In The News
Updated: JKR Discusses the Role of Death in the Series, Religion, the US Presidential Election and More in New Interview (Complete Translation Now Online)
JKR InterviewsHarry Potter author J. K. Rowling has given a new interview to Spanish language newspaper El Pais in which she openly discusses many subjects including her series, inspirations, real-life heroes, and even the upcoming United States Presidential election. Thanks to TLC Reader Rosianna, we now have for you a complete translation online. A slight caution for younger readers, however, as the interview contains one instance of mild adult language. In this interview, topics range from themes of death, religion, privacy and even the current US political elections are all covered, and much more. You can read the full interview which took place in Edinburgh during early February below:
“To be invisible… that would be the best…”
J. K. Rowling (Bristol, England, 1965) or “Jo” to her friends, has the same look: frightened and happy, as Harry Potter, her fictional character. She wrote the first book because she needed it, and she continued writing until the seventh which is now released (on the 21st of February in Spain; as everywhere, in Salamandra), without looking the other way, without realizing the gigantic number of, children, youths, adults, who have become addicts from this enormous book of magic and reality which is perhaps the biggest seller in history.
Harry Potter is her hero: he saved her and as a consequence has left her emotional: she has abandoned him but cannot live without him. She told us this last Tuesday morning in Edinburgh, where she has lived for years, in the only interview she has given to Spanish media.
We brought her cheese from Asturias, to remind her of her prize from the “Príncipe de Asturias de la Concordia” and greetings from the foundation that decides those awards.
Occasionally she has spoken, in her interviews, of another great solitary person like herself, of Francis Scott Fitzgerald. It stroke us as an opportunity to start to talk to her in the same vein, of solitude and death, and of melancholy, which are the themes which dominate the last part of Harry Potter, perhaps her alter ego.
Q: You usually talk of Scott Fitzgerald, a melancholy man.
A: Yes, I have spoken of him to make a distinction between a writer that due to nature and talent had the impulse to write and could not share this need to write with his social life. I mentioned him because these days with so much emphasis on the media, it seems as though there is some sort of obligation, which says that a writer must be a public person. In my case, people think that because I am a well-known author, I should be good giving interviews and appearing in photographs. People expect to see you enjoying yourself on television programmes and expect that you like to be a public person, a performer. But I’m not. I like the life of the writer. I enjoy the solitude.
Q: It’s interesting, sometimes in Harry Potter, above all the most recent installments, there has been a certain amount of sadness and solitude, which is reminiscent of Fitzgerald.
A: Undoubtedly. It’s sadness, which is born from grief. And Scott Fitzgerald had two afflictions: that of his talent and his need to create and the affliction of his private life, which was catastrophic. Those two afflictions are enough to lead anyone to alcoholism.
Q: Those afflictions can come in that time between childhood and adolescence, when the phantoms arrive and they stay with you forever.
A: Yes, I think adolescents are very aware of death. They feel as though they are so pressured that, for them, death is only a step away. They are very fragile people. In Great Britain there is a culture of fear towards teenagers, towards young people in general. And it shouldn’t be that way. We need to be protecting them instead of protecting ourselves from them.
Q: Talk a bit about death. In the sixth and seventh Harry Potter books, death appears no just as a word or thought but as a possibility, something obvious and a reality.
A: That was always the plan, that death should appear in that way. Since he was young until Chapter 34 of the seventh book, Harry is required to be a better man in that he is obligated to accept the inevitability of his own death. The plan of the books was that he should have contact with death and with the experience of death. And it was always Harry alone who had to have that experience. It all came down to conscience, because the hero had to live these things, do things, see things on his count. It’s part of that isolation and sadness that comes with being a hero.
Q: That 34th chapter [quotation – re: Harry realizing he won’t survive] sounds like the beginning of 100 Years of Solitude by García Márquez.
A: That’s very flattering.
Q: It’s a book about death and obviously solitude, like yours… the character of 100 Years of Solitude accompanies his grandfather to see the ice and you take Harry to visit death.
A: For me, that chapter is the key of all the books. Everything, everything I have written, was thought of for that precise moment when Harry goes into the forest. That is the chapter that I had planned for 17 years. That moment is the heart of all of the books. And for me it is the last truth of the story. Even though Harry survives, of that there was no doubt, he reaches that unique and very rare state which is to accept his own death. How many people have the possibility of accepting their death before they die?
Q: It’s an experience close to everyone. When one has seen death in someone close to them, one asks themselves how that look that we will no longer see will be, what will happen next.
