December 5, 2005: Did you surf here from Google? Visit my new blog, Fantasy Fiction for Christians. 
Update II (11/23): The discussion continues here.
Update (11/21): Thanks for the links, bloggers. Keep ‘em coming!
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Are you going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today or early next week? If so, I’d love to hear an after-movie report and review, especially if you attended yesterday’s/today’s midnight viewing.
I will do a Goblet of Fire round-up post, so if you have a blog, send the link. If you don’t have a blog (Start one!), e-mail the report or post it in the comment section, and I will select the best reports and publish them on LBC.
I’m starting a blog for Christians who read fantasy fiction, and I’ll post reviews there, too.
Related:
- Harry Potter Theories and Resources
- Harry Potter and the Charmed Christians (Part II coming soon!)
- “Christian” Elements in Fiction
(Warner Brothers image)
Addendum: Any Narnia fans out there? I hadn’t read all of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, so I bought a bound volume of all seven yesterday at a bookstore in the airport. As you may know, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the second book in the series, hits theaters December 9. If any studio folks are reading, I’d love to attend an advance screening in exchange for free publicity. 
Sarah and I will be seeing a DLP screening of Potter tonight. I’m sure she’ll at least post a review.
From all the reviews so far, I doubt we’ll hate it
Comment by Frank J. — 11.18.05 @ 11:20 am
La Shawn:
I collect Harry Potter books, but I haven’t had time to read them.
I am too “Wound Up”reading great liture by conservative “pundits” - including:
“The Dream and the Nightmare” by Myron Magnet;
“Shakedown” by Kenneth Timmermans;
“Constitutional Chaos” by Judge Andrew Napolitano;
The list goes on.
Harry will just have to wait a little while longer. At least, in the book, he remains a boy; unfortunately, in the movies, he looks too old.
On the brite side - I may have more time to read Harry Potter in the near future:
Following Fox News’s disgraceful biased “special” on Global Warming - with “experts” like Robert Kennedy Jr and “What’s her name” - only credentials are that her husband wrote Seinfeld and that she “cares” - I am spending a lot less time watching Fox News.
Harry Potter, here I come.
Comment by Frank Zavisca — 11.18.05 @ 11:35 am
La Shawn, I’m a very new reader, but I have to chime in on this one! I *love* the Narnia series, and I’ve probably read each book about 15 times. However, in the newer publications, the books are arranged in a chronological order, which was not how they were originally published. I’d recommend that you read them not in the order you’ll find them in your book, but in the original order which is as follows:
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian(1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magicians Nephew(1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)
Or, in the order in which they may have been written (according to this website: http://www.aslan.demon.co.uk/narnia.htm):
1: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2: Prince Caspian
3: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4: Horse and His Boy
5: Silver Chair
6: Magicians Nephew
7: Last Battle
C. S. Lewis apparently once said the order doesn’t matter that much, but I would still start with the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was the first Lewis wrote, it sets up the whole series, and reads like it was meant to be read first. I’ve heard from others that it’s harder to get into the series if you don’t start with this one. Just some friendly advice from a HUGE Narnia fan!
Comment by Kristin — 11.18.05 @ 12:01 pm
Darn it, sorry La Shawn…my first post didn’t show up so I rewrote it. Oops.
Comment by Kristin — 11.18.05 @ 12:09 pm
I love the Narnia books and am very excited about the coming film. I have been promoting it in my congregation. I have recently been blogging about a different british fantasy writer, Philip Pullman, who is critical of Lewis. Pullman’s agenda, with his books for youth, is to attack God and the Church. And his book are also quite popular and being produced into films.
Comment by Scott Stiegemeyer — 11.18.05 @ 1:07 pm
I saw it last night at a private pre-screening. It was very good although scary (and very sad) at the end (I cried). I read the book years ago and forgot all the deatils of the ending. As a result, I don’t think it’s appropriate for pre-teens to see, not just because of the death but because voldemort is quite frightening. His evil is captured very well.
The special effects were great and there were many funny parts to lighten the darkness of the subject matter.
Great performances by all of the adults — it’s nice that the cast has remained virtually the same since the beginning. Emma Watson still overacts her part, but Radcliffe’s acting keeps getting better.
I’ve got to make lunch for the kids. I’ll post more later.
