h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Really! They don't make any reference to getting the power from anyone (e.g. Satan), but mainly that magic is another thing that simply exists, like electricity. Take electric devices back two hundred years ago, and Voila! (That's French, that is.) you're a witch.

But research often makes the magical mundane, which is so sad. I feel sorry for the people who look at the stars and see burning gas, and will never see them for the jewels that they are.

True. It seems that people like that are often the ones doing the banning, reading more into stuff than they should, and reducing deeper things to dullness.

I see burning gas.

However, the result of all that burning gas is more than just a big ball of burning gas. The combination of it, the space between us and it, and the atmosphere and our visual perception system create something truly beautiful which is far, far greater than the sum of its parts.

* cliche alert! *

I have most respect for those who can see *both*, since there is a danger that only appreciating one results in denial of the other.

I've done too much science to not see the gas, and too much magic to not see the stars.

As long as you don't smell the gas. That's not good for public conversation.

*s*

Humour is important too.

Yes, it most certainly is

In reference to "binning or burning" being slightly disturbing,
I shall misquote Stephen King, who once almost said, in a drunken tirade at a library function,"Let them ban my books, let them burn my books! If you find a book banned on a library list, run right out and buy a copy! That'll show them. And if you find a book-burning scheduled in your area, run right out and buy a couple of copies of my latest book to throw on the pyre!"

On the other hand, any book that can frighten a child should be gently removed from their grasp until they are older or until an adult can sit down and go through it with them, page by page, answering questions.
There is nothing in Harry Potter that can compare with some of the horrific activities in the Bible, or the Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Saga of Boewulf, or the news of the latest footie fans being arrested for misbehaving on a plane...

J.K. was merely following in the footsteps of such weirdness as the Roald Dahl stuff and movies, which are very wonderfully disturbing to me even now, at forty.

Most of the weinies who whinge about witchcraft used to sit around and laugh at "Bewitched" on American TV, without a single thought of the implications. And what about "Dune"? Or "Star Bores"? Or "Star Dreck"?
They are all full of "magic".

I consider the "Left Behind" series that is sweeping pocketbooks and minds around the world, to be more frightening and dark than anything in Harry Potter. And I find the gentlemen (and I use the term loosely) who cranked out these feeble thirties pulp rip-offs, at a half-million advance a pop, to be the most sinister thing I can imagine. Snake oil is snake oil, no matter how it is packaged.

Was the same fuss made about the Narnia books? I'm familiar with both those and HP and, frankly (although I'm not a christian so it's difficult for me to judge) I'd have thought that the Narnia books were more offensive to Christians than HP, which is pure fantasy.

The Narnia stories are, by C. S. Lewis's own admission, an allegory of Christianity. The death and resurrection of Aslan in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is a direct reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "The Last Battle" is a reference to the Day of Judgement, and the references to bad things done in Aslan's name being done for Tash means that bad things done in God's name are done for Satan. At the end of "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", Aslan appears as a lamb. Ho hum.

I don't think Christians are likely to be offended by the Narnia stories *because* C. S. Lewis was a devout Christian and wrote accordingly.

Re: the title of the second LOTR film.

Both the odeon and ABC cinema have misprinted the title in this weeks local paper and are advertising the *twin* towers...I'm quite looking forwad to next weeks paper to see if anyone else noticed and which nutter chose to write into the letters page.

isnt it strange how some people are so unsure in there pown balefs that anything that questionas them or goes against them in any way is worng. if you are so unsure about it how can you baleve it it dosent make sence to me

Read the book,just been to see the latest HP.How can any one object to a story about good triumphing over evil?Pretty screwy way of looking at life in my opinion.

Incog.

Some people say it encorages magic, which is sinful. I say, get a life!

Tango

And I reach for my magic wand.




No, really, I do!

Is it right or wrong to scare children?

I once gave a two-year-old a present of a hairy jumping spider (squeezy bulb thing) and he reacted with instant revulsion and wouldn't take it out of its box.

Now he's four and plays happily with it.

When I was about 4, I wouldn't watch Dr Who. It wasn't the monsters, it was the swirling patterns at the start that upset me. From the age of 6 to whenever it was that Tom Baker left, it was my favourite program.

Children like to be scared, sometimes. If they are genuinely terrified by something, don't destroy the object. Find out why they find it so scary and try to help them to deal with it.

Scaring children intentionally, i.e. doing something with full knowledge that they will be scared and with the only result being to scare them, is a bit much. (Play-scaring not included.)
Other things like giving presents and reading stories, which may produce fright, should not be objected to if they *do*.

They're dark. That's why we love them.

Hey, Mandragora! That quote in your nickname, "It kept winking and blinking at me" is from one of my favorite novelty songs by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
I requested it from one of the more mature DJs on KUT in Austin one night, when I was working at a Circle K, and after he played it, he said on the air, yeah, it was Louis Harrison, I think, and he said, "I don't think I'll be playing that one again, anytime soon. That's absolutely disgusting..."
Of course, he said the same thing about "I'm so tired" from "Blazing Saddles"...

Almost as funny as the time one of the younger DJs played Harry Nilsson's "You're breaking my heart" by request without listening to it first... SKKKRRRRITTTCCCHHH!