Harry Potter and Eragon

Here is my first attempt to get into what can be a controversial subject. In light of the recent Eragon movie I thought it might be helpful to someone. Several years ago singer was given the first Harry Potter book as a birthday present. At that time I had heard some negative things about the series, and wasn't sure I wanted singer to read them. Singer wasn't interested in reading it, so it was just put aside on the bookshelf for awhile. A couple of years later singer was interested in reading the book, but I still wasn't sure. I did a little research, and read some good and some bad things about the series. I decided that the only way to know for sure was to read the book for myself. Many years ago when I was in grade school my teacher read from The Lord of the Rings to the class. My mom had heard bad things about it, and would not let me sit in with the rest of the class. Years later she changed her mind about the book series. I decided that I didn't want to judge the Harry Potter books by what I read or heard about them either, especially since I had already learned that some of what I heard was inaccurate. I read the Harry Potter book and really enjoyed it. I have since read all of them, and look forward to reading the last one when it comes out. I did allow singer to read them, and now we are all listening to them on tape. I personally don't see anything wrong with them. Yes they have magic in them just as in The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. It is an imaginary story. Now I would not allow a very young child to read the books or watch the movies. At a very young age children have a much harder time realizing the difference between real and imaginary. I also think it is important that we respect other people's opinions about the books. I tell my children not to talk about the series when they are amongst other friends, unless they know the other children have also read the books or seen the movies. I would also not try to convince anyone that doesn't like the books to change their mind. After all, there are so many good books available, and so little time. A few years ago singer received another book from her grandmother as a gift. It was Eragon. We were intrigued because the book was written by a homeschooled boy in his teens. Singer and I have both read the first and second book in the trilogy. I have never heard any bad publicity about the Eragon series like I had about the Harry Potter series. I will share my own observations however, as I have with other friends that have asked. It is my opinion that if you don't like Harry Potter you will not like Eragon. In Harry Potter the kids do perform magic - they wave their wand and say the magic word and the magic can happen. In the Eragon books the main character also learns to do magic, however there is more description about how he must reach into the innermost parts of his mind to perform the magic. In book two of the Eargon series the main character learns a lot about the religions of the other characters. He also undergoes further training which involves an extreme environmentalist point of view. Singer and I spent some time talking about the themes in book two. I am a little torn about book three between curiosity to see where the author is going with the story, and the thought that the book isn't going to be such a good one. It is my opinion that Harry Potter is an imaginary story that couldn't possibly be true. The Eragon stories are much more subtle and potentially bothersome to conservative Christians in the way things are done and introduced to our children. Again, that is my opinion. I would not judge anyone who likes the books, I enjoyed the story myself. I haven't seen the movie myself either; just read the books. I imagine that the movie would leave out a lot of the subtle material found in the book. With all of that being said (or blogged) I think that in general Christians are far to critical and judgemental of each other. Each of us does our best to make the decisions that are correct for our families. We will never agree on absolutely everything, and that is all right. I have found that by listening to others opinions I frequently gain new insight that helps me see things in a different way.