Welcome to Gaia! ::

A short new topic here--looks like the guild is aching for a new discussion. Fantasy novels seem to be a hot topic in ED as of late, likely thanks to the recent release of the seventh installment of the popular fantasy novel series Harry Potter.

Now, I doubt anyone in this guild is base enough to think that Harry Potter and related novels invariably cause people to start flashing the horned demon hand-sign at their parents and burning candles and sacrificing goats in the name of Satan, so we won't even touch on this at all... Unless of course anyone here does think this. o.o;

Anyway, what I want to touch on is the effects of fantasy novels and other fantasy-related things on more succeptable individuals, in regards to their faith. In my younger days, I'd known many a person who claimed to be a Wiccan or some other sort of neo-Pagan after reading some Anne Rice, Patricia Briggs, J.K. Rowling, or Anne Bishop, or at least those who dabbled.

What I wish to discuss is the following:
-Do you feel that fantasy novels have a negative effect on Christianity or Christians?
-Do you think certain authors might publish their works intending to encourage paganism or neo-paganism, or do you believe it is completely inadvertent?
-Do you read fantasy novels?

Etc. Have at it, Guibesalvathristers.

The only way that fantasy novels have a negative affect on Christians, is when religious leaders and parents decide that it will and force that negativity on the people reading the novel.

Books don't hurt people unless you throw them.

ew.

I have some papercuts that beg to differ. wink

in all seriousness, I love fantasy stories. I have been reading fantasy for years, actually, for longer than I have been a Christian....

I have never felt that a story--a fictional work--can have such an impact as to change someone's fundamental beliefs. If it can, well, you need to seriously rethink the basis of your entire outlook on things.

I love fantasy for the pure wonder that an author is able to create in forming an entirely new world. It astounds me, the creative capacity of the mind.

And don't get me started on Harry Potter. As several of you may remember, I am so passionately FOR the Potter series that I have gotten into shouting matches with Christians who believe it is of the devil. In fact, this winter, I wrote my thesis on Christian themes/symbolism in Harry Potter, and how, generally, someone that objects on the basis of the presence of witchcraft is an IDIOT. I mean, C.S. Lewis, in the Chronicles of Narnia, LWW, an eight-year-old witnesses the blood sacrifice of a character representing Christ at the hands of a witch.

Oh yeah, that's really more objectionable than Harry Potter. [/sarcasm]

woot. Besides, fantasy novels often have the best themes about friendship, love, and other equally important moral/emotional/spiritual ideas.