Forum Overview :: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
 
Harry Potter as Sacred Text by Safe Space U 09/27/2016, 5:35am PDT
Because you can never be reminded enough how useless Divinity School and all its attendees are.


It might sound like a tongue-in-cheek item in The Onion, but a class on reading the Harry Potter books as sacred texts has proven a popular offering for the Humanist Hub at Harvard.

Led by Harvard Divinity School graduates Vanessa Zoltan, M.Div. ’15, and Casper ter Kuile, M.P.P. ’16, M.Div. ’16, the class began as a reading group last summer at the Humanist Hub, where Zoltan is an assistant chaplain. It drew nearly 80 participants on its opening night, and is now starting its second year.


OF COURSE their names are Zoltan and Casper.

Fucking hell, Humanist Hub? On top of being worthless divinity majors, they even have to get special snowflake and can't even commit to an establish horseshit religion?




OF COURSE it's hipster glasses and Zoe Quinn hair.

Before coming to graduate school, I was working for Pemberley Digital, and the phenomenon around “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” was so interesting to me. Part of that was people were loving “Pride and Prejudice,” and seeing themselves so fully in Elizabeth Bennet and identifying with her. And the most beautiful part of my job was responding to fan mail. We’d get these people writing in telling us how this YouTube series had changed the way they were living in the world, had helped them with their disability or depression or whatever it was


The example I give is that the Bible is considered sacred, but if it was a Bible in a different language and you didn’t know, you might use it as a doorstopper. So we say that “sacred” is an act, not a thing, and I do think the thing matters. Some texts are more worthy and will give you more gifts than others, but I don’t want to be the arbiter of what counts as sacred. But I do think Harry Potter is uniquely qualified for endless amounts of speculation.


They try so hard to sound smart while saying absolutely nothing.


Part of reading a text as sacred means that there cannot be plot holes. For example, you discussed how Hermione lies to the teachers about being saved from the troll, almost for no reason, and you’re not allowed to then say, “Wow, [author] J.K. Rowling really screwed this one up.”


The Bible is famous for never being inconsistent or self-contradicting.

Did these people learn anything during 4 years of jesus school?


Yeah, there are no mistakes. That’s what makes it sacred. This is where my rule [comes in because] that’s what makes it worthy. The three of us can read it and have different theories as to why Hermione does a given thing. So if there were only one possible interpretation of that, it wouldn’t be worthy of treating as sacred.


A sacred text is perfect with no mistakes because you can just make up whatever bullshit justification you want.

Harry Potter is not sacred because there is only one correct interpretation of why things happen: because JK Rowling wrote it.


(answer comes out of NOWHERE - ed.) I do think this is a deeply religious country, and it is a deeply theological country. The deepest theology that I want to rub up against in this country is that we get what we deserve. We believe in Manifest Destiny, and I don’t see that theology going away. We tend to believe that, at least as a meta-narrative, that the victims of natural disasters sort of deserve it because the richer people who work harder and live in the better neighborhoods aren’t as adversely affected. Or that kids from certain neighborhoods don’t deserve a good education. I really think that that comes from a Calvinist, Puritanical cultural history that is still a dominant narrative in this country. I think Americans believe that that is the way that everybody thinks, but I think it’s a uniquely American way to believe.


ahahahahahahaha, what's next? Harry Patriarchy and the White Privilege?

Oh......oh....


In this week's episode Casper and Vanessa explore the theme of white privilege. The invisibility cloak is a perfect metaphor for white privilege; it allows you to go to restricted sections of the library, it allows you to see your heart's deepest desires and it doesn't keep you from being solid.

Casper and Vanessa discuss the complications of white privilege and how the invisibility cloak also works as a metaphor for being a person of color in america; it keeps you from being seen in a host of different ways.


The invisibility cloak is like being a privileged white person! But it also makes you the exact opposite! So many interpretations, MAAAAAAYUN!


Behold the DIVERSITY that allows a true viewpoint on poverty line black life: white bread club at the richest old money school in the country




Show me a single social justice warrior gathering that has more diversity than the Republican National Convention. If you want to talk white privilege, this kind of worldview has proven time and time again to only foment in upper middle class to rich white kids whose lives are so utterly devoid of struggle that they have to start inventing imaginary hardships to get sanctimonious about. They are spoiled children turning to children's material for their guiding holy text.
NEXT REPLY QUOTE
 
Harry Potter as Sacred Text by Safe Space U 09/27/2016, 5:35am PDT NEW
    No one should do an M.Div anymore by skip 09/28/2016, 4:08pm PDT NEW
        Re: No one should do an M.Div anymore by i'm not giving my name to a compute 09/28/2016, 4:21pm PDT NEW
            Yeah who ever reports their income to the government? NT by NO ONE that's who! 09/28/2016, 4:32pm PDT NEW
 
powered by pointy