The incredible and well-deserved success made its film adaptation almost inevitable. The continuation of the epic about the adventures of the young wizard was also immediately reflected on the screen - readers and admirers simply did not think that they would not see with their own eyes every line written. Although the scripts were shortened for the sake of screen time, the filmmakers managed to preserve the world of Potter and not come under fan criticism. The last, final part still had to be divided into two films; everyone wanted to “taste” the ending of the story that an entire generation had grown up with.
Fairy tale and reality
A fairy tale is necessary for adults to return to childhood; children need a fairy tale to engage their imagination. The whole question is what life lesson, according to the saying, “good fellows” will learn from the hints scattered along fairy-tale paths. The heroes of the Potter films are magicians and wizards; but supernatural abilities do not make their life easier.
At the most crucial moments, magic wands are powerless, but ordinary human qualities help. Heroes need wisdom to make a choice between good and evil, they need trust and devotion to come out of any situation with honor, they need honesty and firmness to defend their principles. And here, the skills of brewing witchcraft potions and knowledge of spells do not change anything.
Stories about poor orphans who huddle in a closet under the stairs and then become rich and famous have given the world many beloved heroes, starting with Cinderella. Looking at a thin boy in glasses, bullied by nasty fat relatives, the audience immediately understands that they are in for an exciting story with a brilliant ending; waiting for this ending makes you believe in a better future - both for yourself and for Harry.
Education and school
As befits films about teenagers, most of the action in Potter takes place at school. Before us is a model of an ideal education system, which every viewer immediately began to dream about. Meanwhile, there is nothing supernatural in the fairy-tale Hoggwarts school: this is an example of an institution based on the principles of classical education, in which teachers try to teach their students life values and the desire to comprehend knowledge, and not forcefully shove structured and chewed information into them in the form of dates and quotes , which flies out of your head the morning after the exam.
The school that the teenage orphan goes to lives a special life not because it teaches witchcraft, but because it has historical, cultural and spiritual roots. It instills spiritual values, educates students, and creates a unique educational environment.
Chosen by fate
Harry Potter grew up among people who were alien to him in spirit, although they were related by blood. This feeling is very close to many teenagers; they are trying to isolate themselves from reality, to escape into the world of fantasy. And so Harry receives a letter brought by an owl, finds out that he is not an ordinary child, but a wizard, and goes to the fantastic world of his own kind.
Teenagers, feeling their isolation from society, strive to find themselves, their own “I”, leaving reality. But she lies in wait for them at every step, scorching the wings of their dreams. Therefore, the meaning of the first Harry Potter films is the solution to typical teenage problems: relationships with relatives, adaptation in a team, relationships with friends, falling in love, envy, gossip, attempts to gain authority among peers.
The childish spontaneity and adventurism of the first three films are replaced by a teenage thirst for adventure, efforts to find answers to sacred questions about the meaning of life, and now in the final film “Deathly Hallows” we see young men and women who are no longer children, but who have not yet lost their childish faith in Good . They left their mischief and learned to think like adults, make important decisions and take responsibility for them.
The magic of family love
Harry's love for his late parents, themes of self-sacrifice, loving family, loyalty and raising children reconciled even magic-hating religious orthodoxies with the Potter films.
At the heart of the film is maternal love: every second we are reminded that Harry’s mother shielded him from death. Her love continues to protect the young wizard, and this is touching, understandable, and does not need to be deciphered, because on a subconscious level, every person feels the protection of maternal love. The same example of the relationship between adults and children in a loving family is the Weasley family. The ending of the “magical saga” - two friendly married couples with children - looks absolutely natural: the heroes strived not just for abstract love, but for family love, with all its traditional and absolutely non-magical values.
Conquer your fear
Everyone is afraid of something: heights, darkness, loneliness. Sometimes these fears are embarrassing to admit. Sometimes it seems that we are powerless over our fears, that other people are free from them, and therefore they are stronger and smarter than us. But the Harry Potter films free us from feelings of inferiority: even wizards and wizards are afraid of something.
Harry Potter is afraid of chickening out at an important moment, Ron is afraid of spiders. Almost everyone is afraid of dementors - creatures that bring gloom and death, and the Dark Lord. Overcoming these fears does not lie on a magical plane; this is a consequence of the moral efforts of the heroes. Victory over them means victory over your enemies. It is no coincidence that Harry is the last “horcrux” of the Dark Lord. To defeat his main enemy, he must defeat himself.
Defeat death
Harry Potter faced death without fear, as a worthy opponent, and the Dark Lord, trying to defeat death, changed his nature. Love and the will to live made Harry a winner; his opponent became a hostage to death and lost.
The Dark Lord played hide and seek with death, disfigured his soul and the souls of those whom he involved in his dangerous games. Harry did not try to overcome death using magic or other means; he loved and made friends, cried and rejoiced, and therefore was able to gain the upper hand in a duel with a strong and experienced enemy.
The magical power of friendship and love
The trio of friends and the classic love triangle - Harry, Ron and Hermione - have fans worried: how will their relationship work out? Harry lost in this friendly duel; She and Hermione are too strong personalities; their union would be impossible. Ron's jealousy was in vain: Harry could not hurt his heart. Psychologically dependent on a stronger partner, Ron found his support and support in Hermione, and Harry fell in love with his sister, reliable and faithful Ginny.
Married couples developed harmoniously. Love in the world of Potter is not an all-consuming passion that pushes a person to madness, but a strong and deep feeling that gives joy and self-confidence. This is the only force in the world that defeats both the terrible spells of enemies and death itself. The unwritten “code of camaraderie” of heroes included respect for a friend, loyalty, decency, equality, and willingness to help.
Moral and psychological aspects of films
To be true to principles, to be able to trust friends, to resist evil with all one’s might is the main meaning of the franchise and the moral that unites all seven films, which raise all the pressing issues: racial and national tolerance, chauvinism, gender equality, the influence of the media on human consciousness, ethical problems in science, problems from the field of political science - government, corruption, abuse of power.
They entered the top thirty highest-grossing films in the history of cinema. The characters in the film grew up along with the audience; they fought together, loved, were friends, suffered from insults and injustices. And if we peel off the “magical” husks from the epic, we will see a teenage novel about growing up and developing a personality that is exciting with the truth of life.
Emma Lord, Bustle's culture editor
I'll tell you about one strange effect the Harry Potter books have on their fans: if you turn to any page at random in any of the seven books and start reading a passage, you will immediately remember where you were when you read it the first time, and maybe even the second time. , third, fourth time. The real magic of Harry Potter is not so much the magic in the books, but the magic of the books. Right now, for example, I’m once again re-reading the books of this series, and every time I start reading on the subway, I can easily remember how and where I read the same passage many years ago: by the pool, next to the white-toothed eight-year-olds, or dangling my legs under the kitchen table at my parents' house, or flipping through a book under my desk during class at school. Nothing like the Harry Potter books gives you the same instant opportunity to travel back in time. We no longer have anything more reminiscent of a time machine.
Without exaggeration, we can say that these books played a decisive role in shaping the characters of us children who became adults along with the heroes of J.K. Rowling. And if I suddenly remove everything connected with Harry Pottre from my memory, I most likely will not remember who I am at all, these memories are so closely connected with everything else. And here's why children who read Harry Potter are better prepared for adulthood:
From early childhood we were ready to solve our problems on our own
Dumbledore literally abandoned the boy at Harry's doorstep and disappeared before he could make a sound. And have you noticed how lacking in the entire series of books is help of any kind from adults? Most of the time, adults only interfered with Harry and his team's task. So, since childhood, Harry Potter fans do not rely on adults, do not expect someone to come and do something for them. They roll up their sleeves and deal with the problem.
We realized the value of family and friendship
While other kids were chasing their little brothers and sisters out of the way at their funny parties and hissing at them when the kids did or said something “inconvenient,” Harry Potter fans knew that family always comes first . Because every family has a Percy. Every family has a Neville. Every family has its own eccentrics, its own quirks and its own mistakes. But Harry Potter taught us not just to endure it, not only to forgive, but also to love them, no matter what.
We found family outside of our own families
There are so many wonderfully described small communities in the Harry Potter books, besides the golden trio: the Marauders, Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix. Some of them grew out of friendship, others out of necessity, but they all show how important it is to let people into your life and protect relationships with people who become your family not by blood.
We learned that everyone can make mistakes
Name one character from the Harry Potter books who didn't do something colossally stupid at least once. This makes these characters so real and so relatable to us, even if their mistakes are sometimes so painful to read about. Throughout the fifth book, Harry almost completely does something fatally wrong, but only because everyone around him is also making mistake after mistake. And yet, all the heroes of our books saved the day and taught us that we are not the measure of our mistakes or our past, but what we learn from them.
We embraced all our weirdness
We, Potter fans, became the first generation for whom it was good to be strange, to be eccentric and different from everyone else. Each of us is eccentric in our own way, and no matter who you are, some of your weirdness can be seen in some character in the series. Personally, I saw exaggerated anxiety about studying in Hermione, uncertainty in Neville, nonconformism in Luna. We could have tried to hide these qualities of ours, but instead we accepted them, because our heroes made it clear to us that there was nothing wrong with them.
We felt much less alone than we actually were
Each of us had times in childhood when it seemed to us that we had no friends at all. At this point I will admit that when I moved to the other side of the country, I kept a diary for some time in which I described all the new people as residents of Hogwarts and recorded all my adventures in the seventh grade, as if I was studying at Hogwarts. If you are a Harry Potter fan, then as a child you cope better with moments of loneliness: all your friends are on the pages of the book, keeping you company until you are inspired by their example and go out into the real world to look for real friends (also Harry Potter fans, that goes without saying).
We realized how important it is to be able to stand up for ourselves and others.
Neville and Hermione in particular were examples to us of how to protect yourself and help those around you. Words like “Mudbloods” or the G.A.V.N.E. were for our generation veiled calls to not only hear the voice of the weak, but also to do something for them.
