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I’m not trying to be rude or anything 🙂
Dark is the Shadow, and yet my heart rejoices.
@starofthenorth
Im not saying that breaking rules are okay just that if you read books in that genre you should prepare for that kind of thing to show upIm not saying that breaking rules are okay just that if you read books in that genre you should prepare for that kind of thing to show up
As a result, we don’t read much YA fiction! I’m concentrating on writing it instead. 🙂
Be brave. Be strong. Be bold.
-Christopher Blakewell@arien ah I didn’t think of that. Doesn’t bother me really, as I’m not gonna be breaking rules anytime soon but I totally see ur point!
but it helped that their rules were totally stupid and I was rooting for her the whole time XD
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSebah I didn’t think of that. Doesn’t bother me really, as I’m not gonna be breaking rules anytime soon but I totally see ur point!
but it helped that their rules were totally stupid and I was rooting for her the whole time XD
Hm, yeah. Rooting for characters to break the rules, even stupid ones, is something I’m not comfortable doing. 🙂
Be brave. Be strong. Be bold.
-Christopher Blakewell@arien I understand 😊
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSebBtw, I started a topic about this too, so when I saw this, I thought yay, more people XD
I agree that the ‘breaking the rules’ trope is typical for the magical schools. I think it depends on the context. Honestly, I think it’s perfectly fine to read books with that stuff in it, unless you’re easily influenced by the characters’ actions. I don’t think it’s the best trope ever, and there are definitely better ways to go about it, but I’ve always found that Harry Potter either has a good reason to break the rules, or ends up paying for it in one way or another. That’s just me.
Also this. (Directed towards everyone.) Why does everyone take Harry Potter off their reading list because of the ‘witchcraft?’ I understand if you don’t want to read about that sort of thing, but lots of the same people have read Keeper of the Lost Cities, Lord of the Rings or books like that, that have magic. And barely anyone seems to have a problem with those books. They all have magic, wizards, powers, etc. and yet, Harry Potter is the one singled out.
Sorry if I’ve offended anyone. I just want to make a point.
I’ve heard that The Stormlight Archives is good. What’s it about?
KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...
I agree that I don’t understand the not reading Harry Potter thing especially with Marvel which in Wanda Vision there is a literal Salem Witch and the Necronomicon (look this up but be cautioned it pertains to Lovecraft Horror) Also the magic words are literally just Latin words but with some letter changed. In addition in Harry Potter you have to be born magic to do magic things. Also JK Rowling (the author) says she is a Christian and there are some Christian references in deathly hallows (the 7th book)
I will say from what I have experienced is that it the no reading Harry Potter for magic reasons generally someone who has not read the books tells another person not to read them because they teach people magic. There was also a large phase in 1980-90s now deemed the satanic panic In which things associated satan (that how it got the name) where banned or looked down on this mostly hurt D&D and led to banning or attempted book banning of Harry Potter (by the way both Harry Potter and D&D are not Satanic as I know strong Christian who read/play both) which had a ripple down affect to our generation as in because our parents were told Harry Potter and D&D were bad when they were kid they therefore told their children Harry Potter and D&D were bad.
(If I offended anyone that was not what I was trying to do)
I agree that hate for Harry Potter was passed down, but of course if someone’s parents tell them to avoid it, I’m not attacking that at all. Obedience is always better in those kind of situations.
Yeah, I’ve always found that although the line between ‘just magical’ and ‘satanic’ can be blurry, Harry Potter has nothing to do with actual sorcery except for calling people witches and wizards.
In fact, sometimes it makes very clear points about real sorcery that I love. For example, the stone that brings loved ones back to life doesn’t actually do that, it just brings back their ‘ghost’ for a short while.. It cannot really do anything meaningful for you, because humans can’t live forever in this world. The Elder wand warns against a love of power. And the cloak of invisibility teaches you – with time – not avoid death.
KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...
Hmmm…very interesting topic going on here. I think I’ll jump in if I may. I’ve never read KOTLC or Harry Potter, but I have read LoTR.
And yes, I’m one of those people who tells everybody not to read/watch Harry Potter because of witchcraft, without having a solid argument behind my reasoning. (bad, bad thing. Why do I do this to myself?)
My dad told me that he wasn’t going to tell me what to do about Harry Potter, but encouraged me to research the author and the books and develop my own opinion on whether I should delve into it or not. I did my research, and opted not to, mostly because I wasn’t interested in reading about the topics it explored.
I just talked to my older brother, who has watched all the movies, and he said something akin to the following:
In HP the whole plot is about main characters learning magic and taking out the bad wizards. In LOTR wizards help the main characters defeat the bad guys. Pretty similar, but HP could possibly influence the reader more towards learning magic, spells, etc in real life, which could get you into witchcraft. (Like, there’s a magic game they play in HP, and there are witchcraft games in real life, so if you were really into HP, it could make you want to do that kind of stuff.)
I think his point was that HP is a lot more detailed about the hows and whys of magic and wizardry, while LoTR isn’t.
He also brought up the force in Star Wars, and we were wondering if someone condemns HP, does that mean they have to condemn Star Wars to be consistent?
Personally I think whether or not you read/watch things with magic in it is up to your personality, sensitivity level, and convictions as a Christian.
Now, will I still tell people not to read HP? I’ll probably tell them that it’s all about how to do magic and wizardry, and also mention @arien ‘s point that young people getting away with breaking rules is portrayed as ok. But ultimately, it’s up to them, God and their parents.