Comment by Sensible Mom — 11.18.05 @ 1:09 pm
I loved the Narnia series when I was young and I still remember the plot and everything for the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think it’s really neat that they are making a movie of it. It’s your basic good vs evil plot with fantastical characters. I agree w/Kristen about the order of the books.
Comment by RepJ — 11.18.05 @ 1:13 pm
First book! The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book!
Comment by Kristin — 11.18.05 @ 1:24 pm
I’m lover, adorer, and insane junkie of fantasy novels. You should see my paperback library of fantasy. Quite impressive for a regular fella such as myself.
I’ve read all the Harry Potter books so far and Narnia. I will be at my usual seat at the lovely AMC Theater with my two daughters absorbing both movies. I can’t wait.
Comment by T-Steel — 11.18.05 @ 1:29 pm
In a nutshell it’s frightening at the beginning and end but the middle is filled with funnier moments and more of the fantasy aspects (like the ball and Tri-Wizard competition and Moaning Myrtle is a hoot).
I wasn’t sure how they’d pull off Mad-Eye Moody’s appearance, but they did it well.
I’ve read all of the books and find them entertaining, but what bothers me most about them besides evil being marketed to a young audience is that the adults, who are in charge of the children during the school year, don’t protect them at all. There’s a loosy-goosy liberal mindset at work there. For example, the Quidditch matches and the Tri-Wizard tournament are extremely dangerous. Now you might say that they have spells that can cure virtually everything so it doesn’t matter, but, as a parent it gets under my skin.
And it seems that at the end of every book, Dumbledore has to apologize to Harry for putting him in difficult situations. He’s the adult for goodness sake.
Comment by Sensible Mom — 11.18.05 @ 1:55 pm
More… in regards to a Christian theme…
This is the first time in the series where good does not triumph over evil, instead we see Voldemort gaining strength and killing and Harry barely escaping his clutches. We actually see individuals killed versus only knowing about Voldemort’s history of killing.
As far as Christian elements I just don’t see it. In the movie there is a scene where the camera is looking through a stained glass window of a young man during a storm. The rain creates the appearance of tears in the window. Now some may say that it’s a Christ like image and calls to mind the weeping figures in churches, etc. But likely, it’s just the director using foreshadowing.
Any novel with good and evil can be thought of as representing God and the devil at some level. I think people are reading way too much into Rowling’s novels — more like wishful thinking.
Comment by Sensible Mom — 11.18.05 @ 2:10 pm
We’ll be taking my 11-year old daughter to see the movie probably tomorrow morning to avoid the ‘opening night’ crowds.
Comment by Mad Mikey — 11.18.05 @ 2:20 pm
no I am a Christian and I am not into withcraft the bible says to not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. the pagan society in the uk has said that many children are going to them because of the movie
Comment by shari — 11.18.05 @ 3:23 pm
I am looking forward to the first of the Narnia movies. While I did not read the stories directly, we had all of them in the household when growing up and my mother and sister read parts to me.
C.S. Lewis is actually one my favorite authors, my having read his space trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, That Hideous Strength, and Perelandra), and some of his non-fiction work like “Mere Christianity”.
Shari, when I was growing up, the big evil back then was the Star Wars films, because of “the force”. In the conservative churches I attended, various pastors assigned all sort of devious motives to Mr. Lucas, assuing us that his true intent was to open us up to the spirit world. Now perhaps that film did do some damage to Christians, but we lack the alternate universe without the film to prove such a hypothesis. And today, nearly everyone who was ranting against it has seen part or all of the films.
Stories with witches (in Grimm, Anderson, and Disney fairy tales) have long existed and I tend to feel we Christians are selective in what we speak out against. The entire genre of fairy tale (and much of science fiction) is made of magical happenings.
Comment by Finn Kristiansen — 11.18.05 @ 4:10 pm
The BBC (yes!) has a fine piece about the Christian content of Narnia:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4447090.stm
Comment by Jeff in NY — 11.18.05 @ 4:48 pm
LaShawn:
(1) Craig Williams attended the late-night showing of the new Potter movie, loved it, and blogged about it. His web address is: tabletalk.typepad.com/.
(2) As far as I’m concerned ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ are the greatest works of fiction I have ever read.
Blessings in Christ,
Mark Daniels
Comment by Mark Daniels — 11.18.05 @ 5:29 pm
SANTIAGO.- Recientemente se realizó en la Universidad Diego Portales de
Chile el Tercer Congreso Iberoamericano de Periodismo Digital (http://www.periodismodigital.udp.cl /),
en el que se discutieron diversos temas
relacionados con la nueva forma de hacer y entender el periodismo, en un
mundo donde predominan los sitios web, los blogs, el iPod y otras
tecnologÃas al servicio de la información.