A: Definitely. It strikes me as extraordinary that regardless of the fact that we all know we are going to die, death remains a mystery. We feel as though death is like something secret which happens to very few people. And all of a sudden, someone close to you dies and the bomb drops. Harry has a premature understanding of death, long before Chapter 34. And that has an evident parallel with my life. If someone close to you in your life dies, as my mother did, the fact that death reaches us all returns to you more explicitly. And that is something that you should live with always.
Q: We live in dark and sad times; you say it in your books, especially in this one. How do you live in these times?
A: I have to believe in the kindness of the people. I think people are in nature, good. But actually, I continue watching American politics very closely. I am obsessed with the US elections. Because it will have profound effects on the rest of the world. The political situation in the US in recent years has badly affected your country as mine.
Q: And if you had a magic wand, what would you do?
A: I want a Democrat in the White House. And it seems a shame to me that Clinton and Obama are rivals because they are both extraordinary people.
Q: This morning, upon entering the hotel I saw that you carried The Times in one hand and on the front there was a photo of Hillary crying.
A: Well, it was one small tear. And she is allowed a tear on occasion. A life in politics is very hard on a woman. If you don’t cry, you’re a bitch. And if you do cry, you’re weak. It’s difficult. On the other hand, it’s acceptable for a man to cry.
Q: Solitude, death. We speak of dark things. At its best, literature comes from that.
A: Well, I think it was Tolkien who said that all the important books are about death. And there’s some truth in that because death is our destiny and we should face up to it. All that we have done in life had the intention of avoiding death.
Q: You said that you saw your soul as something undeniable.
A: Yes, that’s true. But I also have said that I have many doubts regarding religion. I feel very attracted by religion, but at the same time I feel a lot of uncertainty. I live in a state of spiritual flux. I believe in a permanent soul. And that is reflected in the last book.
Q: What makes you happy?
A: Family and work, obviously. I consider myself so lucky to have a family… my children are, above all other things, the most important. Even though it’s difficult to make being a mother compatible with writing.
Q: Before coming to see you, I asked the Spanish scriptwriter, Rafael Azcona, for a question to ask you, and he responded that I should ask his niece Sara, six years old, who is a Harry Potter addict.
A: That’s fantastic.
Q: But you say that you should read your books from the age of seven years or older.
A: Well, my eldest daughter was six when she started to read them. I have always known where I was going to go with the books. So yes, I think that a six-year-old child can understand the first book [Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone] even though the last one is quite dark. The fifth book is the darkest of all because there is an absence of anticipation and an oppressive atmosphere. I think because of that, people didn’t like it as much. Even though there are readers who prefer this book to the others, they are a strange minority. The fifth, the sixth and this last one I don’t think are suitable for a child of six years.
Q: And when you wrote the first one, did you think of a designated reader?
A: That’s the problem. I called it a children’s story because the main character was a child. But it was always a child who I wanted to be older. And at the end he’s a man, a young man but a man. That is something unusual in children’s books: that the protagonist grows. And it makes me enormously happy that people continue reading and enjoying the books. They grew older with Harry Potter. But I never thought adults were potential readers.
Q: Peter Mayer, the editor, who was the first I heard talk of Harry Potter in Spain, said that the key of this success is that the series has become reading material for adults.
A: Yes, it’s incredible. Only now am I capable of looking back and realizing everything. For 10 years I didn’t allow myself to think about it. I think I did it to protect myself. It’s very difficult to live with that pressure, but I lived constantly denying the facts. After each publication I made a point to not read any reviews.
Q: Literature saves people, or helps to save them. How did writing affect you?
A: Let me tell you one thing. Simply the fact of writing the first book saved my life. I’m always told that the world I created is unreal; it was that which allowed me to escape. Yes, it’s true; it’s unreal up to a point. But not because my world was magical but because all writers evade themselves. Additionally, I did not write only to escape but because I searched to understand ideas which concerned me. Ideas such as love, loss, separation, death… and all that is reflected in the first book.
Q: What else did that first book give you?
A: A place in a prosaic level, writing that book gave me the discipline, the focus and the ambition, which back then was reduced to simply seeing the book published.
Q: How was the day of publication?
A: I saw my dream become reality. It was an extraordinary moment. I couldn’t believe it, I was entranced. And in some way almost immediately I felt as though a train was pushing me from behind at full speed, as in a cartoon. I thought: “What’s happened to me?” Three months later I received an incredible advance, according to my standards back then. In that time, I was renting a flat, I didn’’ have security or savings. I wore second-hand clothes. Then, money was scarce and to have that money all of a sudden was extraordinary. That night I couldn’t sleep. The next day, journalists started to appear, they gave me an important prize, The Sun called me to buy the rights for the story of my life and the journalists began to patrol in front of my house. And let me tell you something: it scared me a lot.