We grew up with the understanding that the driving force of everything is Love.
Children who grew up with a book about Harry Potter under their pillow have become adults who do not doubt their priorities, that the most important thing in their lives is Love. This is not only the strength with which Lily, Harry's mother, protects him, it is also the devotion of his parents' friends Remus and Sirius, the unwavering love of the Weasley family, and the countless number of love stories that appear throughout the plot. Love is how the characters support each other after everything has been lost. So the question of how much one can sacrifice for the sake of love is never a question for children who are Harry Potter fans.
To tell the truth, we grew up to be quite impudent
Thanks to the cheeky irony of Harry and his team, we Potter fans learned to use humor as a problem-solving tool (vital for survival, since the vast majority of us were hopeless nerds).
We've never been without a Halloween costume.
Every Harry Potter fan had a whole set of well-worn robes and scarves in his closet, and I don’t even need to explain how this helped us in life.
We tried to be the best version of ourselves that we saw in the characters in the Harry Potter books.
We wanted to be determined like Hermione, loyal like Ron, brave like Neville, loving like Mrs. Weasley, kind like Dobby, resourceful like Fred and George, fearless like Ginny and selfless like Harry, the list of qualities and heroes goes on and on. We have had countless role models, some of whom have fascinated us since the beginning of history, some of whom have grown up with us.
We learned early that life isn't fair.
Harry Potter fans may hear from others that they are living “in a fairytale,” but when you get down to it, these books are dark as hell. Everything that befell the characters, they themselves could neither foresee nor control, and yet, they had to not only cope with problems, but also actively sacrifice their happiness for the sake of others. We were very angry with J.K. Rowling, when once again bad things happened to good characters. To be honest, we weren’t angry at her, but at the fact that many of us had to realize that before death everyone is equal, and misfortunes happen to anyone, so navigating such a world is exactly what makes a person an adult.
We can take a piece of home with us wherever we go
Home is where your Harry Potter books are. Of course, we can't go back to fifteen years ago, or five years ago, or last week, but when you read about Harry Potter, you can be in all of these places at once.
We invite you to reflect on JK Rowling's first book in the Harry Potter series. Why not about classical literature from the school curriculum? Simply because the readers of our blog can be of different ages, and some have not yet read “War and Peace,” and others have completely forgotten “Mumu.”
We think that the story about the boy wizard is well known to everyone, so we decided to talk about it. And you try to use our method and think about any book you have read.
Who are you, Harry Potter?
The main character of the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is unmistakably identified. No wonder his name is right in the title. We meet him when he is still very tiny, but we already know about his tragic fate. At the end of the book, our hero has already completed first grade at Hogwarts and even managed to prove himself in the fight against his sworn enemy Voldemort.
Our first task as readers is to understand what kind of person Harry is. Let's try to draw a portrait of Harry, confirming observations with examples from the book.
So, we know that the boy’s parents died, his relatives are unpleasant people. Harry lives in a closet under the stairs and wears old things for his cousin. He has no friends (it’s not very clear why, by the way, but let’s assume that no one wants to be friends with such a ragamuffin or his parents don’t allow him). Can we say that our hero is lonely? Perhaps yes. This means that our first conclusion is about the loneliness of the main character.
Harry is a friendly boy. Why did we decide this? He does not conflict with his family, he quickly finds a common language with Ron, Hermione, Neville and other Hogwarts students. The same thing happens with the teachers, except for Professor Snape.
Harry has moral principles. For example, he denies friendship to Malfoy because he insulted Ron. This is unpleasant for Harry, even though he only recognized Ron Weasley on the train.
We can list several more important qualities of Harry Potter's character - he is honest with his friends, courageous (remember the battle with the troll and the willingness to fight for the philosopher's stone). He values justice, so he can argue with Professor Snape or Malfoy. And he hates Voldemort.
Let's put these conclusions about Harry Potter together and ask the question - what is the conflict, the internal problem of the main character?
Firstly, there is loneliness, the absence of family and friends in the first part of the book. Secondly, this is the experience of the death of parents. These problems are, of course, related to each other. After all, if Harry's parents were alive, he would not feel so lonely and unhappy. This means that our hero’s goal is to find someone who could become his real family and take revenge on the killer of his parents. Let's see if he can achieve this goal.
Friends and enemies.
On the way to the finale, in which the hero must achieve or fail to achieve a solution to his problem, he, as we remember, is surrounded by different people. Some of them are friends or sympathizers, some are enemies. In Harry's case, his friends include Ron, Hermione, Hagrit and Dumbledore.
These people are always ready to support, help with advice and deeds. Let us note that before Harry arrived at Hogwarts, he not only had no friends his own age, but also no parents or older relatives who loved him. Therefore, it is especially important that at Hogwarts he finds people like Hagrit and Dumbledore.
Dumbledore probably cannot fully replace the boy's father, but Harry feels his kind attitude and mentoring. It is Dumbledore who gently explains to the boy that it is not real living parents that appear in the magic mirror, but only Harry’s desire to be with them. It is Dumbledore who speaks to Harry in the voice of an intelligent, loving and understanding adult, which the young wizard so lacked before Hogwarts.
Hagrit turns out to be a very important friend for Harry too. You can probably call him an older brother - you can just chat with him over a cup of tea, he will explain what you don’t understand, tell a couple of stories and even show how a dragon hatches from an egg. And, of course, Ron and Hermione become Harry's closest friends after all the trials they endured. All these people play a vital role in Harry Potter's movement towards the goal of getting rid of loneliness.
But the enemies are not asleep either. Tests are necessary for the hero to establish himself on his path. Professor Snape knew Harry's parents and does not like the boy, although in the first book we do not yet fully understand why. And Harry defends his love for his dead parents, even through confrontation with his teacher.
Malfoy and his friends constantly bully Harry, Ron and Hermione, thereby only making them closer to each other. And by the end of the book, the famous trinity is no longer inseparable.
That is, thanks to his enemies, the hero also gains a lot - he strengthens his character, understands what is really important to him. Enemies move the plot and give it development. Please note that in the first book, Voldemort is not yet fully present, only in the form of a vague threat. Then he will appear before the reader and Harry as a real enemy, but for now the boy has other tasks. For now, he must figure out his new role as a wizard and get used to his new school life.
Details, trifles and conclusions.
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is a fairy tale. Or fantasy. In this case, we do not need to know English history to understand the book. But even in a fairy tale you can pay attention to the details.
Harry studies in a closed school, he does not have to go home every day after classes. That is, he is completely separated from his former family. This means that everything that happens to him at school, successes or problems, is his life 24 hours a day. Is this good or bad for our hero? We remember that his relatives never delved into his problems, so complaining to them was in any case useless. Harry himself decides all issues at school, he takes care of his relationships, behavior, studies and Quidditch training. By the end of the year he becomes more mature, more independent and...
And let's draw a conclusion. The first book about Harry Potter is not yet about the boy’s struggle with the Big Evil and his representative Voldemort. It's simply about how a lonely orphan, living with nasty relatives, suddenly turns out to be a wizard, ends up in a closed school of magic and finds true friends, always ready to help in difficult times. Our hero becomes more confident, more mature, he knows how to stand up for himself and understands that Hogwarts is his real family and real home.
This is exactly what the book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is about - about the importance of strong friendship for any person.
Recently, a lot of substitutions have happened unnoticed. Take, for example, the current habit of demanding a “comprehensive examination” for any reason. Previously, expert opinion was sought only in cases where it was impossible to understand without highly professional knowledge and skills. Now something obvious and indisputable is being examined. How many times have parents of schoolchildren turned to us with requests to recommend experts who would explain to the principal that telling children in class about “safe sex” and homosexuality is harmful to the psyche! After all, they themselves are “not specialists” and are not competent to solve such complex issues, although until recently any semi-literate grandmother, without any specialists, knew that children should not be corrupted. This was obvious to anyone with even a shred of common sense left.
A serious change has also occurred in the area of common sense. Previously, it occupied the place of the golden mean between two types of insanity - a thoughtless flurry of emotions and soulless formal logic. But then (with the help of experts) common sense was classified as incompetence and frenzy, and formal logic began to appear under its guise. It seems that anyone who thinks logically is a scientist, a specialist. How far can we get to him? And if he also quotes the greats and if he has a peremptory, at times somewhat ironic tone, then everyone falls silent in respectful fear.
We would like to show the danger of such a substitution using the example of the fashionable series of books by J. K. Rowling about Harry Potter.
More precisely, using the example of the controversy surrounding these books. At first, even the frantic advertising campaign did not confuse most people.
- Why so much noise? - they were surprised. - It’s some kind of rubbish, and it’s poorly written. Why are children being fooled?
Orthodox people were even more categorical in their assessments, saying that the book cultivates an interest in witchcraft and magic and thereby pushes children towards the occult. Both opinions are quite in line with common sense, although later, when the advertising became prohibitive, some could not stand it and lost their emotions. And they were immediately put to shame by authoritative experts, the essence of whose coherent reasoning boiled down to the following:
- There is magic in every fairy tale. So what about banning them now?
- In general, there is nothing bad in the Potter books, they are good and kind.
- Children understand perfectly well that the witchcraft in the book is make-believe, and, of course, they will not use it in life, especially since Rowling’s magical recipes include magical ingredients (such as unicorn horns), which do not exist in nature.
- The English tradition has a freer use of dark forces, so there is no reason to assume that Harry Potter was written with the purpose of glorifying demonic spells. It's just the way the British do things.
- This fairy tale in itself is good, but it appeared not at the best of times. But a hundred years ago it would have been perceived as a good fantasy, and in Soviet reality it would have been harmless. But today Rowling’s book has become a droplet that has flown into the muddy streams of neo-paganism.
- However, in any case, it makes no sense to ban reading about Harry Potter. Not those times. It is better to read books with children and, based on the text, promote all that is good and good.