Protagonistas de este encuentro fueron, más allá de los exponentes, los
propios estudiantes de Periodismo, ávidos por conocer el qué, quién, cuándo
y cómo de los rápidos cambios que vive el mundo gracias a la tecnologÃa e
Internet.
Es por eso que, en una iniciativa única, alumnos de la Universidad del
Desarrollo de Chile http://udd2005.blogspot.com
realizaron una completa cobertura al evento, subiendo notas,
entrevistas, audio e incluso videos a un blog.
http://www.arturocatalan.cl/congreso
Dentro del material destacado está las entrevistas a la española MarÃa José
Cantalapiedra, periodista y docente, quien discutió en el congreso la
evolución de la pirámide invertida y cómo ésta sigue siendo la mejor forma
de redactar una noticia a pesar del nuevo periodismo y las nuevas
tecnologÃas.
Sobre esto último expuso el chileno Carlos Osorio, ingeniero del MIT, quien
habló de la relación entre periodismo y medios tecnológicos.
El también español Gumercindo Lafuente, del diario El Mundo, se
refirió a los desafÃos de los medios online, mientras que el peruano
Diego Peralta, del diario Perú.21 señaló que el periodismo digital al
informar antes ha obligado al periódico ser más de análisis.
Del diario peruano El Comercio, habló en forma especial para el blog de la
cobertura del congreso de los alumnos de la Universidad del Desarrollo el
periodista Juan Carlos Luján, quien se refirió al fenómeno blogs, que
definió como de gran utilidad para los periodistas.
Otra de las cosas interesantes de este sitio web de los futuros periodistas,
es que incluyeron archivos de audio y video, por lo que quienes lo visiten
pueden enterarse de lo ocurrido a través de formatos multimedia. También se
pueden bajar desde el blog algunas presentaciones.
Un abrazo desde lo más austral del mundo: Chile
English only, please. - Admin
Comment by Francisco — 11.18.05 @ 6:32 pm
well i dont watch star wars or lord of the rings or narnia. it is very likely that christians who are seeing this movie havent read their bibles in a long time. dust if off and read it. scoff and laugh if you want but the bible does say that few will find their way to heaven. I see no reason as a follower of Christ for me to align myself with witchcraft. None.
Comment by shari — 11.19.05 @ 1:27 am
I have to respond to Shari’s comment, #18. C.S. Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, was a very strong Christian. His books lead readers into a deeper understanding of the love of Christ. Christian fiction is a wonderful way to lead child readers to the Gospel. Please check out my review of a new book, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO NARNIA: CHRISTIAN MEANING IN C.S. LEWIS’S BELOVED CHRONICLES. That book analyzes the parallels between what C.S. Lewis wrote in his fiction and his non-fiction (like Mere Christianity.)
http://tinyurl.com/7dsh4
Comment by Heather I. — 11.19.05 @ 6:12 am
>>”the pagan society in the uk has said that many children are going to them because of the movie”
I keep reading this, but only from US-based Christians.
Does anyone have a url or a publication reference that can allay my suspicion that this is one of those things that someone made up but is then eagerly circulated by well-meaning but gullible Christians? (There’s a bit of a history of this. You’ll have heard the one about NASA and “the missing day)
Comment by Richard Hall — 11.19.05 @ 7:35 am
Shari,
You say, ‘I see no reason as a follower of Christ for me to align myself with witchcraft. None.’ Well, me neither, but maybe you should see if you have one shred of evidence from the other posts in this thread before you assert, ‘it is very likely that christians(sic) who are seeing this movie havent read their bibles in a long time.’ or imply that we, Narnia / Potter / Rings lovers are both losing our way to heaven and aligning ourselves with witchcraft. I see neither reason not reasoning why I should heed your, if I may so, rather uninformed condemnatory warning. None!
Comment by John Kilpatrick — 11.19.05 @ 7:42 am
Brunch: 11/19/2005
Try one of these specials with your weekend brunch:
Beth is queen
Baldilocks (Two of Clubs) looks at an NAACP leader converting to the Dark Side
Amy (Diabetes Mine) has a story [via Jo’s Cafe]
Wizbang has a history lesson
Public Eye cover…
Trackback by basil's blog — 11.19.05 @ 9:06 am
If you’re interested in what people are saying about Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and others, then go read the blog comments at La Shawn Barber’s Corner from 11/18– last check, she had 22. It will be interesting if she does get her Christian Fantasy website up because a ton of people will go hear what she has to say.