Q: Is that why you’re scared of journalists even now?
A: No, I’m not scared of them. I remember a pair of journalists in particular who noticed my incredulity and vulnerability and helped me. One of them told me that I had every right to keep my daughter away from the press because I refused to take her with me to interviews and have them take photos of her. I’m talking of the press of this country, of the United Kingdom. That’s how it works.
Q: Your books appear to be full of personal details.
A: I tend to use significant dates. When I need a date or a number, I use something related to my personal life. I don’t know why I do it, it’s a tic. Harry’s birthday is the same date as mine, for example. The numbers that appear or dates that are in the books are related to my life.
Q: Writing your first book entranced you. And the pressure of the success, knowing that millions of people waited for your work?
A: I made a serious decision not to think about it. Obviously there were moments when some news items filtered through, above all during books four and five. There you can notice the pressure and I think that’s evident in the writing.
Q: How did that happen?
A: When I arrived at the fourth book I was very burnt out. I had produced a book a year for four years at the same time as raising my only child without a nanny or help of any kind. I was exhausted. And in reality I thought: “I can’t do it anymore, I have to stop”. I told this to my editor, that if I continued like this I wouldn’t be able to continue writing. And so I met the man who is now my second husband.
Q: You are Harry Potter. And you say it yourself: “Harry is mine”. Have you always known how you were going to finish? Did you always know there were going to be seven books?
A: I always knew what was going to happen. From the start I had the whole plot outlined, without the detail but I always knew that the story was going to finish. And it has finished, even though many fans are disgusted, There isn’t a way of reviving Harry’s story. His story has finished. But finishing it was very hard. It was devastating.
Q: The ending is moving: “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years.”
A: It’s symbolic. We all repeat the lie again and again: that time cures everything. And it’s not true. There are things that aren’t cured, such as when someone you love dies.
Q: You also wrote: “Harry Potter, the Boy who lived”. The teacher says it and you say that he lived because he had faith in his convictions, thanks to that he conquered Voldemort. Are you like that?
A: I would like to say yes because I believe in a hero with heroic attributes. I read on a site: “A hero is not braver than everyone else. He is only brave for five minutes longer…” Harry is like that.
Q: In all the books there is the moral that one can save themselves if they have friends, but Harry’s story is also one of solitude.
A: I agree entirely. I have given Harry my fault, which is a tendency to shut myself in, to isolate myself when I am under pressure, sad or happy. I tend to isolate myself. But I know it’s not good, that it’s not healthy. And I gave that to Harry. Even though that is what also makes him heroic, it is what prepares him to act on his own.
Q: Is Harry your hero?
A: Yes, well, in real life, my hero is Robert F. Kennedy. I created a boy who tries to act with morality, whom even though he is attacked and hurt physically and emotionally nevertheless continues to be attracted by the good side of things. And he is genuine and loyal and I find heroism in all these things.
Q: People are aware of the figures of your life, of how wealthy you are, but less so that you are human; it is as though they see you with a magic wand like Harry Potter.
A: Sadly, it is like that. When I see my name in lists of powerful people, something I don’t do much, I think about it. Power isn’t something I want and additionally, I don’t have it. Yes, I am rich.
Q: Imagine that for a moment you had the ability to make yourself invisible.
A: To be invisible? That would be the best…
Many, many thanks to Rosianna for providing us this excellent translation in such a short period of time. Also, thanks to HarryLatino and all who mailed.
Update: Additional quotes from this interview are now online thanks to reader Kamyll who was kind enough to translate part of an additional document found on the left side of web article. You can find the selected translated quotes that did not make it into the web article below:
On F. Scott Fitzgerald:
Q: He drank to find himself, to be alone?
A: Yes, but his chosen partner says a lot. The people we are attracted to say plenty about who we are. He couldn’t have a peaceful life with his wife Zelda. He chose to be with someone who sometimes made it impossible to write. He didn’t have that peace so necessary when it comes to create something.
On the Time Magazine photo of Senator Clinton:
Q: Crying can be a way of laughing?
A: Could be, and in this case, after reading the article, that tear was indeed a happy tear.
Q: Our souls floating around, looking for what?
A: That’s the big question, but I hope we don’t have to come back! I don’t want to come back!
After stating she does need read reviews:
Q: And could you really do that?
