Pother Over Potter

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				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Pother Over Potter				December 22, 2001

On December 15 Anthony Lewis, who has been writing political and legal columns for the New York Times for 32 years, published his final essay. As the focus of his last piece, Lewis chose to deal with what he refers to as the “challenge to a basic tenet of modern society: faith in reason.” Using the events of Sept. 11 as his starting point, he goes on to say that the assault on reason involves two constituencies: The first is religious fundamentalism, and by that he means not only Islamic fundamentalism, but Christian fundamentalism as well, with its belief in creationism as literal truth and its abhorrence of the “scientific method that has made contemporary civilization possible.” The second is extreme nationalism, which, conjoined with religion, has “formed deadly combinations in these decades, impervious to reason.” Nationalism in the guise of patriotism creates the type of fear which tramples on constitutionally guaranteed rights and allows the attorney general of the United States to engage in tactics which, says Lewis, constitute “the Kafkaesque hallmark of tyranny.”

While the activities of President Bush and attorney general Ashcroft relative to the incarceration and judgment of alleged terrorists have been the subject of much open debate, the role of religious fundamentalism in the demise of reason appears to be more subtle. Though we all have heard of the Taliban’s numbing assaults on music, literature and the theater, we tend to believe that such activities could never take place here. And yet there are disturbing signs that Christian fundamentalists are indeed on the warpath again and have uncovered yet another bugaboo upon which to vent their wrath. His name is Harry Potter.

What is unusual about this campaign, however, is not the fact that fundamentalists oppose what they consider to be the literature of sorcery or the anti-Christ, but that they appear to have enlisted some educators in their ranks. Indeed, in an article which appeared in the Daily Press on Dec. 8, it was reported that the principal of the Mary Atkins Elementary School in Hampton sent home a letter to parents indicating that the Harry Potter series was “an accurate representation of witchcraft packaged for children.” More disturbing is the fact that the sources for this judgmental appraisal were “various Christian, anti-Harry Potter web sites.”

In fairness to the principal, she does claim that she didn’t intend to put pressure on the parents one way or another, and that she simply wanted to let them know that there “is another perspective out there about Harry Potter.” On the other hand, there are different perspectives out there about most literary works. If principals and teachers are to become society’s arbiters of literary ethics and morality, why not send home warnings about reading the Bible, since there are other perspectives which maintain that the Old Testament deals with a vengeful warrior god who demands, among other things, that a father sacrifice his son, and that the New Testament includes epistles written by a neurotic misogynist? Certainly on the basis of these perspectives we might find such literature unsuitable for children. Or perhaps public school officials should alert parents to the troublesome psychological innuendoes in the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Or the incest that’s rampant in Greek myths? The different perspectives about these are too numerous to mention.

Obviously what bothers fundamentalists about the Harry Potter books is the complete reign of fantasy and the paranoiac fear that J.K. Rowling is up to something sinister. Never mind that the legends and myths of most nationalities are replete with witches, sorcerers, magicians and seers. These aren’t prime contemporary reading for impressionable children. No, what troubles the religious revisionists is that the Potter books are being read, and read in great numbers. They are popular because the story they tell releases the imagination of the reader and carries it along with a marvelously constructed hero through the troublesome world of good and evil.

In the final analysis, we all should be deeply concerned by the observations of Anthony Lewis. On the other hand, we should note that the fundamentalist attempt to stifle Harry Potter is not going well. Educators in the JCC/Williamsburg school system seem not to be jumping on the anti-Potter bandwagon. In fact, in one of the most reasonable assessments of the situation I have heard, Michael Asip, the principal of the Toano Middle School, told me that the decision to read the Potter books should be left up to the parents and students concerned. And in that, I think, Anthony Lewis can take some solace.