The next paragraph adds arguments for the Orthodox:
- If they, the Orthodox, spit and burn Harry Potter, the army of Satanists will probably be replenished with many new recruits, and the blame will fall not on the author of the book, but on its detractors. “Since they vilify books that don’t say anything bad about Christianity, that means they themselves are bad. Therefore, I will not go to them, but rather go to the Satanists.”
Parents were seriously worried about the distorted behavior of children under the influence of Harry Potter.
“I think I should be happy that my son has started reading, but for some reason I’m scared.” He has some kind of unhealthy interest...
“And mine reads and re-reads, doesn’t want to know anything else.” If you try to say something against him, he acts like mad: he’s rude, he yells, he even throws his fists at you. In general, he became not himself.
During psychological studies, some children revealed deep, persistent fears that arose after reading these books. Some made drawings that smelled of dark mysticism a mile away.
Also interesting is the story of our friend about the influence of “Harry Potter” on her friend, an adult woman, the mother of two children:
“She once asked me casually if my children liked Harry Potter.” I replied that they had not read this book. She was so indignant at this and screamed that I had no right to deprive children of happiness. Everyone, they say, reads. She, an adult, was captured too. Are they worse? I agreed to the point that I would disfigure them, steal their childhood. I tried to explain to her that they themselves didn’t want to, but she didn’t listen and kept screaming and screaming - I’ve never seen her like this. A normal, intelligent woman...
Of course, not all children and not all parents reacted so violently, so we had to, out of professional responsibility, not limit ourselves to someone’s “expert assessments,” but still take one of the books from the library that was there at that moment, and namely the second one: “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” We were going to take others later, but quickly realized that this one was enough for us.
Point "A": the right to citizenship in fairy tales
The statement about a good children's fairy tale is incorrect, first of all, because “Harry Potter” cannot be compared at all with either a folk or an author’s fairy tale. The main character, the main character of a fairy tale, is a man. And he is never a wizard, although he can receive a magical attribute or magical property, but only for a while. Wizards appear in fairy tales either as opponents or as assistants to the hero, and the main thing here is not magical attributes, but the personal qualities of the protagonist, for which he, in fact, is rewarded with magical gifts.
The heroine of the fairy tale “Geese and Swans” could not use magic until her self-will was replaced by obedience. The girl didn’t want to pick the apples to lighten the branches of the apple tree; no one would help her. I corrected myself and got help.
Even the absolutely fantastic anthropomorphic characters of fairy tales: Pinocchio hewn from a log, the onion boy Chipollino, Dunno, Gvozdik, Carlson are also not magicians. And this is no coincidence. A fairy tale creates a model of the world, and the world should not be ruled by magicians and sorcerers. This is, perhaps, the main condition for the integration of characters into fairy tales: not citizenship (and certainly not the right to supreme power!), but only a residence permit for good wizards and the strictest, bordering on a ghetto, Pale of Settlement for evil ones.
Let’s remember the Frog Princess (so beautiful!) and the Beast from “The Scarlet Flower” (so noble!) - even they depend on people for their lives. Man, and not a wizard, always occupies a dominant place in fairy tales.
It is not without reason that such an important place is given to man in fairy tales. Since fairy tales play a huge educational role, it is very important who the child identifies with, who he looks up to, who he wants to imitate. Of course, all children at least sometimes dream of a magic wand, but in fairy tales they most empathize not with the wizards, but with the main character. Therefore, it is fundamentally important who he will be - a man or a sorcerer.
In Harry Potter everything is topsy-turvy.
The main character is a wizard, and almost all the other characters are too. People figure somewhere on the sidelines, either as scoundrels (the Dursleys), or as idiots, and, of course, as beings inferior to magicians. They are not even really called people - more and more simpletons, simpletons, Muggles. Thus, the child is initially alienated from the people depicted in Rowling's book. Not only does he empathize with the main character, the wizard, but people do not deserve either sympathy or basic respect.
The use of the word “simple” is characteristic in this regard. In Russian culture, it has a rather positive connotation - an ingenuous person with a childishly pure heart, in fact wise, but this wisdom is “not of this world,” that is, a person close to God, such people are found among monks, wanderers, holy fools. In the context of Harry Potter, the word “simple” is discredited. Just one example.
“Mr. Weasley (the good wizard - author) sat Harry next to him at dinner and bombarded him with questions about the lives of simpletons. He was especially concerned about electrical appliances and the work of the postal service.
- Well well! – he was surprised when he heard from Harry about the phone. – How many things they came up with! What else can they, the poor, do without magic!” .
Let’s say “simple” is a translator’s mistake. (Although such an experienced writer as M.D. Litvinova could have realized that showing “simpletons” as idiots compared to sorcerers is quite blasphemous.) But, firstly, our children, who read in Russian, do not care about what word was used in the original? And secondly, the situation there is no better. The word “muggles”, coined by the author, contains a reminder that people do not possess magic (mage-less), and... actually accuses humanity of widespread drug addiction, since “muggle” in slang means “marijuana”. In addition, the word “mug” in England is used to describe a fool who is very easy to fool, and the verb “to mug” is translated into Russian as “robbery.” In general, it is difficult to imagine that people wanted to be praised.
So, the basic principles of the existence of magical characters in a classic fairy tale are grossly violated here.
The main character is not just a wizard, but an all-powerful magician. A sort of king of magicians. He was one year old, and he had already defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the terrible and terrible Voldemort (in Russian, “the devil of death”).
In literary terms, this is an unprecedented hack, a shameless game of giveaway. A hero is a hero because he must accomplish the impossible, defeat those who are obviously stronger, more powerful. This is what gives the work its drama. What's going on here? Even the final scene looks, from the point of view of literary craft, shameful. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Phoenix bird flies to the aid of the all-powerful Harry Potter (a sort of deus ex machina), pecks out the eyes of the basilisk (it would be interesting to know why this bird, unlike all the other characters, including Harry, is not afraid of the monster’s deadly gaze?) and supplies Potter with a wonderful sword. If the author lived in Russia and showed up with such a craft to a seminar for young writers, she would be laughed at. Our literary day laborers work much better.
Of course, dear experts, all fairy tales and fairy-tale magic should not be banned, but it wouldn’t hurt to take a closer look at Harry Potter.
Point “B”: sweet, kind children’s fairy tale
Both abroad and here, Potter is read by children of all ages, starting from the age of six. Some experts, however, argue that it is intended for eleven-thirteen-year-olds, but it seems to us that this is not so important. However, we give you the opportunity to be the experts yourself.
Here is a description of the shopping arcades in the area where evil sorcerers live: “In the glass case there was a dried hand, stained with blood, a deck of cards and a staring crystal eye. Ominous masks stared from the walls. And on the counter it’s a nightmare! – human bones of different shapes and sizes are laid out. Rusty, sharpened torture instruments hang from the ceiling." And here’s a little further: “... A display case filled with... dried heads... a large cage infested with giant black spiders.<…>Harry winced and looked up. An old witch stood in front of him with a tray in her hands, on which stood a pile of shells. But these are human nails!” .
No worse is the description of the banquet table at the holiday with the charming children's name “Anniversary of Death”: “Their (Harry Potter and his two friends. - Author) sense of smell was touched by a sickening smell... large rotten fish... mutton tripe infested with fat white worms... a birthday cake in the shape of a tombstone...”.
What say you, expert readers? Isn't it a little dense for a “good, kind children's book intended for eleven-thirteen-year-olds”?
Of course, lollipops should not be sold in the shops of evil wizards, just as there should not be bouquets of lilies of the valley on a witch’s tray. And the basilisk’s speeches do not have to contain assurances of friendship and love. The only question is about doses and the degree of naturalism. Neither at six nor at thirteen years old is it useful to imagine peeled off human nails lying on a tray (after all, it’s not the clippings that are shaped like shells!). And sinister spells with a sexual flavor are also not useful.
Of course, each age has its own characteristics.
For six-year-olds, these everyday details from the life of evil spirits will cause numerous fears. As for the age designated as “safe,” we are forced to challenge the opinion of the above-mentioned experts. At eleven to thirteen years old, verbal-figurative connections are much stronger than at six, fantasy is much more vivid. In addition, it is supported by an extensive store of knowledge. Something that a child won’t notice because he doesn’t have an image behind the word, will get stuck in a seventh grader’s head like a nail and will disinhibit the psyche, defile the imagination, and disturb sleep.
Another thing is that such big children are ashamed of their fears and often mask them with feigned cynicism and mockery. But this defense is pathological. The soul of a cynic becomes insensitive, and that is why cynicism is so often combined with cruelty. This connection is especially relevant precisely for adolescence, when the boiling of the blood is already ready to turn into aggression.
Today's teenage mass culture tends to provoke sadism.
But “a sweet, kind children’s book,” even against such a general background, “is something,” as the heroine of one television advertisement used to say.
“One of the third-year students accidentally splattered frog brains all over the ceiling in the dungeon.”. (How many frogs did you have to lime to splash all ceiling?!)
Harry Potter's friends are also having a very idyllic time (don't forget, these are good wizards, not like a witch with nail shells on a tray!): “Outside the window, the rain was lashing the slate-black glass, but the room was light and cozy. A bright fire was burning in the fireplace. Schoolchildren sitting in soft chairs read, talked, and did their homework. Fred and George set up an experiment: what would happen if you fed a sparkler to a salamander... In the care of magical creatures office, Fred “released a bright orange lizard from captivity, and now it was smoking on the table, surrounded by a bunch of curious people.
...The salamander suddenly soared up and circled wildly around the room, loudly crackling and scattering sparks. Orange stars fell from her mouth, there was a slight explosion, and the salamander, engulfed in flames, disappeared.” .
Educated adults, of course, know about the mythical salamander, which does not burn in fire, but children do not even know about it. They won’t understand in this case either, even though they will read that the salamander lived “in the room for the care of magical creatures.” But they may well have heard about an ordinary salamander lizard, so in their minds, a living orange lizard was blown up for fun.
