New Harry Potter book

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 2 Jul 2000, desert search for techno allah wrote:

> 
> 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.


What's most notable to me is the high percentage of folks (90 percent
or something on that order) who say that they expect upon dying to meet
not only God but their own parents face to face and be able to converse
with them. With ontological violation so readily acceptable as this you
might think that postmodernist fiction would be as popular as those big
macs.
			P.