New Harry Potter book

[desert search for techno allah]

Doug Millison writes:
>The popularity of Harry Potter books among adults has also been used, 
>by some observers, as an example of an emerging worldview that 
>includes magic -- the sort of thing, perhaps, that withdrew in the 
>face of the Enlightment project that Pynchon portrays in all its 
>unsettling ambiguity in M&D.  Whether this emerging worldview would 
>represent what Wilber might call a retreat to the pre-rational or 
>part of the ongoing evolution towards the trans-rational, remains to 
>be seen. The idea that magic is alive in the world only hidden 
>resonates deeply no matter how the philosophers pick it apart.

It seems this isn't true of just magic. Many of the ideas philosophers
"pick apart" stubbornly live on, whether or not the majority of the
philosophers agree that they should. Theism. Logical positivism.
Moral absolutism. Moral relativism. Moral nihilism. *ism.

I've read it advanced that the Potter books are actually popular
with adults because they're dumb, mediocre books that make the readers
feel comfortable.



Josh

-- 
josh blog: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kortbein/blog/
      tdr: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kortbein/tdr/