Notice in what a relaxing and cozy atmosphere the killing of the salamander takes place and how aestheticized it is. Orange sparks from the mouth are especially romantic. Just a recipe for making a live firecracker: put a sparkler in a lizard and you will get an unusually colored firework. (By the way, in the absence of a lizard, one of the young readers can have fun in a similar way by “feeding” a sparkler to a cat or hamster...)
Death in general is carefully devalued in the “sweet, kind fairy tale.” And not just reptiles.
Two teachers from a school of magicians fight a duel. One falls. An exclamation is heard:
- Is he alive?
- Yes, even if not! – Ron and Harry answered in unison. (Again, good wizards, students of the defeated one.)
Or about another teacher: “The lectures were given by Professor Beans, the only ghost teacher in the entire school.<…>They said that this ancient morel didn’t even notice how he died: he went to class one day, and his body remained sitting by the fireplace in the teacher’s room.”
And another nice joke from the goodies: Harry is interested in what special merits a graduate of the school of magicians, Riddle, received an award for.
“Yes, for anything,” replies his friend Ron. “Maybe... he saved the professor from a giant octopus... Or he killed Myrtle, and that would bring glory to anyone.”
For those who have not read the book, we explain: Myrtle is, in fact, the most tragic character in the book “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” An unfortunate girl who was bullied during her life and continues to be bullied after death. A dead child, whose image the writer carefully belittles and disfigures. As a result, instead of compassion, a feeling of contempt and disgust arises towards the innocent victim. Myrtle is a crybaby (ha ha!), fat, pimply, bespectacled (hee hee!), her ghost lives in the women's restroom (you'll laugh!). And not only is this a toilet, but it is also “sad, shabby... Under the long, streaked and stained mirror was a row of cracked stone washbasins. Dimly burning candle stubs were reflected in the wet floor (how do you like this parody of a tomb? - Auto.); the paint on the booth doors was peeling off and was hanging in flakes here and there; one had a door hanging on a single hinge.”
And such a description has a repulsive effect on adults, and even more so on modern children, who are diligently oriented by television and advertising to the standards of European-quality renovation.
One of the most heartbreaking moments is also presented in a sadistic manner. Myrtle, tormented by bullying, decided to commit suicide. But at the last minute I remembered that she was already dead, that is, she could not escape ridicule, she was doomed to eternal torment.
Now let's see how the book talks about this. Myrtle tells Harry and his friends who came to her refuge (not at all to sympathize with her, but to get the information they need):
“I was so offended at the holiday that, when I returned here, I wanted to hang myself, and then I remembered that I... that I...
“Dead,” Ron helped.
Myrtle sobbed sadly, flew over the tank and dived straight into the toilet, splashing her friends from head to toe. Her muffled moans came from the drainpipe.
Ron and Harry gaped, and Hermione shrugged in disappointment.
“By the way, this might be considered fun for Myrtle.” Okay, let's get out of here."
There is a lot of such “good” in the book. Here is the “comic” image of another ghost, named Almost Headless Nick: during his execution, he was hit on the neck forty-five times with a blunt ax, but could not be completely beheaded. Or the coven of ghosts described with mocking humor at the “death anniversary” of the aforementioned Nick. But if we quote everything, we will never move on to the next point of the controversy, which states that the witchcraft in the book is “make-believe” and children will not use it in life.
Point “B”: preparing witchcraft borscht according to Papus’ “Practical Magic”
Alas, sad practice has already refuted the theories of respected experts. The first Russian victims were twenty Novosibirsk schoolchildren who were taken to the hospital in critical condition due to copper sulfate poisoning. They were poisoned by eighth-graders, inspired by a “good, kind fairy tale.” At recess, they approached the fourth graders and gave them a container, saying that it contained a magical drink made according to the Harry Potter recipe.
Have you ever heard of children doing something similar under the influence of, for example, “Alice in Wonderland” or “The Wizard of Oz”, “Three Fat Men”?
Of course, 8th grade students do not confuse what happens in the book with the reality of life. And, giving the younger ones copper sulfate, stolen in the chemistry laboratory (the characters of “Potter”, by the way, steal very often), they could not help but know that this was not a magic potion “for fun”, but in fact a particularly dangerous poison, so what if based on formal logic, then yes, of course, in relation to this case, the books about Harry Potter cannot be called real textbooks on witchcraft. But after reading them, Novosibirsk schoolchildren became infected with this kind of “cheerful” cruelty. They themselves are drunk on the potion of black humor, when it is “cool” to humiliate, cause pain and even kill. And who counted how many such schoolchildren there are around the world?
The reaction of those who were poisoned is even more alarming. After all, they are ten years old, not five, and there were as many as twenty of them! Imagine, not one out of twenty doubted: everyone trustingly drank the “magic drink”, and they did not believe an authoritative adult - a mother or a teacher, but the slightly older children. This means that the victims of the “potion” were not only captivated by the book, it made a truly hypnotic impression on them. In their heads, contrary to the assertions of experts, fiction and reality were confused. The dream of magic that lives in every child was warmed up to a passionate thirst by a book about little omnipotent wizards. And the copper sulfate extended in time to quench it did not frighten them, because passion drowned out sanity. What sanity is there! - the instinct of self-preservation.
When you understand this, it becomes ridiculous to refer to the fact that for the magical compositions of “Harry Potter” you need, they say, a unicorn horn, a magic wand, Phoenix feathers... And since they do not exist in nature, there is no need to worry. But this is the same as saying that a modern housewife will never be able to cook borscht according to the pre-revolutionary cookbook by Elena Molokhovets: after all, the recipe includes asparagus and capers! Our women are not at all embarrassed by the lack of young asparagus shoots on the farm, but take beets, carrots, onions, and potatoes from the Molokhovets recipe and prepare excellent borscht. Why should children be confused by the absence of a Phoenix feather? There are more than enough other ingredients. The nail and hair clippings that the book’s characters use to prepare a witch’s potion (just like in Papus’ “Practical Magic”) are not exotic at all. And frogs too...
Well, the recipe can be clarified using other books. Fortunately, “Harry Potter” also gives guidelines here, mentioning a love potion, a love potion, cabalism and ancient runes that are completely unnecessary in children’s households.
Point “D”: cat sacrifice, mandrake root and creative development of traditions
One can agree with the thesis about the English tradition, which allows for freer handling of dark forces. Our Tamara just kissed the Demon - and immediately she was gone. And their pious virgin gave birth to Satan - and at least henna (forgive the accidental rhyme). The son grew up and became the wizard Merlin - the “white”, “good” magician.
And the British have specific ideas about good and evil. Which other Europeans exterminated almost the entire native population of two continents - North America and Australia? Not to mention the fact that England is the birthplace of football, in which the ball was originally... a severed human head. Can you imagine the passion for sports that gripped the players and fans? What purely English humor permeated this spectacle? Rowling has shown herself to be a true Englishwoman: she creatively develops these traditions. Her ghosts play not with other people's heads, but with their own. And not in football, but in hockey and polo.
So, there is still every reason to claim that the book was written with the aim of chanting demonic spells.
It is unlikely that out of the blue, representatives of various Churches in various countries, including England, would sharply protest against Rowling’s books. For example, the general secretary of the Union of Teachers and University Professors in England, Peter Smith, said that “the premiere of the Harry Potter film will lead to a new generation discovering the world of magic.” Entertainer, one of the world's largest children's goods and toy companies, has banned Harry Potter products from its shelves, saying it is concerned about the uncontrollable state it is causing children. One thousand one hundred and eighteen written protests against Harry Potter were registered at the American Library Alliance for Free Thought headquarters in 1999–2000. And this is less than a quarter of the total number of protests that contain demands to remove Rowling’s books from schools and libraries for their “occult-satanic” nature!
And Caryl Matrisciana, who at one time experienced a fascination with the occult, made a video documentary “Harry Potter - Witchcraft in a new package, showing evil as the norm.” “Through the Potter books,” says Matrisciana, “children even of preschool age are accustomed to human sacrifice. They are shown how blood is sucked out of dead animals, how spirits take possession of a person.” She also talks about other satanic rituals, for example, about the scene in the cemetery in the fourth book.
Voldemort's servant Tail drops a bundle containing a snake-like creature into a cauldron of witchcraft brew - so to speak, the mortal remains of the main villain. The bones of the villain's father are then magically transferred to the cauldron. Then Tail cuts off his right hand (what a sweet, kind children's book! - Auto.) and also throws it into the cauldron. And finally, Tail extracts the blood of Harry, who is present at this action, and replenishes the contents of the cauldron with it. As a result, Voldemort comes to life.
Matrisciana testifies to the many literal coincidences of the witchcraft rituals of “Potter” with the rituals of the satanic sect of Wicca, officially registered in the United States.
Even the writer herself does not deny the occult nature of her books. In an October 20, 1999, interview on National Public Radio, Rowling spoke about her special research into magical rites and paganism. By her own admission, she did this to make the witchcraft in Potter look more realistic. Not fabulous, as experts assure us, but realistic! About a third of the rituals described in her books, Rowling proudly declared, were based on real occult activities.
We gleaned this information from an article by the Greek Elena Andrulaki, with whom Deacon Andrei Kuraev so passionately polemicizes in the article “Who is Afraid of Harry Potter?” . Or, having gotten used to the role of a lawyer, he was so carried away that he did not notice how his client herself admitted to what she had done?
However, Father Andrei managed not to notice some other, equally obvious things. Elena Andrulaki wrote that the second book (the one we read) depicts the sacrifice of a cat. Kuraev subjected this statement to devastating criticism. They say that there is no trace of a sacrifice, the cat just happened to see the reflection of the basilisk’s eyes and became numb. And in general, she was not killed, but only paralyzed. The latter is correct from the standpoint of formal logic. Indeed, it later turns out that the cat's paralysis was non-fatal.
Now let's look at the book.
“-...Tear...tear...kill...” he clearly heard (Harry. - Author).
It was that same voice - cold, scary...<…>
- Do you hear? – asked Harry.
Ron and Hermione froze, not taking their eyes off him.