Pingback by Mom 2 Mom Connection — 11.20.05 @ 6:01 am
Just saw the Goblet of Fire last night. It is the best of the HP movies so far! There is plenty of action and this movie is the funniest so far (saddest too). I was skeptical about how the director would approach this movie, because the book is so long and so much happens. The book is also my least favorite of the HP series, because it seems to drag in a lot of places.
What the director did cut out of the movie is character/story development and lots of dialog. Someone like my wife who has not read the books, did not understand why it seemed everyone hated Harry after he was chosen to complete in the tournament. The emergence of Ron’s feelings for Hermione are only addressed briefly. The director also, gave token bits to some of the essential characters (McGonagal, Malfoy, Ginny).
I will go again to see it later in a month or so and we already want the DVD.
Comment by Jeff — 11.20.05 @ 8:08 am
Here’s my review, http://tinyurl.com/9wx2q
Comment by Fausta — 11.20.05 @ 8:10 am
La Shawn, I translated some of the Spanish written entry up above and it’s off topic. Something about journalists and why they find blogs useful, that sort of thing. I typed in ‘translator’ into Google and used one of the free ones to do a quick translation.
Comment by RepJ — 11.20.05 @ 12:02 pm
I took my eight year old daughter to see the movie yesterday (Saturday) afternoon. She didn’t think it was that scary.
It was full of a lot of intense action scenes. Overall, I liked it, considering that they had to keep the movie within a reasonable time. There wasn’t a lot of room for character development, and some of the scenes seemed mashed together.
Ralph Fiennes does an excellent Voldemort. They did the Mad-Eye Moody/Barty Crouch thing pretty well. I liked the footage from the 1st and 2nd tasks.
Would I go see it again at the first-run theatre? Probably not. Maybe at the second run.
Also, we’re all definitely looking forward to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We spent two weeks reading the book together as a family.
Comment by Dan — 11.20.05 @ 3:02 pm
There are differences and similarities between the authors and the stories by Rowling, Tolkien and Lewis. I am huge fan of Lewis and Tolkien and have also enjoyed all the Harry Potter books.
About the authors- Tolkien was always devout in his faith. Lewis became a Christian later in life (his conversion was helped along by Tolkien). I’ve read that Rowling is atheist or agnostic. But I personally think that these authors are very similar in their writings in that their is Divine guidance to their stories, plots and moral contributions (although if Rowling is indeed agnostic, she may not agree). I have no issue with the magical allegories in any of the stories (and I include Lewis’s space trilogy as well- he revives Arthurian legend in Perelandra and That Hideous Strength) as they are background tools for the overall Christian message.
Interestingly, Rowling’s Potter series has evolved to mirror themes more closely to Lord of the Rings, especially in the latest Potter novel, Half Blood Prince, where Love and Sacrifice is predominant. Lewis presents the continuing struggles and assualts on Christian values.
Comment by Rob — 11.20.05 @ 4:48 pm
I read that Rowling is a member of the Church of Scotland.
Comment by La Shawn — 11.20.05 @ 5:04 pm
I’m not sure what she is and can’t track where I saw it. Both Rowling and Tolkien set out to write children’s fantasy and magic, wizardry and surreal creatures help capture children and adult imaginations alike. If you can accept that God had a hand in the inspiration for the moral concepts and good v. evil values, then the allegories pose no threat to Chritian beliefs.
Comment by Rob — 11.20.05 @ 5:44 pm
Another “connectee” is blogs4god (glob4dogs) which threw “Harry Potter” into an attack on Frank Rich’s NY Times Op Ed piece on the Iraq War. It links to La Shawn Barber’s Corner which has a piece on the latest Potter movie as well as links to blogs with names like “10 Christian blogs,” “Beliefnet’s blogheaven - where faith blogs go if they’re good,” “blogsforbush,” and a few others of that stripe.
Pingback by bt’s Weblog — 11.20.05 @ 6:49 pm
LaShawn:
If you want an advance screening, I have two tickets to the “world premiere” our church is putting on on the 8th (1 day before it opens nationwide). We meet in a movie theater, so it makes sense to do this again (we previously premiered “The Passion of the Christ” as well).
