Source for that quote (WAS: Re: The Phoenix Must Die)

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 81274

urghiggi wrote:
> 
> > What I THINK she said was something along the lines of "I don't want to 
talk 
> > too much about my religious beliefs because then it would be too easy for 
> > people to figure out where the books are going." She did not mention 
> > Christianity per se, either in re her own beliefs or people's ability to see
> > where she's going.

Derannimer replied:

> See the quote below. (And JKR's said multiple times, actually, that she is a Christian, 
> and she's a member of the Church of Scotland.)
>  snip. then quote from the JKR interview being discussed:

>> > Is she a Christian?
> > ``Yes, I am,'' she says. ``Which seems to offend the religious right  far 
worse than 
> > if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I've been  asked if I believe 
in God, 
> > I've said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more 
deeply into it 
> > than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely 
about that 
> > I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what's 
coming 
> > in the books.''
> 
Thanks for the quote and also to Geoff for the additional info he posted later 
about the interview -- Ottawa was sticking in my mind too, but darned if I can 
find a current link to the thing. Anyway I appreciate seeing the wording of the 
quote again, and thanks, Derannimer, for tracking it down. I'd never dispute 
that JKR's a Christian -- in fact I previously posted here chunks of a different 
JKR interview discussing that very same thing. I was only wanting to re-
examine the particular quote above -- where it says merely that if she talked 
more about her beliefs beyond saying she believed in God, then the 
"intelligent reader" (not just Christian ones) would find it too easy to predict 
her M.O. I didn't mean by my reply that she failed to acknowledge her 
Christianity -- only that in this particular quote she was talking about simply 
"believing in God" as having a strong bearing on the reader's ability to figure 
out the plot. Sorry I didn't word that more clearly in my post .... I don't really 
think we have a disagreement here, other than clarifying that she seemed to 
be saying that she didn't think it would only be Christians who might have a 
good shot at figuring out where she was going if she was more forthcoming 
about her theology.

I find all of this ironic in light of some off-list correspondence I recently had 
with another HPfGU member (not a Christian) who said something along the 
lines of  being able to "see a church by daylight" (when reading the books) 
even if many of JKR's fellow Christians can't .... 

Re pip!squeak's comments about what WAS it in CoS that came nigh to 
"giving it all away," I've always harbored the suspicion that perhaps it was the 
bold climax of the thing, which is the only section of books 1-5 that I'd be 
comfortable really labeling as allegory (and Christian allegory at that). John 
Granger's "Hidden Key to Harry Potter" offers a convincingly argued 
allegorical interp of this passage. (Briefly involving HP as everyman, LV as 
satan, the basilisk as sins threatening to overwhelm everyman, Fawkes as 
Christ helping everyman overcome his sins and saving him from a certain 
death, and HP rising with Fawkes as everyman rises with Christ.... that's a 
bare-bones outline, but you get the idea.) In light of JKR's preferred strategy of 
avoiding overt religious references in the work -- perhaps she herself thought 
in retrospect that this passage came perilously close to blowing her cover??? 

Of course the "secret of CoS"  could just be some obscure twist involving 
Moaning Myrtle or deathday rituals or Colin Creevy's camera or Gilderoy's 
charming smile -- who knows? Time (and books 6 & 7!) alone will tell....

Urghiggi, Chgo