-...to kill...time to kill...
The voice began to weaken. Harry was sure it was moving away, moving upward.<…>
- Shhh! – Harry strained his hearing. From above, most likely from the third floor, a fading voice reached him!
– I smell blood!.. (It is highlighted in capital letters in the book. – Auth.) I smell blood...
Harry's heart sank.
- It's going to kill someone! - he shouted and rushed up again.<…>
On the third floor, Harry rushed down the corridor again...
...On the wall between the two windows were written in huge letters the words, shining in the light of the torches:
“THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS IS OPEN AGAIN. Tremble, ENEMIES OF THE HEIR!” (In the book it is highlighted in capital letters. - Auth.)
– What is this... what is this hanging under the inscription? – Ron asked in a trembling voice.
...The object hanging under the ominous words, which seemed like a dark shadow from a distance... was the school caretaker's cat...
The numb cat was suspended by its tail from a torch bracket. The bulging eyes were wide open.<…>
- Tremble, enemies of the heir! – someone shouted loudly. “First the cat - next will be those in whose veins unclean blood flows!” .
Tell me, how could one see “just an accident” in this scene? Did the cat hang itself by the tail onto the torch bracket to make it look more impressive? Did the inscription appear on the wall also by chance? And the bloodthirsty voice, sounding precisely on the third floor, where the cat was later found, also accidentally threatened to kill?
Here the formal logic is lame, especially since at the end of the book it is directly stated that the basilisk set on on a cat, that is, the reprisal was deliberate. As for the debate about murder or paralysis, it is inconvenient to somehow remind an adult, educated person of the extreme importance of the first impression, of the perception of a holistic image. In 20th-century psychology, this is usually called gestalt. And then you can prove as much as you want that rigor and glassy eyes occur not only in corpses, that you can become numb from the cold, and the eyes seem glassy during diabetic collapse...
In general, art for children should contain as little horror as possible, especially those with physiological details. Remember the imaginary death of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, remember the severed head of a hero, which was placed against the body and sprinkled with living water. Where is the description of the bulging eyes and the lolling tongue? No pathology.
And if we return to the sacrifices, then the matter is not limited to the cat of the caretaker Mrs. Norris. There is another line in The Chamber of Secrets, and in this case the sacrifice is performed by “good” sorcerers. We mean preparing a revitalizing infusion from mandrake, a plant whose “magic” root is traditional in witchcraft rituals.
The description of this “plant” itself is discouraging. Instead of the root of a young mandrake - "tiny, soil-stained, ugly baby". And although his leaves grow right from the top of his head, and his skin is pale green and all dotted with multi-colored dots, he behaves like a person. Not wanting to leave his home, this baby screams, kicks, writhes, flails with sharp fists, grinds his teeth. Then, having entered adolescence, mandrakes become nervous and withdrawn. And having reached puberty, they throw noisy parties and climb into each other’s pots. It is then that, as the professor at the school of magicians teaches, they are ready for use: they should be killed and used in a potion. How else to understand the words: “The youthful acne will go away, and we will replant them again. And after that we’ll cut it and prepare the tincture”?!“Them” is in this case about human roots.
Yes, Rowling honestly worked in the field of the occult. Mandrake root is not just occultism, but cool occultism. According to legend, the mandrake grows in the place where the seed of the hanged man was spilled (hence, probably, the image of baby roots).
You will say that children probably don’t know this. But, firstly, having become interested in magic thanks to Harry Potter, they can easily continue occult education: educational literature of this kind is not in short supply today. And secondly, even without this knowledge, the picture drawn by Rowling is monstrous in its cruelty: mandrake men are sacrificed for the well-being of other, more worthy creatures.
How does a writer manage to turn off compassion in her readers?
Yes, in a way as old as the world: by instilling in them that the roots squeaking and darting around the pots are subhuman, and also very nasty and dangerous. For example, the baby mandrake is called “ugly”; it “screams heart-rendingly.” This is how disgust is instilled. (By the way, this is surprisingly consonant with the epithets that the founder of “family planning” Margaret Sanger, a person who also knew a lot about the occult, liked to reward babies with. And the sacrifice of babies for medical purposes is now successfully carried out in Russia by the followers of the frantic Margaret, who are engaged in fetal therapy - the production and the use of medicinal potions from aborted babies - and do not hesitate to declare publicly that it is very noble when one unborn child saves ten living ones. The source of such “humanism” is still the same - the fetid swamp of the fascist “religion of the new century.”)
And this is how fear is instilled: the cry of the mandrake, it turns out, is mortally dangerous for those who hear it. Potter and company even have to wear special headphones - what kind of sympathy is there...
Let's go back to the beginning of the “point”.
Yes, it may very well be that in the genetic memory of young Englishmen there is a habit inherited from the ancient Celts to deal more freely with dark forces. And therefore, the first-grader of the school of magicians, Ginny, who strangles roosters in a state of possession, is perceived by them as a humorous character. And the house where the ghoul lives really seems to them, like Harry Potter, “the best house in the world.” And they do not at all regard the broom with the name “Nimbus-2000” and the name of the sorcerer “Zlatopust” (parodied “Zlatoust”) as blasphemy. (Although the reaction of the English public casts doubt on this.)
But our children live in a country with different cultural traditions and store different stereotypes in their genetic memory. And if even English children, under the influence of Harry Potter, develop phobias, sleep disturbances, uncontrolled behavior and other pathologies, then we have all the more reason to worry.
Addition to paragraph “D”: occult roots of the modern anti-fairy tale
And there is no need to compare “Harry Potter” with the “Iliad” and the myths of different peoples, as other experts are trying to do. There is a completely different measure of convention, and everything that happens is presented as something that happened in days gone by. And the ancient heroes are by no means children; it is much more difficult to identify with them than with the students of the Hogwarts school of magicians, where everything is painfully familiar: classes, desks, favorite and unloved teachers, homework, exams, vacations. Only instead of geography there is potions, and instead of a dull problem book on physics and literature anthologies there are textbooks with exciting titles: “Meetings with Vampires”, “Spirits on the Roads”, “Holidays with a Hag” or “Fun with Ghouls”.
“If only such a school really existed for me!”– a fifteen-year-old (not six-year-old!) girl wrote on the Internet. The Internet is full of such children's sayings, and when you read them, you are often struck by the slide from the hill of dreams into the quagmire of hallucinatory reality. Someone sees in broad daylight, walking along the city streets, a lake and a castle, ghostly figures. And to some, a loving godmother suddenly, for no apparent reason, begins to seem like a witch in disguise...
And again, it is inconvenient to remind experts who compare the Harry Potter books with pagan mythology what the resurrection of paganism means 2000 years after Christ came to earth. And to whose mill Rowling grates, dressing ancient paganism in modern clothes. After all, in fact, “Potter” not only introduces children to a huge variety of occult-satanic attributes and rituals. (Almost everything we quoted in this article bears this burden, and only a small part was cited, some from one book; there are already seven such books). It is obvious that Rowling introduces readers to the area of occult concepts, occult philosophy, and occult value system.
“The concept of “occultism,” says Olga Eliseeva’s very informative report “Occult Ideas in Harry Potter,” comes from the Latin “occultus” - secret, dark, hidden. This is the general name for teachings that recognize the existence of hidden forces in man and nature, inaccessible to all people, but accessible to a select few who have undergone special initiation and special mental training.
The initiation ritual itself is associated with mental turmoil, the experience of death and rebirth. His goal is to achieve a new vision of the world, which opens access to secret knowledge and allows one to control the hidden forces of nature.<…>Occultism has developed specific ideas about magic, about science, about human races, about the end of the world, about the journeys of the soul and life after death... Occultism... claims to be the role of a so-called universal religion, which would absorb everything that is common in different religious systems, reconciling religion would combine with science and philosophy and would contribute to the unification rather than division of humanity. Thanks to widespread and open propaganda, occult knowledge has turned from secret sciences for the elite into generally known and publicly available information for everyone. There is more than enough information in Harry Potter."
We will not overload the text with a detailed analysis of the occult meanings contained in the “cute children’s book”; we will not talk about mediums inhabited by evil spirits, about the specifically occult division of magicians into “white” and “black”, about the satanic meaning of lightning on the forehead Harry and what a snake crawling out of an ancient statue means in esotericism. Those who wish can continue the research themselves. We, trusting the patristic warnings and remembering the Russian tradition of not approaching the world of dark forces too closely, will say only about the specifically occult racism that permeates Rowling’s book, and about the occult ideas about good and evil, which she raised in the wake of (unprecedented advertising) easily conveys interest to children.
We have already written about the attitude of magicians towards people as lower beings. Now it’s time to ask the question “why”: why even the good Harry Potter, wanting to show how terrible the family of evil wizards torturing Dobby the Elf is, throws out the characteristic phrase: “Yes, Muggles are angels compared to your family!” ? Not some specific, “bad” Muggles, but people in general, as a species.
But Harry’s mother was also a Muggle, saving him at the cost of her own life. But Harry also speaks strangely about her for a positive hero: “My vulgar Muggle mother took my death away from me.” Even if this is a clumsy translation of the English word “vulgar”, then even when substituting softer synonyms (“simple”, “common people”, “ordinary”) the remark continues to be alarming, only a person who feels his undeniable superiority speaks this way. But what is the superiority of a brat over a mother, especially a deceased one? – Only in mastery of magic. This is the most important criterion.
And the criterion is purely occult: if you master magic, you are included in the category of masters of life; if you don’t, you are a lower race. True, the occult world of Harry Potter is quite democratic: Muggles can become magicians. But for this you need to study well, gnaw on the granite of magical science, as the “mudblood” Hermione does.
If Muggles dare to have a bad attitude towards magic, they are immediately classified as “bad”. The view is anti-God-occult, for all Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) unconditionally consider magic to be evil and do not divide sorcerers into good and bad.
