Requiescat in Pace: Unforgivables.

[Katie]

No: HPFGUIDX 174937

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> > ****Katie responds:
> > Again, I agree so much, I don't know where to begin. Molly had 
> > already lost a child that day. All of her children and her 
husband 
> > were in danger of being killed. She sees her daughter about to be 
> > killed by the nastiest nasty next to Voldemort himself...I'd get 
> > pretty maternal, too. I'm glad she killed Bellatrix. I'm glad she 
> > called her a bitch. I'm glad Molly got a chance to protect one of 
> > her children, even after losing Fred.  Molly needs to make no 
> > excuses to me. 
> snip>
> > And I, for one, actively wanted her dead from the moment she 
> killed  the poor innocent fox at the beginning of HBP. I was quite 
> happy to  see her go. 


> Tonks:
> I am one that has some concerns about Molly. And she is one of my 
> favorites. But what kind of a message is Rowling sending? This is 
> not a black and white option. And Molly's response is not what we 
> are told to do as a Christian. 

***Katie again:
Well, since I'm not a Christian, and I don't see these as Christian 
books...not so much a problem for me. I don't think Molly is a 
Christian, either. She's a human being and I think she did the right 
thing. This whole idea of Christianity is really killing this group 
for me. I want to discuss the books, not Christian philosophy - 
especially because I do not see these as Christian books. There is a 
lot more in there than Christianity references in there, and they 
certainly are not some treatise on Christian virtue. As you yourself 
point out, Molly's response "isn't Christian"...which leads me to 
believe that it wasn't intended to be, and that Christianity doesn't 
figure into her decision at all. 

<<<SNIP>>>
 I would probably respond in 
> self defense and to protect my family too, just as Molly did. But 
> does that make my actions right? I think it makes me a fallen human 
> being. And I also thing that we as human beings are meant to find a 
> way to something higher. 
 Tonks_op

***Katie again:

I don't think it makes you a fallen human being - it makes you the 
defender of your family against an evil and hurtful person. Not sure 
how that makes you a bad person...

Also, sure, I would hope people can transcend their earthly realm and 
try and be spiritually and morally good people. I believe in god, the 
Force, the Great Spirit, whatever you want to call her/him/it...but 
Harry Potter books, as I posted yesterday are not philosophy books. 
Quite honestly, and I do not mean to offend, JKR isn't a talented 
enough writer to create great works of philosophy. She wrote great 
stories with remarkably lifelike and believeable characters that 
captured our imaginations, and for me personally, ignited a love of 
fantasy that I hadn't tapped since I was a kid. These are important 
books to me in my life, as they obviously are to others...but at this 
point in this whole discussion of "what the books mean/say/stand 
for", I really think a mountain is being made out of a molehill. 

She put philosophical and religious references in there to make the 
books have some heft, and I think she acheived that...but I do not 
believe that they are some moral and spiritual dissertation. I think 
people are taking this too far. She's not Nietzche or Plato or 
something! She's not Saint Augustine! She's just a really good 
fantasy author who threw some classical and Biblical stuff in there 
for profundity...which worked. All this other stuff, to me, is over 
the top. Katie