"Iranian Daily: Harry Potter, Billion-Dollar Zionist Project
In an article, the Iranian daily Kayhan, which is identified with Iranian Supreme Leader 'Ali Khamenei, criticized Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry for approving the distribution of the new book in the "Harry Potter" series.
The paper said that "Harry Potter" was a Zionist project in which billions of dollars had been invested in order to disrupt the minds of young people.
Source: Kayhan, Iran, July 26, 2007"
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6 comments:
Interesting. These Iranians should get together with some Evangelicals down in the American southwest. They had a Harry Potter book burning not too long ago (if I'm not mistaken).
Of course, Harry Potter books should be burned. But for reasons other than metaphysics.
Don't fret so, MFT. She's just writing like a Dickens [which is a bit more fortunate than if she had scribbled like a Thackeray].
Hey, Le Pew, you're mixing your appley Muslims with your orangey Hindus. Can't tell your honor killing from your suttee?
"Interesting. These Iranians should get together with some Evangelicals down in the American southwest. They had a Harry Potter book burning not too long ago (if I'm not mistaken)."
Some group did. I think the heyday for this sort of thing was 2-3 years ago. If I read correctly, there is now a countertrend to make Harry a version of The Messiah. Can't beat 'em, join 'em and all that.
How's that for FreeCounterPoint, symbolized with Harry Potter the Evil one year, and Harry Potter the Messiah three years later.
Even though Dickens "A Christmas Story" was forced on me as a 9th grader in the Bismarck Public School System, I'd still say Chuck had better playright prose than the cliche-ladened Rowland. (note: that Mark Twain's "Huck Finn" was also forced on me by the public school system also brought me to, initially, ascribe it with a negative value-judgment -- but those days are long gone).
You know how Harold Bloom and I feel about this Harry Potter matter, AA.
Excerpt from the Atlantic Monthly: Some argue that the books' popularity will fade. In a 2003 Atlantic Online interview, critic Harold Bloom discussed an opinion piece he had recently written for the Wall Street Journal which had "incensed thousands of Harry Potter fans by expressing unambiguous disdain for the boy wizard." In the interview, Bloom emphatically defended his disparaging judgment of "that wretched Harry Potter." While reading the series, he said, "I could not believe what was in front of me ... It was just one cliché after another." He went on to predict that the series would not be handed down to future generations: "Like all rubbish," he declared, "it will eventually be rubbed down. Time will obliterate it."
Up to that point, Bloom said he'd never received so much hate mail in all his life. Well done, Harold!
The Dickens analogy was for his vast popularity but also for his writing almost all his stories as has Rowland, through serializations which fans follow as they might a soap opera. Dickens was a far more gifted writer,although Rowlands is a gifted "storyteller"--that is she spins a yarn people want to follow-- although I suspect "Potter" is really all she has in her.
There are lots of fads in writing, and even eras of grace and darkness [think of any writer whose works have been around long enough, be he Homer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, or Victor Hugo], which may be fairly independent of the quality--if that quality be not execrable.
I can appreciate what Bloom said, but I think he misses something. "Potter" is somewhere between children's literature and serious literature. It is not as close to "serious" as Lord of the Rings, but further away from mere children's writing to be put into the Peter Pan category. It may be in that zone in which you find stuff like Wizard of Oz or Gone With the Wind. That zone in which a mediocre talent hits upon a story which captures a world generation's attention. The story must have something a little odd about it, yet have universal themes which connect with people around the world, and be written at a simple enough level to allow for harmless translation or permit the average foreign student of English to make a decent go at it. Harry Potter does that.
All I know is this. I first heard of "Potter" when I was teaching in Taiwan, when student after student [all adults] begged me to use Harry Potter as part of the courses. I read some, thought "this is infantile crud", and said basically "bah, why should we waste time on ephemera?" [yeah, was always looking for an opportunity to teach a new word to the syenshan]: "This will be as dead in 10 years as surely "Kitty" will be".
Boy was I wrong on both counts.
At this point, MFT, I find Cassandra really enjoys the Potter series, and the movies have become a little more worthy as they progress along. Although I do miss the frisson of knowing that if I read on Harry I was doing Satan's work.
I suppose it's necessary to make that sub-distinction of Children's Literature in the Canon of Western Literature.
I got what you were saying regarding the Dickens analogy. Interesting Taiwan experience, too. It sounds like you handled it well.
In the end, however, Potter provides parents and children with an escape: the children escape into the world of Potter, and the parents escape from the otherwise incessent (and understandable) torment of their beautiful offspring... at least for a couple hours.
And with that said, tell Cassandra Uncle mft sends a "Hello."
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