Let's take a look from this angle at the family of his close relatives, the Dursleys, who are hated by Harry. The author does not spare black paint to describe Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and their son Dudley. Their appearance alone is disgusting. Uncle has no sign of a neck, he has a scrambled egg stuck in his mustache, Auntie has a horse's face, Dudley looks like a pig. He's so fat his sides are hanging off the stool. The main character (and after him the reader) perceives their behavior as the behavior of evil idiots. Harry is especially outraged that they are ashamed of his witchcraft. They even had the audacity to take away his magic wand and broom! They don't care if he doesn't do his homework for the summer! Monsters, natural monsters...
But if you think about it, what’s so monstrous about these people’s attitude towards their nephew? They took the tiny orphan into the family and raised him for more than ten years, knowing, among other things, that his father was a sorcerer (which means that the boy could also be suspected of bad heredity). Yes, they have a bad attitude towards witchcraft, they are against Harry's education at the school of magicians. But representatives of traditional culture should have a sharply negative attitude towards witchcraft. And these people were also personally convinced of the mortal danger of magic: after all, Uncle Vernon’s sister, Harry’s mother, died from evil spells. And the nephew himself, endowed with witchcraft abilities, causes them nothing but trouble.
Rowling tries to portray Harry as a modern-day Cinderella (this awkward analogy is very clear).
But Cinderella did not cast a spell, did not cause a pogrom in her stepmother’s kitchen, and did not disrupt her family’s reception of important guests. And Harry, doing (another question, voluntarily or unwittingly) nasty things to the Dursley family, does not experience anything resembling remorse. Well, there is no question of gratitude to them, his adoptive parents.
But is it possible, based on ordinary human concepts of good and evil, and even in a children’s book, which, we repeat, always, whether we want it or not, plays an educational role, could such a boy become a positive hero?
Or let's look from the other side: could the author, guided by normal ideas about human morality, allow the main character to have such an attitude towards the people who raised him? That is, allow yourself to reward them with so many repulsive traits? – No, of course, but the fact of the matter is that Rowling is guided by completely different principles, based on which there is no mercy for people who encroach on “the most sacred thing in the world” - magic. In a good way, they don’t even deserve to live.
This is the background of occult racism. And even though Rowling’s books do not directly speak, like Blavatsky’s, about the sixth race of the chosen ones and its future dominance on earth, these are all the same occult ideas, adapted and richly sweetened to feed to children. Drug dealers have also turned their attention to releasing their poison in the form of candies to indoctrinate youngsters.
“Good and evil (in Rowling’s books - Author) generally exist in unity,” says O. Eliseeva, already quoted above, “they are, as it were, different sides of one and the same being. And they remain in balance. This idea is given through the image of Lupine's teacher in the third book. Good Lupine, better than all his predecessors, teaches children how to protect themselves from dark forces. But every full moon he becomes a werewolf, that is, he turns into the very dark force from which he taught to defend himself. The idea of a balance of good and evil in one being belongs to the most archaic layer of occult ideas.”
The occult mysticism of good and evil is especially brazenly presented in the image of the main character. Does it happen in children's fairy tales that the most vile character transfers part of his black “energy” to the best hero? So to speak, infiltrated his soul, charging it with demonism? Imagine that after the battle with the Serpent Gorynych and victory over him, a good fellow, when confronted with the next evildoers, would blow ominous tongues of flame from his mouth, that is, good would defeat evil with the power inherited from the previously defeated evil. For a traditional religious coordinate system, this is wild. And for the occult it is the norm.
More specific ones also follow from such a global distortion. We have already mentioned more than once the bad deeds of Harry and other “good wizards”. And we are not talking here about the cute children's pranks that Malysh and Carlson or Deniska and his friends from Deniska's Stories indulged in. Rowling's characters often lie, steal, show cruelty to people and animals, mock, despise physical labor, systematically violate school regulations, guided by the principle: “The end justifies the means.”
It will be objected that it is not only Rowling's characters who commit bad deeds. For example, Pinocchio sold the primer that Papa Carlo bought with his last money, and instead of going to school he ran to the puppet theater. Wilde's Star Boy treated his mother cruelly. But for the authors of normal children's fairy tales, the hero's bad deed is an occasion to once again strengthen children's ideas about good and evil, to show that immorality never goes unpunished. Naturally, in good works, writers did not stoop to flat moralizing, but they never condoned the violation of moral prohibitions by their favorite characters.
Harry and his friends are immoral. To the white bone, the sixth race, human laws are not written, they are above, they are above these laws. And adults should prepare for the fact that, having become infected with the lawlessness and permissiveness glorified in “Potter,” their children will commit abnormal acts, while sincerely considering ugliness to be the new norm. Anyone who does not believe this, refuting with aplomb the educational role of children's literature, has probably never dealt with living children.
Point "D": history lessons
It’s not worth talking for long about the untimeliness of the appearance of a “sweet, kind fairy tale” (and in pre-revolutionary Russia or even in the Soviet Union it would have been, well, absolutely safe). Here the triumph of formal logic turns into outright ignorance. I just want to ask the experts who utter such maxims: are you really so ignorant of the history of pre-revolutionary Russia or are you pretending to be? The point is not that in an Orthodox country a book with an occult-satanic filling would not affect the moral climate, but that in an Orthodox country it simply couldn't see the light. Haven't you heard about strict censorship in Tsarist Russia?
About the fact that the censor read every manuscript applying for publication, and did not let everything through. They forgot the school textbooks, where they talked about our classics (who are not like Rowling, although for some reason you compare her with Homer): about A.S. Pushkin with M.Yu. Lermontov, exiled for individual poems, or even individual lines; about A.S. Griboyedov, who during his lifetime never saw Woe from Wit published; about F.M. Dostoevsky, sentenced to death (!) for... reading aloud to a handful of like-minded people Belinsky’s letter to Gogol. Children's literature, which was scant in those days, was so “diet” that it didn’t even smell like Andersen. It was read by especially advanced adults, such as Leo Tolstoy.
But it is not necessary to learn about the Soviet era from textbooks. The experts are not fifteen years old: they managed to live under the old regime. What sacrifices, what brew of human blood and limbs? What ghosts are there in the toilet?! Quite recently, around 1990, the Ministry of Culture censorship (which now calls for swearing without any embarrassment) demanded that our play for the puppet theater, written based on the fairy tale by D.N., be softened. Mamin-Sibiryak “Grey Neck”, scene of the murder of a fox.
- But Mamin-Sibiryak’s hunter kills her! – we tried to defend ourselves from censorship attacks. – And then, she’s an enemy, a negative character! This is fair retribution.
But the censor was unshakable:
– It’s one thing to read, and another to see on stage. Children may develop fears.
We had to leave the villainous fox alive (which now, having considerable experience working with nervous children, we do not regret at all).
Some people will like such strictness, but others will be outraged - this is a separate question. But why distort the facts?
Point “E”: that sweet word – “freedom”
Now about the meaninglessness of prohibitions and about the advice to read Rowling’s books with children, sowing the reasonable, the good, the eternal...
It is especially regrettable to hear this liberal nonsense from the lips of Orthodox people. Maybe it’s time to abolish the Ten Commandments, since prohibiting them is pointless?! Or are the commandments not a strict prohibition, but a soft recommendation?
“...Orthodox parents should start reading (Rawling’s books - Author) if their recommendations to children to abstain from this reading do not meet with sympathy,” advises one of the participants in the discussion on “Harry Potter” in the Orthodox press. “...You shouldn’t put pressure on them, but let this permission be considered as a vaccination, and not as a norm.”
Moreover, it is interesting that the same author gives a completely correct assessment of the book itself, which “is harmful in that it blurs the idea of magic as something dangerous and removes protective stereotypes,” that is, reading “Harry Potter” can introduce children to magic and, accordingly, lead to a violation of at least the first two commandments ( I am the Lord your God... let there be no gods for you other than Me And Do not make yourself an idol…). Involvement in the occult can destroy the soul, but even in the face of such mortal danger, Orthodox liberals are most afraid of “pressure” and actually push the child to violate another commandment ( Honor your father and your mother...). But what about the duty of believing parents to raise their child in obedience, to protect them from temptation and sin? Why did elementary education suddenly become called “pressure”? And why, when you talk about this with Orthodox freedomphiles, do they seem to switch off, their eyes even glaze over, like a hanged cat? What's the matter?
But the fact is that they themselves already have different gods, different idols. And angering the beloved idol of freedom is what is truly scary. They defend him (her) selflessly, fiercely, sometimes to the point of losing their minds. Only idolatrous frenzy can explain the advice to condone ugliness, considering it as a “vaccination.” What if later your other recommendations do not meet with sympathy from the children? Say, a recommendation to refrain from stealing? So, will you go to work together, humming a fashionable perestroika hit under your breath as a consolation:
I'll turn around and stop
I'm about to become rich
And then I'll start again
Do I obey the laws?
Digression: training in formal logic
Although it’s awkward to quote this, it’s necessary for greater clarity. “And a Christian teacher,” writes Deacon Andrei Kuraev, “could take children from this book to the realities of their faith. “Do you already know that it was the sacrificial love of his mother that saved little Harry from the evil sorcerer? You know, this is what they say in Christianity: a mother’s prayer brings her from the bottom of the sea and raises her from the dead... Would you like me to sing you a song that I recently heard in the monastery?<…>Has Harry forgiven the traitor Peter Peddigrew? You know, in our history there was once a Man who was able to forgive His traitor. In His sermon He said: Bless those who hate you. Let's discuss why revenge is not always appropriate?
Well? Maybe we should also practice formal logic? Let's imagine that someday (it seems that this time is not far off) there will be a new children's book written by an author from a certain African tribe. There will be cannibals, good and evil. Moreover, the good ones will eat only very big scoundrels, and the evil ones will eat everyone indiscriminately. The book will contain many entertaining adventures and savory recipes. But, of course, without promoting cannibalism, the author will simply adhere to traditions that are foreign to us, but natural to his tribe.
