Should Harry Potter be Viewed as Real Witchcraft?

Accio Satan?

No. And that’s this week’s post done.

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First off, J. K. Rowling’s politics are not mentioned outside of this sentence.

Secondly, I wrote a post a while ago about how I don’t see myself as the main character in stories. That will give you some insight into where I’m going with this discussion.

Thirdly, I’m actually not trying to be inflammatory or sensational with this post. But with the upcoming (and unnecessary) Harry Potter tv show, this topic has resurfaced in my mind and I wanted to talk about my experience with HP. So do not expect actual research in this post, only personal thoughts.

I came into the Harry Potter series around book five’s release. This was before I learned how to read, so my sister and I got the audiobooks on cassette. We stayed up quite late some nights listening to those books. Good times, from what I remember.

I never got sucked into that fandom (I have another post for that topic) but I liked it well enough and was suitably annoyed when the movies took some serious deviations from the plot. It’s one of those chunks of pop culture that I was close to the right age to enjoy, and I’m kinda glad I could catch a wave like that. (It did make me feel old when my nephew said he’d heard of HP but hadn’t watched the movies or read the books. That generational gap caught me off-guard.)

Anyway, at the time of listening to those books, I didn’t know about the kerfuffle surrounding them. After I learned that people thought their kids were gonna practice witchcraft if they read the books, I imagine my reaction was something along the lines of, “Huh?”

If HP was classified as urban fantasy and mentioned angels, demons, zombies, séances, and exorcisms, okay, I’d see a connection. But when I think of the HP world, I see trolls, dragons, goblins, castles, and giant spiders. Potion classes are their chemistry and botany is a bit more dangerous. Owls bring the mail and Christmas is an even more magical time of year. Practicing dark arts is not condoned and they have dedicated classes to defend themselves against it. Being on the dark side of things means they’re the villain. If a normal kid reads this series, they’re going to find a story about friendship, carrying on through adversity, the importance of not being a jerk to children, and beating the bad guys (who are all jerks to children). If a kid says they want to be like Harry or Hermione when they grow up, I can think of more unsavory role models.

I was about eight when I started listening to the audiobooks. And a Christian homeschooler—a prime candidate for a Harry Potter ban. But my parents didn’t ban it because they trusted me. Nothing I’d done made them concerned that I would do anything untoward after listening to Jim Dale for hours. Yes, I have an active imagination and had dressed up as a princess or pretended I owned a restaurant (my sister and I had the greatest collection of plastic food and we knew how to use it). But it was always just pretend. It was play. And I knew that and never tried to make it real. There’s always been a wall between me and it, whatever “it” is.

I don’t know how widespread this witchcraft concern was. I imagine it was concentrated around Christian groups. I understand why the Christian side of things is more wary of demonic activity and I think there are plenty of things that Christian parents should guard their children against. But, well…

This is what I don’t get about the whole thing: Harry Potter is fake. Hogwarts doesn’t exist. Voldemort has no power here. Magic, as portrayed in the books/movies, is a fanciful idea. Yes, I do believe that supernatural powers exist and shouldn’t be treated blithely. I’m also a supporter of stories about dragons, robots, superheroes, talking animals, Belgian detectives, time travel, Regency romances, Robin Hood and other things that may or may not exist. It’s called stories. Harry Potter is a story. Yes, people have wrapped their personality up in it, which I don’t get. But it’s just a story.

I bet those parents who forbade their kids from reading HP never read the books. They just heard the word “witchcraft” and…assumed that HP would teach kids about pentagrams and Ouija boards? That butter beer and unicorns are the gateway to hell? How on earth would kids even think to search for the occult after reading HP? They should have no concept of its existence in the real world and if they do, then shame on the parents for letting overt occult stuff in their kid’s lives. But say the kid does decide to do research on divination. Reality does not resemble Hogwarts, which is the real draw of the series, so just how long do you think the kid will stick with it? Or understand it enough to genuinely practice it? They’re going to be bored out of their minds and quit.

When I re-read the HP series not too long ago, I saw no pentagrams, Ouija boards, or anything pro-demonic. Granted, I’m not versed in demonic things, but that proves my point: Harry Potter, in and of itself, doesn’t teach anyone how to summon demons, for example. If, for some reason, I wanted to learn about demonic things, HP wouldn’t make the top hundred places I’d look to for information. Despite the massive cultural impact it has had, reading HP will no more make you a wizard than Moby Dick will make you a whale hunter.

By banning something as benign as HP, these parents weren’t/aren’t helping their kids. I do wonder how many kids later read/watched HP and were confused why it was forbidden. The kids need to see that bad guys can be beaten, even if it’s in the guise of waving sticks around and shouting faux Latin. Show kids what the darkness looks like so they realize they can overcome it.

Or make sure your kids know what’s real and fake, good and bad, and trust them to not be too much of an idiot.

There’s not much else I can say about HP because it’s the same with all the fiction books I’ve read. It’s fiction and no fiction is more tangible than any other fiction. Some of it is definitely better written and has stuck with me over the years, whereas others have faded to half-remembered dust jackets. But separation of mind and fiction is an important part of being a reader and/or watcher of any story. If you can’t do that or you think your kid can’t do that, you should stay away from every piece of fiction created, be it Hogwarts, Narnia, Middle-earth, Wonderland, or Tatooine.

This has been my standard mode for treating fiction and I’m contemplating writing a post called “What’s the Point of Fiction?” because I think people maybe need to take a step back from how they interact with stories. The rise of trigger warnings makes me think that some people are attaching themselves too closely to what isn’t real. This also might be why new stuff isn’t landing: no one wants to watch stories that are merely an extension of what they’re already living. The fantastical element has slipped further from view in favor of gritty and realistic, and the stories have suffered.

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So what do you think about banning Harry Potter? Good or bad idea? Were you banned from reading it or were you the ban-er? If so, why?

And read my reviews for the Harry Potter series before they go behind the paywall.

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