A: Yes, is very good not to be aware of the reviewers or what they’re saying about you. I wrote what I wanted. When I finished the seventh book I though it was the best I’d written. It was the book I wanted to write. I was more satisfied with that book that any other. If I’d read any review what good it would have made? It was written, there was nothing else I could do, but now I can allow myself to look back and what happens is what you just said: adults started to read the books to their children and then they continued to read on their own. There’s nothing more gratifying than to listen to people saying that entire families read the books together. I’ve heard that a lot. They read one chapter together and then they gathered again to read the next one. Is unbelievable isn’t? A lot of families told me they did that and is gratifying in so many levels. The books have become a social act.
Q: Have you done that with Jessica? Are you going to do it with the rest of your children?
A: Jessica is fourteen and she is a fervent admirer of Harry.
Q: What did she tell you after she read the books?
A: She asked me why I did this thing or another, and I my answer was that that’s the way it had to be. Yes, sometimes you can give an automatic answer, like some things were made up as literary mechanisms, elements that helped the plot. In other cases, is harder to explain the process of writing. I wrote it because it came up that way. Sometimes I wrote as if something or somebody was saying it to me.
Q: Could you describe what that something was?
A: There are so many answers to that question. I could say: “It was me, it was my subconscious.” Yes, it was my subconscious, so what I’ve written comes from everything that I’ve done and all the people I’ve known because everything and everyone are somewhere in my head. Or I could say it was the muse, and I like to think it was the muse, because that means the writer is not aware of the origin of what they’re writing, or at least is not fully aware of it, and I know it’s a clichéd word about the Harry Potter books, but they’re magical.
Q: That means that you went through the same thing that happened to Juan Rulfo when he wrote “Pedro Páramo” because he couldn’t find it in his bookshelf.
A: I love that story and it’s true, in my case it’s exactly like that, although I didn’t write what I wanted, but what I needed to write at that moment.
On celebrity and life in the public eye:
Q: People often notice the figures in your life, how wealthy you are but few times they say that you are also a human; it’s like they see you with a magic wand, like Harry Potter.
A: Yes, unfortunately they do. The thing about power is interesting because really what kind of power do I have? When I see my name in lists of powerful people, something I don’t do often, I think about it. Power isn’t something I want and additionally, I don’t have it. Yes, I am rich. I’ve made a lot of Money, for which I’m grateful, but that’s the way it is. When people approach me and ask about the amount of money I have… the other day I was on the street and a woman came up to me and asked if I was J. K. Rowling, I said yes. She then said: “You deserve everything you have.” I don’t think she was talking about the money, and when someone says that to you it’s wonderful; but I think that the obsession with money is global, here in the UK we have lists, millions of lists, rich people over 40, under 40 for which I no longer qualify because I’m 42… wealth is an obsession I don’t know if it’s the same way in Spain.
Q: Are you happy?
A: Much more than I was before.
Q: What have you managed to get rid of?
A: I’m very relieved to be older and accepting who I am and knowing who I am. When I was twenty and during all that decade I had a very bad time, I think it happens to loads of people, they just don’t say it. I made a lot of mistakes; some of them were very bad. Now I feel much more confident.
Q: The fantasy in literature completes people.
A: Yes, that’s right. Humans need fantasy and magic. We have a need for mystery. Sir Frank Frasier (in The Golden Bow) says that in religion the man depends on God, but in magic the man depends on himself, which allows us to measure the capacity of man and magic becomes an ideal existence. Magic carries a human existence, in Book 6 the Prime Minister says to the Minister of Magic “You can do magic! Surely you can sort out anything!” and the minister answers: “Yes, the trouble is, the other side can do magic too.” We need magic and I defend it at all cause. Magic is a very important part of literature and that’s why it’s always going to be there.
Q: There’s this dialogue between Harry and Professor Dumbledore: “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
A: And Dumbledore says: “Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth would that mean that is not real?” That dialogue is the key; I’ve waited seventeen years to use those lines. Yes, that’s right. All this time I’ve worked to be able to write those two phrases; writing Harry entering the forest and Harry having that dialog.
Q: And sometimes, Harry is in the real world.
A: Of course. It’s important to have light and darkness, it’s a very conventional mechanism, but to be able to create a transition between a mundane universe and the cruel and oppressive existence adds shadows. As the story moves forward what I was hoping to reach was that what used to be going to the Dursleys became something comical. As Harry gets older and keeps gaining power and confidence he find himself better with the Dursleys, and the place of darkness and evil is exactly what used to be the world of light and magic. This family goes from being cruel to be funny and in book seven it even becomes pathetic when we found out that his Aunt was a jealous woman and even, form Harry’s point of view, a broken one.
Q: Your Spanish editor wanted me to ask you about the faith of the non-magical Dursley family.