One other thing, where do the powers in HP come from?
He must increase, but I must decrease.
The stormlight archive
Genre high fantasy* (see the astride below for my rating guid)
so the Stormlight Archive is Brandon Sandersons Magnum Opus. (Sanderson is a popular fantasy author who popped up in the news a lot in 2022 when he raised 15.4 million on Kickstarter (a crowd funding site) in order to release 4 extra books he wrote outside of his publishing deal over COVID.
I read the Stormlight archive over summer break and it has become one of my favourite book series (it’s currently 4 books and it will be 5 in 2023 (I think 🤔)) The book is multi-narrative meaning it follows multiple mc’s. It is set in a magical fantasy world inhabited by spren which are kind of like ideas that come alive so there is windspren, Honorspren and angerspren and I believe there is like a guy that says he found drunkspren or something random like that.
The narrators are
Kalladin who is a slave being sent to the shattered plains but he this spren starts talking to him (can’t say more without spoilers
Shallan who sets out to steal the soulcaster (a magic device) from the scholar Jasna in order to save her family
Dalinar the Alerhi kings uncle who starts getting visions telling him that he needs to unite the world against a coming threat.
Szeth the deadly Assasin in white who must follow the orders of whomever holds his stone
It is a great book series and the books always have really good finals. I just think you guys would really like the characters.
*rating guid (this is going
language: for the most part the characters say made up curses however there is some infrequent use of a certain word that starts with a d
positive role models: the characters have their lows and sometimes make bad choices but they always face consequences for their bad choices and end up doing the right thing in the end overall by the end of book 4 I would say the main 3 characters are pretty good role models.
violence: characters use swords arrows and magic to fight their foes and some central character die over the course of the series. There is a particular scene in which characters pry Armor of dead bodies. Also a character is strung up in a violent hurricane like storm as punishment. One plot follows slaves intentionally being used as meat bags by a villain. A character also attempts to commit suicide but is saved by his friends
Questionable stuff: there is some discussion of finding a wife/husband for a character and a couple of characters play matchmaker. A characters dating history is discussed.
substances: adult characters drink alcoholic beverages some slaves waste money getting drunk until another characters stops this behaviour. In book 3&4 a side character is revealed to have a addiction to a fantasy drug he breaks this addiction in the culmination of his arc
some extra stuff: characters frequently struggle with self doubt a main character struggles with the fact that he can’t save everyone which eventually sends him into a depressed state in book 4. Another character struggles with If she deserves what she has and gets caught up in fake identities
I think I got everything
And I’m not offended. I love
debatesargumentsdiscussions like this!He must increase, but I must decrease.
@whalekeeper @others
I agree that the ‘breaking the rules’ trope is typical for the magical schools. I think it depends on the context. Honestly, I think it’s perfectly fine to read books with that stuff in it, unless you’re easily influenced by the characters’ actions. I don’t think it’s the best trope ever, and there are definitely better ways to go about it, but I’ve always found that Harry Potter either has a good reason to break the rules, or ends up paying for it in one way or another. That’s just me.
If you mean what I think you do about the context, I agree that there are certain times when we must break the rules. For example, when the California government banned singing in church services during the Lockdown, the Christians there had a right to break the rule. The Bible tells us to sing–” . . . singing and making melody with one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” So that’s a case where it’s more important to follow God than the government. Still, as long as we can obey the government without sinning, we should, even if we don’t want to. (You listening, Sophie? lol 😊)
And in KOTLC, I appreciated how in the first book, when Sophie broke the rules, she was punished. Sadly, that kind of went away . . .
Dark is the Shadow, and yet my heart rejoices.
(Nice to meet you! I’m Erica!)
It’s definitely more in the YA realm of intensity rather than middle grade, though the bright covers can be a bit misleading.
Yes, I would definitely classify KOTLC as YA. I haven’t read many YA books at all, so maybe that’s why I’m more sensitive?
As for the intensity I personally felt that it was intense but not that intense but I like reading things with complex magic systems and where characters actually die or are hurt. (I’m also the type of person who goes strait to hard mode whenever I play co-op board/video games (and then usually dies))
I see that, if you’re into more intense things it wouldn’t be intense. It just depends on what someone’s use to.
@everyone
If you guys want an amazing fantasy book, check out The Gifted by Matthew Dickerson. I think it’s classified as Adult fiction, but it was really good! (And I didn’t find it that intense).
Dark is the Shadow, and yet my heart rejoices.
I think it’s awesome that your dad let you research and determine that it wasn’t the right thing for you 😊 I guess you could say it’s a combination of things for you, and if it’s not your thing on a preference level, that’s cool.
HP is indeed more detailed when it comes to the magic. And you have a good point when it comes to readers potentially trying magic themselves. HP magic, though, can’t be blamed for that.
I think of magic as a frying pan. You can either use it to bust a guy’s brains out, or to cook him an egg. You can’t blame the frying pan for your bad decisions.
Same with HP – you can’t blame it for those people who are potentially immature enough to go looking for sorcery. It could be influential, but it isn’t actively trying to encourage dark magic.
But your opinion is your opinion ❤ I’m not going to force you to read HP, or even going to ask it.
Um, I’m not entirely certain on that… I think it’s just always been there, like an inanimate object. If you mean, ‘where do wizards get their abilities?’, it’s mostly through bloodline\chance genes\that sort of thing.
And yeah, I’m not offended either XD thanks for clarifying that.
KaPeefers 'til we're old and gray...
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