Reading Room

I'm behind...WAY behind. With spring cleaning..yes. Updating this blog..yes, guilty. However, what I really am referring to is reading Harry Potter. I've only read the first two books in the series (collective gasp heard amongst wizards and witches!). She must not own the third book, they say. Nope, I have them all with the exception of the last installment released a few days ago (with much fanfare I might add.) OK..she must be SO busy, that she hasn't had any time for books. EHHH...wrong again. I'm currently reading "The Corn King and the Spring Queen", the 1931 historical novel by Naomi Mitchison. So why haven't I picked up "The Prisoner of Azkaban"? I was bored with the first two Harry books.

Let's face it..the Harry Potter books, originally written for kids, are entertaining fantasy but outstanding literary works they are not. So why the "Potter Mania" among adults? Well, while allowing for individual taste, some young adults WERE kids when "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" hit the book shelves in 1997 , so they grew up with the stories. Some are parents of young readers enjoying the fun alongside their little Harrys and Hermiones..while others simply follow the leader of the "What's New and Hot Club". Don't get me wrong, I think the Harry Potter novels are beneficial because they have kids actually reading books and using their imaginations in this day and age of computer games and scheduled play dates..but are the stories leading them to the occult world as some christian fundies/book banners suggest?

My own interest in subjects pagan was awakened after reading "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1985. That wonderful take on the Arthurian legends gave me a starting point to my long held "there is something missing from christianity" feelings, and I was left with the aura of coming home again. I began reading everything I could on the Druids which led me to Wicca and well, here I am, a Wiccan Witch! But that set of events would not have transpired if the seeds of unrest were not there to begin with..the book itself did not "seduce me to the dark side".

Are the events in the stories a true representation of the neo-pagan movement? Hardly, though I believe J.K. Rowling did work enough similarities into the fantasies to give finger pointing fundies something to obsess over. For instance, I think the sorcerer's stone in the first book is a take on the philosopher's stone, a legendary substance which enabled adepts in alchemy to compass the transmutation of metals. Some witches do have wands and/or work with herbs (although I have yet to witness wands like the ones from Ollivander's and mandrake that screams while being harvested.) The Mysteries of the Universe and connecting with Nature are so much more phenomenal in this Witch's opinion!

So will I ever get around to reading the next Harry Potter? Eventually, yes. I have heard the books do get better as they go along..but right now I have some spring, oops pre-fall cleaning to do. Where's that magick wand when I REALLY need it? :o)