Jonathan Strange, Harry Potter, Bilbo Baggins and....Jerry Falwell

Suddenly we are inundated by magic. Many of us read the Lord of the Rings series back in the sixties when it became popular. We had our conceptions of hobbits and orcs at that time, since replaced by the movie. (of course, now that they have found the real hobbits on an island in the South Seas, we are waiting for an orc skeleton to be uncovered in the East Village of New York). But no one could have predicted this onslaught of the white and black magic of the past few years.

I am in the midst of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (JSAMN) by Susanna Clarke. At first I was bored, but towards the end it has gotten pretty interesting. I am fascinated how similar in many ways, particularly thematic, JSAMN is to the Harry Potter series. Both are about magic. Both have human magicians newly learning their art. Both have older, wiser magicians. Both present a world where magic is an accepted practice. And, of course, both are pure fantasy.

We have similarities in the battle between the human magicians (Norrell and Strange) and the fairies in JSAMN book and the battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort in Rawlins' series. Furthermore, both JSAMN and the Potter series have similarities to the LOTR, especially in each one of them holding up a picture of English rectitude and coziness (e.g. the whole thing about the "Shire" in LOTR) while launching into epic battles with the forces of evil (interestingly the French, the traditional English Foe, are included in JSAMN, ). While Harry Potter has moved a little towards becoming more complex, he still reads like a fairy tale. JSAMN claims depth for its major characters, but they really do not have it. The minor characters are actually caricatures(Wellington, Childermass, etc.).

What ever happened to nuance? Everyone from George Bush to Jerry Falwell seems to want to see the world in black and white and these books carry out this agenda in spades (no pun intended). I would argue that it is the same with fundamentalist religion. Black and white. Good and Evil. Black and White (and throw in a little racism while you're at it).

Most of the problem in Iraq is that a vast number of people there are now allied with the insurgency. These people are immediately classified as "evil" by our government. It is legitimate to kill them, according to our government. This is just, patently false. It is the result of black and white thinking and, just as the novels of Hemingway and Fitztgerald mirrored the Jazz Age, the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell mirror ours.

Jerry Falwell comes in because Christian Fundamentalism in no different than magic. I don't have the specific quotes, but Falwell and others of his ilk have repeatedly invoked magical thinking. As if there has ever been a documented example of divine intervention in the human world. Miracles are just spells (particularly if, like Harry Potter, you say them in Latin).

So, why? I have a thought. Its not very profound, and it is probably a little elitist. Could it be that large segments of the population can't grasp the technological advances of the past 100 years? Magic and Christian Fundamentalism in this view are responses to this scientific and secular remaking of society. Probably an inevitable reaction.

I find this over and over again in medicine. The real frustration of people when confronted with technology such as bone marrow transplantation. Of course, we in medicines, like the magicians. have often misled people into expecting outcomes that are probably not going to happen. It is our way of retaining the magicians robes.