A: Very well, I’ll have to write an eight book. (laughs) Really, I thought it wasn’t necessary to write about the Dursleys. I thought the reader would know that they had been protected and they were out of hiding. When fans ask me this I tell them that thanks to the final encounter between Harry and Dudley they can try to have a friendly relationship, that they send Christmas cards and visit each other every once in a while. It would be awkward but they’d try, because it’s all about staying in touch. They could never be good friends, put they’d try to have a friendship… Dudley knows that Harry saved his life. Well, he thinks he saved his life when actually he was saving his soul.
Q: There are more scars left in your life, in Harry’s life?
A: If you’re asking me if I’m going to write more books, if I have unfinished business, the answer is yes… But with Harry, I took him to work at the Ministry, I have to believe that there’s a possibility to get rid of corruption, and I see it in that battle, but he’s become a middle-age father worrying about if his kid is going to do well in school.
Q: In the real world. No magic wand?
A: No, always with a wand.
Q: Do you have that magic wand?
A: Isn’t that the muse?
Q: You still write with a pen?
A: Always.
Q: Maybe that’s the magic wand?
A: Yeah, maybe it is… and look: the magic wand has ruined my finger for using it so much.
Q: You said in the past you would have chosen the resurrection stone like Harry.
A: And I would’ve been wrong… I think that when something dies it belongs somewhere else, every person has a responsibility towards another. I have it with my children and if I were trying to rescue somebody from death it wouldn’t be good for them. My duty is to my children and their future. Resurrection is a huge temptation but it’s dangerous.
Q: Maybe writing is some kind of Resurrection Stone.
A: Yes, of course, but I think you realize that once you’re writing to make a dream come true. If it’s just like that then, for me, writing loses its worth. Describing your fantasy is not the same as creating a world.
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Hi A.C.
if you’re not interested in the opinions of Europeans, then nobody forces you to listen … Besides, the elections in the strongest economy and (so far) only existing super power are affecting people outside of the US, whether they want to be affected, or not. The weak US currency, the US American wars, your economic problems … It IS self-defense to be aware of that ….
I real wounder how so many of you americans are angry with Jo beacause of supporting the democrats. First of all, as has been said many times: She and anyone on this planet…or even from another(^^) HAS a right to voice their opinion. I live in Germany and I hate it that there are still Nazis about(yes sadly there are). And I hate it that they can go about telling stuff about theyr wicket ideologie. Still I respect theyr right to say thos things, even so I totally disagree. Only when they start attacing others I would act. How could I ask to have a right of free speech myself if I denie it to others? More importently: all you are saying that other people should stay out of “your countrys ploitics”?? Not only does this election affect the whole planet(even more than that, since the parties also differ on invironmental topics) but WTH do you think your country? This is a pice of land. Not only robbed from the Indeans, and taken by the whit(Yes acctually from us Europeans, remember America was European untill Boston tea Party. At this point tey freed themself from thos who would take away the freedom. From thos “ritch who would rais the tax so only they would gain the money”....sounds like the conservativ from the rubber barons to the Bush administration is rather unpatriotic in terms of the USA by its founding doe’t it?) Anyways what I meant to say: An american is someone born in the country of America…(I mean the US by reffering to “America”). He/She did not do a thing for it. They are proud of something they had no influence on…but hey thats OK. The popint is: Only because of someone else beeing born somewhere else(where you are born is randomly! People are not born in the US becaus they are good and in iraque becaus they are bad. No Ossama Bin Laden could be an american and it would not change a thing. People don’t have an influonce on where they are born. People are born in africa where they dont have water to life, but they are not bad people because of that….. ) So you do not only want to keep your borders shut to other people, you also want to shut theyr mouth and you say the president should care more about americans? You know what? That sounds to me pretty much like you are saing that perople are better beacause they are americans. And this is nationalism(not only patriotism) and you know what: Nationalism borders to rassism. And because of that it frigtens me a lot what some of you are saiing.
Comming back to Harry Potter: Dont you people agree that Rowling has written a political Novel with book 7 especialy but also the other books? She puts voldemort as the “bad and evil”. But she is an inteligent wonman! She knows that the diffrence between her world/our world and harrys world is: there is no such person that you kill and than it works out fine(maybe hitler was such a person, but applied to the present time…..) The real foe is not a person(deffenetly not Osama Bin Laden killing him would not help anyone it would just be an act of prestige!) the real foe she wants to show, and does a very good job in it is: Disharmony and intolerance. Rowlin sais herself: isolating is NOT good it is “her weeknes” she gives harry. It is very Human and not a problem but still her point is: People should work to togerth not against one another. There should be no intolerance(in a perfect world) and no racissm. That also implies: there would be no patriotism, and no nationalism. Because even so people would be diffrent(and this they are and it is great!) it would not matter where they are from! What color they skin, they sould or theyr religion had! Rowling doesn’t support deocrats. She suporrts Tolerance. So do the democarts, and this is why they work towards the same end.
