I am the wizard king, I can do anything

This past summer has been filled with important events: the closest presidential race in decades, terribly destructive wildfires in the west, and preparations for the 2000 Summer Olympics. However, for a large portion of our nation's population, the most significant event of the summer was the printing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth and longest novel in the saga of Harry Potter, boy of magic and mystery. This novel made history—of the 3.8 million copies initially printed in the United States alone, about 3 million were sold during the first weekend. Therefore, I shall do my best to provide Harry Potter with the coverage he deserves.

COURTESY OF SCHOLASTIC INC. Beware: devil book!

The hugely popular Harry Potter series, written by J. K. Rowling, is a journey into everyone's childhood fantasies. As the target audience is, in fact, young children, I will be fair and make the assumption that some of you may have somehow missed hearing about this phenomenon.

Harry Potter is the son of two powerful wizards who were murdered by Voldemort, a very strong, very mean wizard who pops up with a great deal of regularity in the novels. Harry lives with his horrible "Muggle" family, the Dursleys, during the summer, but he spends most of the year attending Hogwarts, a school for wizards and other aspiring magicians. Naturally, Harry is one of the most powerful wizards at the school—plus he can ride a broom like all get-out. He makes great friends and is almost never at a loss for something to do. In fact, his happiness might be assured if not for Draco Malfoy, the school's resident bully, and the pesky, all-powerful, evil Voldemort.

Now for the serious stuff. The Harry Potter series is mainly meant to target children, so one cannot expect a piece of fiction on the same level as, say, Great Expectations. The diction is fairly simple, and the story is easy to follow. The characters are not exactly complex: Harry is a nice guy who just wants to do what's right while garnering some glory on the side; Hermione takes her work very seriously, loves to read and learn new things, and gets upset when this causes others to believe she doesn't also enjoy the occasional adventure; Ron is fairly poor and not the most powerful wizard around, so he is the self-conscious type, but a devoted friend.

Despite such simplicity, the books have been thoroughly enjoyed by people of all ages because they possess something special, as evidenced by countless stories of kids who had no interest in reading until they tried Harry Potter. The books have, moreover, matured as the series progresses. The last two, particularly Goblet, have contained a darker tone in which the reader might actually expect important characters to die. Unfortunately, this tone may scare away some of the youngest readers, but it should appeal more to older ones looking for a more serious story.

Oddly enough, not all the reaction has been positive: multiple articles have emerged that question the possible ramifications of Rowling's use of magical themes. The fear is, of course, that kids will read a story about other kids who are just like them—except for the fact that they have magical powers—and come to a conclusion somewhere along the lines of: "I bet I can use magic, too! I think I will investigate the workings of Satan and turn away from those good (insert religion here) values with which my parents are trying to raise me."

Book

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire By J. K. Rowling Scholastic, Inc. 734 pp. $25

Luckily, the John Birch Society has addressed this issue. The society's magazine, The New American, published an article in its August 28 issue entitled "Harry Potter's Hocus-Pocus." The author of the article, Steve Bonta, admits that any novel which encourages children to read is a good thing but feels that it is necessary to point out the many images which appear, after careful study, to be "derived from occult material," suggesting "a sophisticated knowledge of the occult on the part of the author." Bonta follows this up with enough evidence to prove without question his own sophisticated knowledge of the occult, at the very least. Bonta also points out that there is a distinctly anti-Christian message conveyed in a novel in which "good and evil are never clear-cut, it seems." It is hardly necessary to dwell on the various dangers of writing novels for children that have surprise endings. Bonta concludes with an attack on Rowling's character, pointing out that she once mentioned that she admired Jessica Mitford, a human rights activist, or as Bonta puts it, a "poison-penned muckraker, unrepentant socialist, and death-fetishist extraordinaire."

If the articles I've mentioned here concern you, avoid Harry Potter books like the plague and keep your children several yards away them at all times. If not, don't be afraid to see what Rowling has written. And if you are a college student without children who wants to know how anything in this article applies to you, I'd encourage you to at least give Harry Potter a try. I have cousins, parents, and even grandparents who have enjoyed the books. And Rowling can provide a welcome rest from Great Expectations.

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