Potter book.

Tolkiens series loses after the Hobbit, IMHO. It becomes unnecessarily repetitious for several events. I dont know whether that was because Tolkien didnt trust his readers or because he was getting senile.

LEwis was a huge Catholic propogandist whose best writings are the "SCrewtape Letters" , I was heavily into CS Lewis as a fifth and sixth grader in Catholic SChool and had to annoy adults to explain several of the dogma based areas in his writings.

To me it does not matter one little bit what I or others think of the lady writing abilities but that she was able to get a new generation of for the most part non-readers to read long and complex books and to enjoy doing so.

That is indeed witchcraft of the first order.

AGREED, except that I believe that writing abilities count.





David

I think that we shoud not refer to chicks by their last names alone.
It sounds ruff n harsh.





David

AGREED, except that I believe that writing abilities count.
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David a gentleman by the name of Ben Bova wrote his first book when I was a child and I remember reading it and loving it and decades later when I told him in person how must I love that book he was not happy with me considering it a poor example of his writing abilities.

Years after that I pay hundreds of dollars for a copy as Mr. Bova never allowed it to be reprinted and found out that he was correct it was a very poor written book indeed however from a child viewpoint it also have magic.

Some books only can be enjoy from a child viewpoint and that does not mean it is a worthless book if it bring a love of reading to millions of children such as Rowling had done.

we call em "Bitches"