Not in the end: I would not be a democrat if I’d life in the US. Not ould I be a republican. I think both parties are much the same…to close democratie works only with several smaler parties. But nomatter what I would still be a Harry Potter fan. And even so some reps might not like my text I also respect ypu to be ahrry potter fans ;-)
“It starts with a great story and excellent writing. Without that, none of us would waste our time. What, I think, takes Harry Potter from successful series to worldwide phenomenon are the multidimensional and realistic characters. Never mind that most of them are witches, wizards, half-giants or centaurs, there is still something very real about them that we can all relate to. It’s their emotions, their personalities, their struggles with minor day-to-day things, like being nervous about a sports match, or studying for exams, or dealing with an annoying relative, that make us love them.” (Bnickel)
YES, YES, YES!! Excellent analysis! That is exactly HPs appeal to me. The fact that this fantasy world is so real that it might potentially be happening under our very noses.
tehehe! this is hillarious. Everyone is talking about politics on a Harry Potter website!!!! Politics is everywhere!!! Anyways… on the subject about jesus not being a dem. or rep., well… I don’t think that jesus is pro gay marige or pro abortion! So he’s probably more of a rep. than a dem!
Why should Jesus not be pro gay marriage? He said love the person next to you…do u only have women next to you? And hewas a man and said he loved all people the same…all people that meant men and women. Even so he did not mean this love in a sexual sence, marriage is also mor then just sex. Plus Jesus was pro totlerance. so even if he would not like it he would tolerrate and accept gay marrieage!
“Maybe if Europe did more to defend itself rather than destroying itself through demographic suicide” by A.C.
Why in the world would we have to deffend oureself? From what enemy? Well I guess there are some americans (also some europeans) who always “deffend” themself by making war on some countrie when they don’t know anything else to do, but that is pretty poor. Besides most celebritys or at least many are americans.
Besides that u seem to see al left-wingt people as simple minded shows that you yourself are not open-minded enought to see that they might not be simple-minded after all. I mean…..only because someonee is not of my political opinion I don’t declare them stupid. You however seem to do this very thing. With an attitude like this democracy is just not possible!
After looking at some of the posts here (especially that obtusely childish one by the zip character) I have to say that I think a lot of the republicans here are just tourists trolling because they found out someone else supports the democrats. The same thing happened when JKR let Dumbledore out of the closet, all of a sudden this site was swarmed by a whole lot of really disgusting bigots who probably never read a Harry Potter book but hate homos enough to try and pass their idiocy to potterheads, who of course never bought any of it.
Yes big surprise, the democrats are vaguely selling change and the republicans are kissing every white a** they can see. Every election the democrats say little more than we need to change and the republicans say how great all the old people are; ya’know ‘cause they vote. None of them actually have any good ideas.
At least most of the democrats seem pretty laid back. So many of the republicans here really lapped up every tinge of Koolaid the right wing can offer them.
I would like to share with all of you something a journalist said 100 years ago which is still relevant:
“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.” This is the same fellow who said: “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Quite ahead of his time wasn’t he, or has this crap just been going on forever. I’m still intentionally throwing my vote away. I’m voting for Willie Nelson. I admire the rest of you for being politically decisive but please, for your own sake, don’t take any of these bozos (on the left or especially on the right) too seriously. They don’t take you seriously or else we’d be voting directly for them.
Susan McGee- I totally agree with you about Ch34. I understand JKR didn’t want to reveal her own religious beliefs before book7s release because it might give something away but I don’t see how. Almost every religion from the ancient pagans thru the patriarchial monotheisms to even some of the modern cults of today all have that notion of royal sacrifice followed by the resurrection; yea, sorry Christians but you didn’t invent that. I too am spiritually eclectic and am often surprised by or in denial of all of the big similarities we all share and focus in on all the stuff that makes us different.
As a pagan, you would probably like Lammas Night by Kurtz: loosely based on the witches of New Forest (UK) who helped defend England from the Nazis. Very Chap 34.
Sorry. I meant to say: I too am spiritually eclectic and am often surprised by others in denial of all of the big similarities we all share and focus in on all the stuff that makes us different.
