authors Gaiman,Pratchett, & HP religion etc.

[Warmsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 990

>Finally sone else here has mentioned MY favorite author, Terry
>Pratchett.  I read all of Pratchett first - LOL on every book -
then
>Gaiman - Good Omens is terrific.  All that wizard stuff led me
to HP.
>And BTW,  Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is NOT funny like Good
Omens.  I
>didn't really "like" it at the time I read it, but nevertheless
I
>couldn't put Neverwhere down.  :-)  I need to read all of
Pratchett
>again because I can't answer half the stuff on the trivia
quizzes on
>those E-groups.
>
>Pratchett's best book to tear up religion is "Small Gods"  he
>leaves no religion untouched.  You can find a parallel to
almost any
>religion on Earth in there somewhere.
>

Oh, its brilliant, isn't it? I re-read it the other day... the
first time I read it it was just a story (and in fact I didn't
enjoy it that much) but this time... wow.

<shameless plug> On the subject of Pratchett, myself, Morrigan
(who is also a listee, albeit a currently absent one) and NS
(who isn't) wrote & I recorded a version of the Hedgehog Song
that is alluded to in the Witch books... it's downloadable from
www.fanfiction.net - do a search for Morrigan and one the things
turned up will be a Hedgehog song. (And whilst we're on the
subject, Morrigan has some *excellent* HP fanfics floating
about, and they're thoroughly worth checking out too).

>Along the lines of religion, this was probably discussed by
those on the
>list way back, it is interesting to me to note that neither
religion nor
>any form of church has  been even hinted at to my knowledge.

In Britain, the vast majority of people are apathetic when it
comes to religion - I think maybe 4% of the population are
regular church/mosque/synagogue/whatever-goers. So that may be a
factor. Additionally, well, they're wizards, and a lot of of the
big religions tend to frown on that sort of thing.  So those are
probably the two most pertinent reasons for the absence of
religion in the HP books.
The wizards do celebrate Christmas, but it seems to me to be the
Santa Claus christmas rather than the Jesus one.
Oh, and the wizards don't seem to be "pagans" either - I know
very little about wicca etc (although I understand that there
are a few on the list, perhaps they'll be more illuminating) -
not religious ceremonies of any sort, really.

Jeremy

Jeremy