Monday, July 23, 2007

Jews Love: Harry Potter

Except in Israel, which, as we all know by now, had some issues with the release date. You know, because it desecrated the holy sabbath.

I would like it to be known that I refrained from opening/reading my copy until the end of the holy sabbath. For reals, yo.

And now, the round-up (done quickly because I am super tired):

Jack liked the book, but didn't love it.

Pedant found it anti-climactic.

CK of Jewlicious reported on the Israel/release issue, and its coverage by Gawker (which I have been boycotting for a few months now, due to the increase in offensive content, and decrease in amusement value).

And, if only to make DK crazy, Rabbi Jack Abramowitz of NCSY has appropriated Harry Potter as a series that contains many Jewish values.

That last reminds me of a class I took in High School, it was "Biblical Themes in Film." Basically we watched a number of movies, and then the principal's wife (who served no other useful purpose in the school, as far as I can tell) stretched plot points and "symbols" to make them relevant to the New Testament.

Case in point: the movie Nell. Seriously? A woman who has lived alone in the woods after being raised by a woman with a stroke, and as a result cannot speak so well. What does this have to do with Christ? Nothing I could tell. Needless to say, I, and my other non-Christian classmate (Muhammed. No joke, that's his name.) objected to some of the theories. I did not do so awesomely in that class.

Apologies for the lack of Microsoft paint edited images of Harry Potter, but it's been done already. Both Jewschool and Jewlicious have images of Potter wearing a kippah, and anything more creative than that is really beyond me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would it be a joke that Muhammed is his name? I think it's still the most popular first name world-wide.

DK said...

Hirhurim wrote some bullshit post about Harry Potter as well. Everyone should put down the teenage pop culture fiction, especially those targeting adults.

On the other hand, maybe religion is mostly a group of myths for teaching children anyway, so maybe they are on the right track.