@Leif Longbottom I have to say I totally agree oin what you say about religions. They all seem to bee diffrent aspects and understendings of the same thing. Like seeing the world out of space and seeing diffrent kontinients but still seeing the earth, that is why it is so saddning that even wars are beeing fight over thos small diffrences!
I think JK is an amazing person. I likeher take on the presidential election. The Democrats problem is that the selection is so wonderful no matter who wins. (That comment also included John Edwards who I think is fantastic). I wish there were a way to really thank JK properly for the wonderful escape she has provided to us all.
I think that party lines blur the issues… “Blue vs. Red” isn’t always the best choice. I lean towards the Democratic side, but will be voting for Ron Paul, who is running on the Republican ticket… Check him out.
(BTW- the other Republicans are worthless, so we can all agree there I think!)
I am glad that JK brought the issue to light though, too many people don’t recognize the importance of participation in elections.
Please make an informed vote, don’t just play the name game! =)
well harrik, if you actually read the bible you would see that there are MANY scriptures that say that homosexualiy is a sin.
Oh I did read it one time, just out of interest…and I can’t remeber it perfecly, but as far as I understood it, all thos parts were maybe just misinterpreted. Well of corse u could say, hey: we didn’t misinterpret u did. But it is my belive, that you could not preach tolerance and love and peace between the people, while doing sth like that. Besides: Even so there are sins, Jesus said God loves all people the same, no sins few sins many sins doesn’t matter!
@ harrik
Then I’ll advice you to read it once again, especially first Letter to Corinthians : http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Cor++6:9,10
BTW: Don’t justify everything with love; you can of course not agree with Bible, but you can’t say it doesn’t condemn homosexuality, because it simply does.
You mean:
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Wasn’t Mary Magdalene a prostitue? Didn’t Jesus go to the thievs and drunkards? Didn’t he die for ALL sins? Sure it might say things that do not go allong with others, but on the other hand, the Bible says: “Do not kill” and at the same time god asks to kill many people, kills himselv. He asks Abraham to kill his son, even if only kills a goat in the end it is a living beeing (I myself prefer not to be the caus of any killing of anymals so I do not cosume meat or dary). We all know it is a controversial book, but you can read it in a way that it does not not condem beeing homosexual as a sin. I would even go so far to say Jesus was homosexual becaus he LOVED ALL PEOPLE. That does include men. You could argue that he didn’t mean a sexual kind of love, but there might be homosexuals who just love each others without having sex…that kind of people who hate homosxuals would hate them all the same, if not more.
Anyways, we are kinda off topic don’t u think? ;-)
Oh! Your favourite exemple from The Book of John! You all forget here ONE little detail: Jesus didn’t say to her: Go and do as you please! But he said to her: Go and sin no more. He (and she too) knew she was a sinner and to save herself she needed to stop her old ways of life, so to speak. (BTW: it’s unclear if she was Mary Magdalene)
And don’t insult me and other Christians by saying such things about Jesus.
And how did you come to the idea that Bible doesn’t condemn homosexuality? You’re going to say me it actually praises adultery, incest, said homosexuality and zoophilia? Because you do such a thing if you read Leviticus 18 and 19 as approval of such behaviour.
You really think one can read a book as he/she wants? Then HP books may as well be books of occultism and satanism, as Harry-haters believe.
Since when do gays love all people? That’s your wishful thinking. I can find in history the contrary: Gilles de Rais, Ernest Roehm, fascinating stories… but terrible ones.
First: I never intended to insult anybody christian or not, I am a christian myself up to a point, even so I guess you wouldn’t consider me one because I belive in other religions too. I think they are all showing the same “Power” with diffrent viewpoints and diffrent understandings of it.
And I never said gays loved all people, if I sound like it, you get me wrong. I don’t say someone is a praised saint becaus he is a homosexual…he aint better than any other person, but he isn’t a demon eather! Hes just a regular guy(or girl) that directs his/her love(witch is something beautifull wouldn’t you agree?) in other ways than you, of for that matter I do!
You ask me if one can read a book as he/she wants? The honest answer: yes. A book ussually discirbes a scene. Sometimes that scene urges you to have a certain feeling about it, maybe the author would even comend on it in a pretty clear way. But it is yours to interpret it the way you understand it….. Who is it in your mind, that has the monpoly in deciding what the author(even so there is no “auther” in the ussual sense) of the bible mend to say and in what way it should be read? The catholic curch maybe? Well if you want to follow their interpretation go ahead i wouldn’t stop you, but let me my right to have my own…we can disskuss it (as we do) but do not tell me I can’t read it as I want! Because even so I belive in the rligion (up to a point) and think it is a great thing, I do not thinkvery high of the currupting insstitutes the “churches”, some of witch have been murdering and stealing for hundreds of years! (And with this I du not mean to offend anyone, exept thos people of the past who went on crusades or were involved wit hinquisitions!)
