Abby Godfrey
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
Harry Potter is one of the greatest books ever written and I will die on this hill. In 1997, the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was published. Whether you enjoyed the book or not it was a well written book that soon changed the lives of thousands of people worldwide. In my opinion, the success of a book can be based on the reach and influence that it has over people. Harry Potter accomplished this. If I mentioned Harry Potter what would be the first thing that came to mind? For many you would think of a beautiful story of found family, action packed with witchcraft and wizardry and of course the adorable little house-elf Dobby and his sock. However, some people would view this book with a shifted paradigm and view Harry Potter through their ever critical moral and religious lens. This view has led to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone being banned in thousands of schools. In said schools this book had been deemed dangerous due to the mention of “witch-craft” and the “occult”, which was seen as evil and anti-christian. This book has also been frequently accused of having “anti-family themes”. Due to individuals pushing their own personal moral and religious values into schools many children have been deprived of their ability to read this book.
To this day both Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Picture of Dorian Gray are both continuously brought up in conversations in attempts to ban books. Many “do-gooders” also had problems with The Picture of Dorian Gray again due to their war on any opinion or belief that does not align with their rigorous conservative moral beliefs and their religion. In The Picture of Dorian Gray they’re LGBTQ+ characters. It is a tale as old as time those in power trying to restrict peoples access to ideas that they deem “wrong”.
I absolutely believe that there are no moral or immoral books. There are so many examples of books that have opinions someone will disagree with. If every single book was banned because someone had a moral opposition to it then all books would be banned. Even for myself there are some books that have some questionable topics in my opinion, Lolita by. Vladimir Nabokov for example. While I may believe that the topic of the book may be immoral it is simply a book meant to provide a service whether that be teaching us something or to simply entertain us. If this book were real life then I would have a strong moral opposition to it, however it is a book, and it is a very well written book at that. Lolita is a classic not because people agree with the topic on a moral ground. It is a classic because it was very well written and accomplished its goal as a novel.
I enjoyed reading this post, not only because I am a Harry Potter fan, but an advocate of not banning books. Your point regarding how books that may be written for entertainment can quickly be turned into moral controversy (completely taking away from the intent of the book). I see this a lot on pop culture in general. For example Taylor Swift has a witchy/mystical performance during her tour for a song, and people have turned it into a whole deal claiming that she is praising witchcraft and satanistic ideals (which is just so far from the truth). A lot of times like with Harry Potter these controversies turn books into something there not. And even if the books do have controversial ideals, artists have every right to write what they want. Books are good because they are well written, not because of what they are writing about.
enjoyed reading this post, not only because I am a Harry Potter fan, but an advocate of not banning books. Your point regarding how books that may be written for entertainment can quickly be turned into moral controversy (completely taking away from the intent of the book). I see this a lot on pop culture in general. For example Taylor Swift has a witchy/mystical performance during her tour for a song, and people have turned it into a whole deal claiming that she is praising witchcraft and satanistic ideals (which is just so far from the truth). A lot of times like with Harry Potter these controversies turn books into something there not. And even if the books do have controversial ideals, artists have every right to write what they want. Books are good because they are well written, not because of what they are writing about.
For one, I absolutely love the title of your post. I also strongly agree with your argument. If books were banned because someone had a moral issue with the book, then someone could find a way to ban all books. The fact that Harry Potter never mentions the “occult” shows that people look way too far into a book meant to simply entertain people.
I absolutley agree with you, and Harry Potter is a great example of this. Who is to judge the morality of a book, when it is all perception. I also think that if every book was judged on morality that there would be no books left to read, there are so many different perceptions on morality that determining each book differently would be disasterous. Harry Potter was a great example because it has two completely different sides and the perception of it is what determines the morality, therefore everyones opionion on it would be different.