A reader sent me a fascinating article on Harry Potter after reading my post the other day. It's certainly worth a look and I appreciate the views of Catholic writer Regina Doman. I think her point that authors can write sound books while living unsound lives is spot on. I think of Oscar Wilde whose children's stories are delightful and whose Picture of Dorian Gray is a chilling description of how sin putrifies the soul. Wilde was a tortured man. It never surprised me, though, to find that he converted to the Catholic faith on his deathbed. There's an interesting article about this called The Long Conversion of Oscar Wilde by Andrew McCracken. It describes Wilde's long journey to the Catholic faith and his eleventh hour surrender.
And then there's one of my favorite authors Mark Twain who professed atheism and rejected a god that is completely alien to the One I know. If we receive our "image of God" from the Christians around us, perhaps Twain's atheism says more about the people he lived among than about God. I only know that his novel on St. Joan of Arc is a story of such beauty (It was his favorite.) that I can't imagine him not making it to heaven despite the dark works like Letters from the Earth. Besides, he had an incredible sense of humor, real humor that tickles the heart and stimulates joyful laughter. There is no such thing as humor in hell, only the filthy snicker and the snide smirk.
Enjoy Regina's article which is one more yea for Harry Potter. Her insights encourage me to pick up the series where I left off.
Have you a link for the McCracken piece on Wilde?
ReplyDeleteI hot-linked it above. I thought I did it when I put the post up. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteDelightful article Mary ... I enjoyed reading it and from Christendom, very cool. I'm a bit of a Potter head, and I have quite a few students who love Harry Potter including our college secretary in the science building. We also have quite a large selection of Narnians so we are twice blessed.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Ray