The book will be published in millions of copies, will be widely advertised, will gain wild popularity, and it will become impossible to protect children from it. And then a real Orthodox teacher (unlike alarmists and obscurantists) uses this book to preach the Gospel.
He will do it very intelligently, competently, delicately. Having analyzed with the children the scene of the final devouring of their main enemy by good cannibals, he will say that Christ commanded us to love not only friends, but also enemies. Then he will give several examples of ritual anthropophagy in the ancient pagan world to show what horrors Christianity saved the world from. Well, at the end he will tell about the Sacrament of Communion, contrasting human sacrifices with the bloodless Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Point “G”: about simple human logic
It's a pity that we can't end with these elegiac fantasies. But what can you do? There remains one more point that threatens us with an abundant replenishment of the army of Satanists if Christians attack Harry Potter. After all, they say, nothing bad is said about Christianity, and sorcerers and witches, we would add, even celebrate Christmas and give each other Christmas gifts.
But porn magazines, as a rule, don’t say anything bad about Christianity. There is a completely different topic, a different focus. Why make a fuss? You were touched, right? And if you perform, you’ll finish the game. A whole army of sexual maniacs will grow up. And it will not be the porn publishers who are to blame here, but simple human logic: since I like Playboy, but Christians are against it, it means that something is wrong with these Christians...
It is not clear why such logic is called “simple human”. It is somehow intricate, if not crooked. And just in a simple, human way, in such cases it is customary to say: “From a sore head to a healthy one.”
And in general, formal logic is completely inappropriate when it comes to the impact on the human soul, especially on the soul of a child. By the way, Chesterton very accurately noted in one of his essays (he was generally characterized by sniper-like precision of observation) that not the absence of ratio, but precisely its predominance is the main sign of schizophrenia.
How and why - the occult revolution of the newest generation
Well, we have gone through all the indicated points, now we could finish our work, but disputes with such strong logicians do not pass without leaving a trace. Thoughts are sharpened, the mind becomes clearer, and the question gradually matures: how, exactly, did it happen that “Harry Potter” suddenly captivated the world?
How is it possible that the books of an unknown and completely “unpromoted” housewife as an author in just a couple of years were translated into forty-seven (!) languages and published with a total circulation of one hundred and sixteen million (!) copies?
Why have the works of much more famous (and incomparable to Rowling in terms of literary level) authors never spread with such cosmic speed? For example, the venerable children's writer Astrid Lindgren, shortly before her death, admitted in an interview that she gained the greatest popularity in Russia. Even larger than in Sweden. And there are many countries where they have not yet heard of it. Or Gabriel García Márquez: his novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” quickly made the author famous, becoming a classic of the 20th century. But Marquez also had to wait many years before his books were distributed around the world.
And then the media all over the globe, as if on a whistle, began to impose Harry Potter on people, instilling in them that not a single person from nine to ninety years old could do without it, that with this book a new era in children’s literature began, that children for the first time for many years they have been away from computers and reading voraciously... (By the way, this is also very severe pressure, but for some reason it does not shock our liberals...) And where does this money come from for such rabid, on a global scale, mega-advertising? Volumes that bake like pies, films, T-shirts, briefcases, notebooks, toys, postcards. And all this right off the bat, without any noticeable length of time. Here's what's fabulous about the content of the book: Harry Potter's empire was built all at once, just as in fairy tales a palace is built in one night.
But we are still adults and should not confuse fairy tales with reality. But in reality, any project is carefully assessed by investors for risk. In this case, the degree of risk, as you understand, was extremely high: not only had no one heard of the author, not only was each volume almost as thick as Anna Karenina, and modern children often cannot be forced to read even a thin magazine, but also and the competition is crazy. The West is full of book garbage about little sorcerers and witches, including in the form of fantasy series. But they are not translated into forty-seven languages. Do you even have any idea what kind of geographic scope this is, considering that most of the globe speaks only a dozen languages (English, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi)? This is how many peoples need to be “enlightened” in order to scrape together about forty more languages! This means that they covered almost everything and everyone, right down to the Tutsi tribe. And we did it, we repeat, quickly, regardless of the commercial risk.
"Who did this, lords?" - as the “compatriot” of the great Rowling, a certain W. Shakespeare, asked through the mouth of Macbeth. Who, regardless of any costs, is capable of carrying out such a global information dump? It is clear that this is not some separate publishing house or several disparate companies. Such a worldwide project can only be implemented by a very influential and wealthy international organization or a large transnational corporation. But experience shows that today their commercial and humanitarian activities are closely linked to politics, and often subordinated to it.
Of course, not all political forces are in a hurry to introduce themselves to the public; many prefer to be in the shadows. But over time, something comes to light. And sometimes you learn quite unexpected things. For example, a few years ago, in one of the central exhibition halls of Moscow, an action unprecedented in its impudence took place: the artist, in front of the amazed public, chopped up icons with an ax, and for a fee offered everyone to take part in the desecration of shrines, and there was a price list for different types of mockery .
Outraged citizens filed a lawsuit. Defenders of the scoundrel wisely talked about the art of performance, the right to creative expression and the freedom of the artist. Then, feeling that the argument was rather weak, they began to hint at the mental problems of the “creator”. But unexpectedly, a woman stood out from the support group, who felt ashamed to make a comedy, and she admitted that the disgrace in the Manege was by no means spontaneous. This was a planned action within the framework of one of the projects sponsored by the Soros Foundation. And the goals of the project were by no means creative, but political, as evidenced by even its name (naturally, not disclosed to the general public): “Study of the reactions of radical social groups.”
And if you delve a little further into history, you can remember the sexual revolution of the 1960s - a group of musicians who suddenly became idols of half the globe, the hippie ideology, which spread surprisingly quickly (despite the absence then of an “open information society” in most of the planet ) and included the fashion for drugs. For a long time it seemed, and many still think, that all this happened by itself, spontaneously. They say, what can you do? - The spirit of the times...
But then journalists started talking about the MK-Ultra project, carried out under the leadership of the CIA and aimed at “shifting the cultural paradigm.” And this “shift” consisted in the creation of the so-called youth culture of “rock-sex-drugs” (in English “rock-sex-drug culture”). The interests of the developers of the MK-Ultra project, and especially its customers, extended very far. Behind the sophisticated expression “cultural paradigm shift” were hidden plans to reduce the birth rate, direct the protest energy of young people in a safe direction, and the intention to overthrow traditional values that are the stronghold of sovereign states.
Having significantly unified the cultural codes of the younger generation, trying to adapt them to a certain “universal” (that is, Western) standard, the authors of the MK-Ultra project made a powerful breakthrough on the path to global peace. And it looks like something similar is being planned with Harry Potter. Only now the “experimental material” is not young people, but children and teenagers. The ground has already been thoroughly prepared, so it is possible to act much more openly than during the “sexual revolution”.
The MK-Ultra project also contained an occult component, but it was covered up by the fight against hypocritical morality, political slogans such as “Make love not war,” and the fashion for Hinduism and yoga. Now, according to the calculations of the new (or the same?) designers, apparently, the time has come to make an occult revolution on a global scale, to create a single cultural field charged with magic for the younger generation. So that children all over the world, from the Kremlin to the very outskirts, have the same type of reactions in response to certain images and signals.
Our guess is confirmed by the list of participants. The Hollywood company Warner Brothers takes an active part in the propaganda of Potter (as evidenced on the flyleaf of the Russian translation). In 1989, this company released a video clip for Madonna called “Like a Prayer.” The clip advertised the singer's next album, and at the same time the Pepsi drink, not to mention the Warner Brothers company itself, which released this album. In Italy, Germany and some other countries the clip was banned, considered blasphemous. Here is what the German researcher Elisabeth Hellenbreutsch writes about this: “In the film “Like a Prayer,” the famous American pop star Madonna walks half-naked in a church among burning crosses. Then there is violence and murder in the church. Then Jesus comes down from the Cross and kisses her almost passionately. After which the singer takes a knife and, blaspheming, pierces her hands, imitating the wounds of Christ. You ask, who are the sponsors and producers of the blasphemous video clip? This is the director of Pepsi-Cola, Roger Enrico, who demanded in his book “The War of Cola” to create a new “Pepsi generation”. I will not go into details, I will only say that the Pepsi-Cola company is closely connected with the Latin American drug trade. (It’s no secret that a small percentage of a narcotic substance from coca leaves, from which cocaine is also prepared, is added to the cult drink of the “new generation.” Auto.). In particular, with the Venezuelan drug empire of the Cisneros."
So they arrived, still the same and still the same: again a combination of rock music, sex and drugs - new, satanic “values”.
It seems that Satanists are already openly striving for power. And when the stakes are so high, when the opportunity to conquer the consciousness of a huge number of children on the planet is at stake, no money will be spared. After all, the one who takes over someone else’s consciousness also gains political dominance. And this gives the necessary economic leverage, so, of course, the game is worth the candle.
In search of a genre
At the beginning of our modest research, we tried to understand the Harry Potter genre and came to the conclusion that this is not a fairy tale, promising to answer later what it is. We must honestly admit: at that time we ourselves did not really know the answer. It was possible, of course, to write about the vulgarization (especially for children) of the now popular fantasy genre, but something stopped me, for some reason it seemed that this was just an excuse. Intuition suggested some kind of substitution...
But the main clue was given by J.K. Rowling herself. Quoting the name of the textbooks at the school of magicians, we suddenly noticed that these textbooks have very strange names. Not “Entertaining Magic” or “Ghost Story”, but as children’s fiction can be called (we mean the linguistic construction of the titles): “Vampire Conspiracy”, “Holidays with a Hag”, “Spirits on the Roads”.
This is on the one hand, but on the other hand, real school textbooks are increasingly written in the form of adventures, they have certain cross-cutting heroes: boys, girls, animals. Why shouldn’t a children’s book on the occult be called “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” or “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”? This hypothesis puts everything in its place.
