Book 1 question

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 84476

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
<snip> However, having considered the Leaky Cauldron as a 
possibility - as 
> have various other commentators - my own feel for this is that 
> Harry's re-entry occurred when Hagrid said to him:
> 
> "Harry -yer a wizard." (PS p. 42 UK edition)
> 
<snip> I would relate it in my own personal experience to 
> becoming a Christian. Suddenly, your whole frame of reference 
changes and you see life in a totally different way. <snip>

Laura:

Or you could take the question and break it down even further by 
asking this:  is being a member of the WW something that happens to 
you whether you choose it or not, or is it something you have to 
choose volitionally?  The question has been raised on this board 
before in other contexts as to whether a person born with magical 
powers could reject those powers and live as a muggle.  I'm adding 
to the inquiry by asking whether being a witch or wizard is a 
physical or mental state or both.  Is it a status or a condition?  

Aside to Tzvi:  Try not to take your professor's attitude too hard.  
As HP fans know, there's a certain amount of hostility to the books 
out there in academia.  A lot of it is motivated by petty jealousy, 
sad to say-you always hope that educated people would be above that 
kind of nonsense.  There's an idea in the worlds of publishing and 
academia that writers of children's literature are allowed only a 
certain amount of success, but anything beyond some arbitrary point 
is unseemly.  They can have fans and sell a few hundred thousand 
copies of their books, but if they hit it big, they're selling out 
somehow.  Forget it-it's sheer hypocrisy.  In a world in which we 
use our children as billboards for every conceivable brand name, an 
author who becomes a huge success should be celebrated, not 
condemned.  

Besides, I bet some people in your class will get turned on to HP 
and the fandom will be that much stronger!

Rant over.  And a happy Monday to all!  

Laura