Besides. there is the common bilbe, but there are other christian scripts of other people, found in seald jars, that tell an entirely diffrent story. Does it make one unchristian to belive in thos? well I do not think so. Why are people always definig who does not belong to them instead of deffing who does indeed but without that hatred to thos who don’t explecitly do belong to them?
“Hes just a regular guy(or girl) that directs his/her love(witch is something beautifull wouldn’t you agree?) in other ways than you, (...)”
No. Imagine: DD running away with Gellert, after Ariana’s death, and fulfilling their dreams of world dominance, they together making magical holocaust, but DD would have been happy, wouldn’t he? I don’t consider DD, Bellatrix and Snape’s loves as beautifull – they show how low one can fall loosing his morals and forgeting about what is right thing to do.
“Besides. there is the common bilbe, but there are other christian scripts of other people, found in seald jars, that tell an entirely diffrent story. Does it make one unchristian to belive in thos?”
Yes. It’s called heresy.
I have meant the thing with interpretation this way: you cannot project your wishes on text, because it will cause missinterpretations. If you see Jesus as gay, then you’re politicizing and falsifing the issue, like the ones who believe He married Mary Magdalene and had kids with her (that will be my answer to “other christian scripts” too).
If you’re Christian “to a point”, then you’re none Christian. You may be sympathetic towards it, but you’re not follower at heart.
“I do not thinkvery high of the currupting insstitutes the “churches”, some of witch have been murdering and stealing for hundreds of years!”
Then you’re my enemy and we have nothing besides HP fandom in common.
So well than we have an dissagreement, becaus I indeed see Dumbledores love as beatuifull. And Snapes to Lily aswell! I wouldn’r exactly call belatrix adorement for for Voldemort love, so I am with you on this: it isn’t beautifull. The others jowever….sure can love make us loos our mind, but that can happen to evryone who loves. And evenso Albus Loved Gellert, he didn’t run of with him did he? Why is that? well I think becaus of a love to the people and the “right”, that was greater than this personal love to Gellert!
Again: you asy I am missinterpreting, who are u to know that isn’t the other way arround? Are u god? No I do not think so (neither do u of corse or u would not be chirstian). So Well it might be I am wrong, and it might be u are. I belive I am of corse, but I do not prettend to “know because I am all knowing”. I considder it a possibility that u are right and I wrong. u seem not to! Also u call me an “enemy” because I do not think hight of a constitution. You call evryone who does belive in a similar thing as you do just in an other shade unchristian.
I am really sorry but I cannot understand that kind of close mindedness.
I do not conssidder you my ennemy, because I love all people, if they are homosexual, unsexual or straight, I love all people no matter if the love or hate HP or don’t care at all about it. I love all people no matter if they are chistians, buddists, hinduist, belive in spirits, belive in the greek or the egyptian gods. I do however feel sorry for thos, who for some reason need to violate peace(witch is already done enought by politicans). I am sorry but I cannot understand eather how u can call urself christian and say You will love yournext and all this and at the same time say anyone who thinks diffrent is your enemy. Nore can I understand how thos 4 that tell the new testamony are diffrent from others doing it, but not beeing so widly known. I call it intoleracne what you do, and I am sorry again, but I don’t intepret the bible in such an untolerand, and rather hating than loving way. I think the way you write kinda sounds as it would your bible, as you would have the key to it and evrybody else is surely wrong they are just stupid and do not understand on your level. You seem sometimes to think(and this not mend to be an offense) of yourself as the creator himself! Still I love you as I love all People and alle Animals and all plants and all things on this planet and all on other and anywhere. I just don’t love the way things turn out sometimes. I may hate actions. But never the things themself, even so it is hard sometimes.
PS: how so u know we dont have anything else in common? we might listen to the same musik, like to same food, have the same hobbies how do you know?
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Leaky Poll
Who should win the JKR/WB vs RDR lawsuit?
- JKR and WB: The HPL takes too much and adds too little7338 (78%)
- RDR: Lexicons are fair use1542 (16%)
- I'll answer in the comments441 (4%)
Why are ALL celebrities such boring predictable simple-minded left wingers? Just curious. Maybe if Europe did more to defend itself rather than destroying itself through demographic suicide and welfare dependency we here in America wouldn’t have to constantly hear the same old refrain from Europeans how ‘this next American election is sooo important because it affects us all sooo much, blah, blah, blah…’