A textbook should not be distinguished by high literary skill: originality of characters, originality of plot, subtle psychologism, richness of language. There are unnecessary and even irrelevant laws that must be followed when creating a work of art. The main goal of the textbook is maximum digestibility of the material. The more exciting the material, the better it is absorbed. Magic, magic is fascinating material in itself, and if, moreover, you present it in the form of simple adventure stories with schoolchildren heroes... Moreover, with the help of killer advertising, you convince people that only the reader of “Harry Potter” has the right to the title of a person, then There is no doubt: the material will be mastered with an A plus and progression to the next grade is guaranteed.
Some personal experience
A year and a half has passed. During this time, we had the opportunity to see with our own eyes how a “cute fairy tale” affects the psyche of children. More than once, boys and girls have been brought to us whose pathological behavior was directly related to Harry Potter - a book or film. Let's give just a few cases.
Until the age of five and a half, Alik V. was a normal child, had no tendency to fear, was not afraid of the dark, and calmly fell asleep without adults. After watching the film about Harry Potter, severe fears and enuresis appeared. The child stopped falling asleep with the lights off and even during the day did not want to be alone in the room for a minute. His mother notes his previously uncharacteristic tearfulness, capriciousness, and irritability. Despite the phobic symptoms, the boy seems to be fascinated by the theme of “Harry Potter”: he often talks about him, asks to buy goods with his image, becomes hysterical, demanding again and again to show him a movie on video or read a book. If he nevertheless achieves his goal, then after watching or reading, fears and enuresis intensify. However, this does not stop the child. There is a so-called “victim complex” (“victim complex”), which in the future can lead to serious sexual pathology - masochism - and disfigure the fate of the child. Such children are at risk for drug addiction and are more likely to become targets of crime. A broken psyche always brings with it a broken destiny.
Eight-year-old Valya G., fascinated by Harry Potter, began to show such aggressiveness that they wanted to kick him out of school, and the boy was clearly attracted to evil. He spoke with pleasure, his eyes sparkling, about his fights, laughed, remembering how he hurt someone, proudly told adults that, having started a fight, he cleverly blamed others. His answers at the diagnostic appointment were very revealing. From a large number of proposed dolls, Valya chose Baba Yaga, which is often taken by children with increased aggressiveness, excitable psychopaths or schizophrenics with increased aggressiveness, and not only the choice of the doll is diagnostic, but also what and in what tone the child says on her behalf, answering our questions .
At first, the answers were ordinary: Baba Yaga lives in the forest in a hut on chicken legs. Lives alone.
– Where are your parents, Baba Yaga? – we asked another question.
As a rule, children answer something evasive: “I’m already old,” or “I didn’t even have them,” or “They live in the neighboring forest.” In extreme cases, the child may say that the parents are dead. The latter is rare, because children tend to identify themselves with a puppet character, and even if they have a mental disorder, they are still incredibly scared to talk about the death of their parents.
We have never heard the same answer as Valya gave.
We quote verbatim:
“When I was little,” he began to tell on behalf of Baba Yaga, getting more and more excited, “a witch flew to me.” It was in a dream, or rather, not really a dream, actually... She offered to teach me evil spells, and for that I would serve her. I agreed, learned her witchcraft secrets and... finished off my parents!
Suppose someone objects: “Where it’s thin, that’s where it breaks. This means that these children had an anomaly, only in a hidden form, and thanks to “Harry Potter” everything came out.”
And even if so? Why does the subtle psyche need to be torn apart, and not protected and strengthened? Or are unhealthy children unworthy of care and should be given up on them, secretly regretting that we do not live in ancient Sparta, where they did not stand on ceremony with babies who were handicapped by the standards of that time?
And yet, in response to a possible objection, let us cite the case of thirteen-year-old Andrei M. He first read “Potter” at twelve, and at thirteen he was brought to us. As a rule, at this age, even the most latent mental illnesses already reveal themselves in one way or another. Neither parents nor teachers noticed anything about Andrei. But after reading four books about Harry Potter, the boy began, as he himself put it, to see “entities” in the dark. And it scared him so much that his mother had to move into his room for sleepovers. But, despite this, Andryusha stopped sleeping, his performance decreased, and teachers began to talk about the need to change schools.
We also recently had an interesting conversation with a girl from a city near Moscow. During the lecture, she sent a note asking about Harry Potter. And then she came up with the words:
“I’m not the first to ask you this question, but no one has yet told the whole truth.” “Harry Potter” is not just an introduction to the occult for children, it is an introduction to Satanism. You see...” here she hesitated a little, “I myself fell into a satanic sect as a teenager. Then, when I had a child, I realized that I could not raise him without breaking with Satanism. And she came to church. So, I want to tell you that, having become interested in the controversy surrounding Harry Potter, I decided to read all the books. And I saw the same passages, the same baits that I myself had once fallen for. Those who talk about Potter very often make somewhat speculative conclusions. And this is understandable. They, fortunately, do not have the terrible experience that I have. No recognition. You can be sure: the author of “Harry Potter” acts very competently. She knows exactly which buttons to press to ignite pride, a thirst for power and superpowers. By the way, such books are especially dangerous for sensitive, spiritually gifted children.
There are people, either endowed with a polemical gift, or inflamed by polemical fervor, who will always find something to answer, since the most important thing for them is to defend their rightness. But we are not writing for them, but are addressing parents, for whom something else is important - raising morally and mentally safe children. We would like to finally say to them: in the current sad situation, when the state condones and even actively promotes the spiritual corruption of children, protection falls entirely on your shoulders. And the consequences of mental and moral damage (by the way, not always reparable) will also have to be dealt with only by you. Not polemicists and not even specialists who, unlike Harry Potter, did not graduate from wizarding school.
Based on materials from the book by I.Ya. Medvedeva, T.L. Shishova “Disgrace in Education”
We also recommend watching an excerpt from an interview with Andrei Fursov, in which the historian touches on the influence of the Harry Potter series of novels:
Ed and George Weasley (born April 1, 1978) are twin brothers, sons of Arthur and Molly Weasley. Known for their sense of humor. Excellent beaters on the Gryffinor Quidditch team. Fred and George always stick together, so people don't talk about them apart.
The large Weasley family has never been wealthy. And all the Weasley children, growing up, each struggle with this “birthmark” in their own way. Fred and George decide to open their own magic joke shop. They are talented inventors who never tire of improving their inventions, and at the same time good businessmen. As their mother, Molly Weasley, reluctantly said (she had initially disapproved of their idea of opening a store), “they have a business sense.”
Twins sticks
They are inexhaustible in inventions, pranks, and various undertakings. They treat school rules without much respect. Very inquisitive. They know Hogwarts and its surroundings very well, in which, no doubt, they were helped by the “Marauder's Map”, which they stole from the box for dangerous things of the caretaker Argus Filch in their first or second year.
In their seventh year, they were the only ones (apart from Harry's squabbles) who openly opposed Dolores Umbridge. Moreover, with their generous donation, an unspoken war began at Hogwarts with the Inspector General, who tried to drive the School into the Procrustean bed of her decrees.
The brothers treat Harry with unobtrusive patronage. For example, when Harry did not have the right to go to Hogsmeade for the weekend (almost the only one in the entire course), they presented him with a “Marauder’s Map”, which shows the entire territory of Hogwarts and the surrounding area (including underground passages), and which indicates movement of all people, animals and ghosts in Hogwarts. Truly a royal gift.
Fred and George love everyone in the Weasley family in their own way. Although this is not always visible behind their rude jokes.
Throughout the novel, one gets the impression that the brothers are two halves of one whole. They think and feel completely in sync. How often does one of them start a sentence and the other finishes it? Twins appear together everywhere. No one has ever seen them apart. And Fred’s death at the end of the seventh book looks even more monstrous. After all, George probably felt as if a large piece had been cut out of his soul. He married his brother's ex-girlfriend, Angelina Johnson. They are happy together, as happy as they can be, given the common tragedy. They named their son Fred, in honor of his deceased brother. George is also the godfather of the Wood twin sisters.
Fan art of the Weasley Twins
Added by Marisha
Information not from books
For the first year after Fred died, George always cooked meals for two. It remained a habit that was difficult to break. After so many years of cooking for two, it was mentally difficult to learn to cook for only one.
Fred was the middle child in the family. At his funeral, all the Weasley children lined up to carry his coffin. That was the last time Fred was in the middle.
George desperately wanted to sell the store, and it was only the realization that Fred wouldn't want it that stopped him.
George dreamed of having his memory erased. I wanted to forget him. But how can you forget your whole life?
George never told anyone, but he always wore Fred's robes to work in the store.
George was very afraid that he and his wife would have twins. That's why they stopped after two children. He wasn't sure his heart could handle twins.
George has a small F tattooed on his foot. When he and Fred were little, the only way their parents could tell them apart was by writing small Fs and Ds on their feet. Even though no one would confuse them anymore, George wanted to believe that with the letter on his leg he would be able to fool someone one day. That's why he got this tattoo
For every birthday, George blows out half of the candles. He leaves the rest burning and goes to bed. Every time the next morning - even though all the windows and doors are closed so that the wind cannot blow them out - the candles are extinguished. George is sure that somehow Fred is doing it. Fred II would never tell his father he was doing this, and George would never know.
George visited Fred's grave every day to tell him about his day. This continued throughout the year.
Molly still makes sweaters for Fred. She wraps them and every year someone else in the family opens them for him.
Fred was the only Ron's brother who knew about his feelings for Hermione. And he was the only Weasley who would never see them together...
Added by Volandemorttemn
They also love to misbehave throughout Hogwarts. And, although their jokes are sometimes slightly dangerous, they do not bring real trouble.
Fred and George, in their sixth year (i.e. Harry's fourth year), tried to put their names in the Goblet of Fire for a chance to be chosen as their school's Champions. They almost succeeded. They drank the aging potion and passed through the magic line, which was drawn specifically so that students under 17 years old could not throw their applications into the Cup. Alas, as soon as the brothers tried to put pieces of parchment into the treasured artifact, they were thrown back by a spell and long gray beards appeared on their faces.