But it's not for me! It's for my friend, a first-class horticulturist, ferret owner, knitter, and dyer, who has been selling her yarn privately and through local yarn shops and now has her very own online shop through Etsy.com up and running:
Dandelion Knits
I've used her Merino Superwash and Blue Faced Leicester sock yarns, and she custom-dyed some worsted weight yarn for me to make a stunning felted tote, and it's all gorgeous, comfortable, pleasant-to-knit stuff, and the worsted makes gorgeous smooth felt. Also, she is very swell. So you should order some beautiful, comfortable yarn for yourself or the knitter in your life, confident in knowing that you support someone who rocks. :D
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
So, about Harry Potter...
Yes, I realize Harry Potter is old news. However, seeing as how I just read it for the first time, it is, as they say, news to me. So, a brief overview of what stood out:
First, I had been warned that J.K. Rowling's strength is not writing, but storytelling - an assessment with which I entirely agree. Harry Potter probably shouldn't win any "excellence in writing" awards, but I found them nigh impossible to put down, and I feel they'll make excellent read-aloud books. They are engaging, entertaining, interesting, and altogether pleasant. I should mention here that the reason it took me so long to read them wasn't because I was a snob about them being "too popular", but because I didn't want to get into something that so many people were alarmingly obsessed with. Yep, I fell victim to Harry Potter's charms. There is a pair of hand-knit Hufflepuff socks in my near future, and I am no longer concerned that, if I knit a yellow-and-maroon striped Mary Poppins scarf as I've been wanting to for several years, people will assume it's a Gryffindor scarf instead. This would be an acceptable assumption.
Second, being a Christian and active in a church community, I had also been warned that Harry Potter is an occultic evil which will encourage children to engage in witchcraft. I had also heard the extreme opposition, being that Harry Potter is actually a Christian story because it's about the power of love and because there is a Bible verse pertaining to the Resurrection on Harry's parents grave. Now having read the whole shebang, I disagree with both positions. For starters, the only element of magic in Harry Potter that comes close to being occultic is the Divination class - the teacher of which is presented as little more than a harmless fraud whom Dumbledore humours. Though it is eventually revealed that she has been gifted with a grand total of two true prophecies in her lifetime, where they come from is not explained, and her divination through tea leaves and crystal balls is presented as something fake which reveals nothing. After reading Potter, I'm actually quite troubled by the dearth of accusations about its occultic nature, because this is a very serious and dangerous accusation to be throwing about on such flimsy grounds.
Of course, not being occultic doesn't automatically make a story Christian. For me, the single most interesting and important thing Harry Potter has to offer to the Church is its thorough exploration of redemption without Christ, particularly demonstrated through the storyline of Severus Snape. As much as Dumbledore talks on and on about how love is the most important thing, and love conquers all, and it's all about love, he turns out, through his interactions with Snape, to be the biggest hypocrite in the series. Dumbledore offers Snape redemption in works, but can do nothing for his broken soul, and even abuses it further by taking advantage of his feelings for Harry's late mother, Lily. He begins his control over Snape as a young man by telling him that, if he really loves Lily, he will work for Dumbledore against Voldemort, and what could be a good thing turns out to be very cruel as we learn that Snape's "love" for Lily was little more than a very painful, broken, dangerous obsession. The first major climax of the series, at the end of The Half-Blood Prince, features Dumbledore forcing Snape to destroy himself even further for "the greater good". As I read it, the great hero of the tale who champions love is someone whose primary practice is using people. Dumbledore is the ultimate embodiment of what happens when we believe the ends justify the means, even if the ends are good. Harry Potter is a fascinating exploration of a life which I don't know, but am very happy to have this opportunity to understand. I'd go so far as to say it's essential reading for the Christian who wants to better comprehend the world they live in.
All this to say, Harry Potter is a worthwhile read. The films suffer from unsuccessful scripts, but they do have extraordinary art direction which makes them worth the time.
First, I had been warned that J.K. Rowling's strength is not writing, but storytelling - an assessment with which I entirely agree. Harry Potter probably shouldn't win any "excellence in writing" awards, but I found them nigh impossible to put down, and I feel they'll make excellent read-aloud books. They are engaging, entertaining, interesting, and altogether pleasant. I should mention here that the reason it took me so long to read them wasn't because I was a snob about them being "too popular", but because I didn't want to get into something that so many people were alarmingly obsessed with. Yep, I fell victim to Harry Potter's charms. There is a pair of hand-knit Hufflepuff socks in my near future, and I am no longer concerned that, if I knit a yellow-and-maroon striped Mary Poppins scarf as I've been wanting to for several years, people will assume it's a Gryffindor scarf instead. This would be an acceptable assumption.
Second, being a Christian and active in a church community, I had also been warned that Harry Potter is an occultic evil which will encourage children to engage in witchcraft. I had also heard the extreme opposition, being that Harry Potter is actually a Christian story because it's about the power of love and because there is a Bible verse pertaining to the Resurrection on Harry's parents grave. Now having read the whole shebang, I disagree with both positions. For starters, the only element of magic in Harry Potter that comes close to being occultic is the Divination class - the teacher of which is presented as little more than a harmless fraud whom Dumbledore humours. Though it is eventually revealed that she has been gifted with a grand total of two true prophecies in her lifetime, where they come from is not explained, and her divination through tea leaves and crystal balls is presented as something fake which reveals nothing. After reading Potter, I'm actually quite troubled by the dearth of accusations about its occultic nature, because this is a very serious and dangerous accusation to be throwing about on such flimsy grounds.
Of course, not being occultic doesn't automatically make a story Christian. For me, the single most interesting and important thing Harry Potter has to offer to the Church is its thorough exploration of redemption without Christ, particularly demonstrated through the storyline of Severus Snape. As much as Dumbledore talks on and on about how love is the most important thing, and love conquers all, and it's all about love, he turns out, through his interactions with Snape, to be the biggest hypocrite in the series. Dumbledore offers Snape redemption in works, but can do nothing for his broken soul, and even abuses it further by taking advantage of his feelings for Harry's late mother, Lily. He begins his control over Snape as a young man by telling him that, if he really loves Lily, he will work for Dumbledore against Voldemort, and what could be a good thing turns out to be very cruel as we learn that Snape's "love" for Lily was little more than a very painful, broken, dangerous obsession. The first major climax of the series, at the end of The Half-Blood Prince, features Dumbledore forcing Snape to destroy himself even further for "the greater good". As I read it, the great hero of the tale who champions love is someone whose primary practice is using people. Dumbledore is the ultimate embodiment of what happens when we believe the ends justify the means, even if the ends are good. Harry Potter is a fascinating exploration of a life which I don't know, but am very happy to have this opportunity to understand. I'd go so far as to say it's essential reading for the Christian who wants to better comprehend the world they live in.
All this to say, Harry Potter is a worthwhile read. The films suffer from unsuccessful scripts, but they do have extraordinary art direction which makes them worth the time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)