Grimm Harry

JHC, what's this country coming to? We think nothing of torturing prisoners, and they want to ban Harry Potter?

State board will hear woman's objections to Harry Potter

In Harry Potter's world, the Ministry of Magic governs things. In Georgia, the state Board of Education rules over public schools.

These two worlds come together Tuesday when the state board has a public hearing on a parent's request to remove the popular series from Gwinnett County public school libraries. The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which is scheduled to rule on the case during its December meeting.

The problem here is education. Anyone with a modicumm of that civilized embellishment knows that classic "fairy" tales are exceedingly violent with many subthemes of patricide, infanticide, incest and even beastiality (Red Riding Hood). (Oh, and they don't contain fairies, though the anti-gay yokels would probably ban them if they did.)

Harry Potter, by comparison, is tame. There's a good PhD thesis in sociology awaiting someone comparing the world of Harry Potter with that of the Brothers Grimm.


What is the problem with Harry, you might ask. Well:

Loganville parent, challenges the books in September 2005, saying the stories promote and glorify witchcraft.(emphasis added)

Witchcraft? You remember the last time the Puritans got involved in witches.


The bad people here aren't the supposed "witches," the bad people are the loonies that thought witches actually exist.

Arthur Miller (when he wasn't dallying with Marilyn Monroe) wrote "The Crucible" about it in 1952:

The Crucible is a play that was written by Arthur Miller in 1952. It is based on the events surrounding the 1692 witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. Miller wrote about the event as an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare, which occurred in the United States in the 1950s. (emphasis added)

Sound familiar? Substitue "terrorism" for the "Red Scare" and you have perfect continuity. Salem to McCarthy to Bush and his believers. It all hangs together.