It’s a totally unreasonable hike for you to make it up to the Philadelphia area, I know, but the offer’s good if you want it. (I’ve even got two extra tickets that aren’t spoken for).
Comment by Doug Stewart — 11.21.05 @ 9:39 am
#32 was in re: “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, by the way.
Comment by Doug Stewart — 11.21.05 @ 9:40 am
I’m a huge Narnia fan, and have read all the books repeatedly since childhood. Early reviews from Christian film critics are saying Disney got it right. I’m excited about the film!
Comment by Cindy Swanson — 11.21.05 @ 12:45 pm
La Shawn,
I saw Goblet of Fire on Saturday and started writing a review. Unfortunately, it’s on my home PC instead of here with me on my notebook.
I’ll send you a link as soon as I post my review…probably this evening or tomorrow.
Comment by Mad Mikey — 11.21.05 @ 1:51 pm
You’ll have to let us know how it is Doug. So I know whether or not to see it that weekend.
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 11.21.05 @ 8:57 pm
We saw Goblet of Fire on Friday, opening night. The theater was packed and the audience burst into applause when the movie started and we all roared and cheered. What fun!
The movie was wonderful, better than some of the others in the series. The humor is terrific and I laughed harder than I laugh at most so-called comedies. The tasks were well done and I loved how we really get to know Neville at last. Fred and George were so adorable — I can’t wait until their fabulous scene in Order of the Phoenix.
Here’s the best part: After the movie, my children were all talking about the parts that weren’t in the movie but were in the book — we listened this summer to the audio CD as a family. That is the best lesson I could give to my kids.
Books are better than movies!
Comment by Bonnie — 11.21.05 @ 9:40 pm
Interesting article from the local newspaper here, about a “culture clash” over The Chronicles of Narnia. The conservative Christians, of course, claim it as their own, because of C.S. Lewis’ Christian credentials. Others claim that “Everyone and no one owns Narnia. Narnia owns itself.” And some atheists are saying things like, “I don’t want evangelicals using these books to fuel fundamentalism in the 21st century.”
Some interesting material here regarding the film’s content:
I’ve seen the trailers for the movie…it looks like they’ve tried to give the story the full-on LotR treatment, with lots of sweeping scenic panoramas, a clash between two great armies, and so forth. My wife and I don’t go to many movies, but I’ll probably catch it on DVD at some point. (As I will with HP:GoF.)
Comment by Erbo — 11.21.05 @ 10:48 pm
Hi, LaShawn!
I recently reviewed the latest Potter film here:
http://tinyurl.com/bwwus
Am looking forward to the new Narnia film as well. You might be interested to know that some self-proclaimed atheists are refusing to see this movie:
http://www.denverpost.com/movies/ci_3224090
And how does this make them more enlightened than some rather small-minded Christians who refuse to see/read Harry Potter?
Comment by Mad Minerva — 11.22.05 @ 11:12 am
“Goblet of Fire” is the most entertaining of the four Harry Potter movies so far. Your other commentors cover it’s positives well. I have only one complaint.
The new Dubledore is sad. His body language and facial expression are adequate, but his slurred speech distracts from his performance. Was he nipping from a flask hidden in his robes between takes?
Comment by Doug Purdie — 11.22.05 @ 3:48 pm
Doug, I agree with you entirely! This new Dumbledore can’t hold a candle to Richard Harris’ masterful portrayal. It was the one great jarring note in an otherwise rip-roaring good film.
Comment by Mad Minerva — 11.22.05 @ 4:35 pm
Many Potter purists complain about Michael Gambon’s protrayal of Dumbledore. Whenever I watch the movies or re-read the books, it is Richard Harris’s Dumbledore I see.
Comment by La Shawn — 11.22.05 @ 4:41 pm
the movie was excellent, very enjoyable, though some things can’t be understood unless you read the book, like the people that had to be saved underwater were not really going to die, Ron’s jealousy of Harry. The twin brothers are Ron were very funny.
Two remarks: bell hooks has written about the harry potter series. she regards it as an evil story of a white boy, that is, harry taking over the world (this is not a joke). in the books, it is made clear that the students are from different ethnic groups, including jewish. I can’t imagine Rowling adding a muslim character because it would probably earn her a fatwa.
Comment by Persia — 11.22.05 @ 8:16 pm