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View Full Version : Xian book-burning of Harry Potter gets noticed!!


the_ignored
8th May 2003, 09:48 PM
This is from a CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/29/book.burning.ap/index.html) story.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Holocaust Museum is marking its 10th year with a display on book burning that includes images from a New Mexico town where Harry Potter books were torched by people who said they teach children to become witches.

The museum put a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" into an exhibit, opening Wednesday, that marks the 70th anniversary of book burnings in Nazi Germany. Near it are three color photos of a bonfire set December 30, 2001, by the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The Rev. Jack Brock, pastor of the New Mexico church, called Harry Potter books "a masterpiece of satanic deception" when he lit the fire. Across the street from the bonfire, hundreds of protesters, one dressed as Adolf Hitler, formed a line that stretched a quarter-mile. "Stop burning books!" they chanted.

Book burning has become an American byword for censorship, according to the exhibit called "Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burning."

On May 10, 1933, the official German University Students' Organization (Studentenschaft) organized bonfires of books its leaders said typified "the Un-German spirit," as defined by the Hitler's new Nazi government. A committee headed by a Nazi official compiled the first blacklist, condemning works by Jews, Marxists, socialists, liberals and others.

UnrepentantSinner
8th May 2003, 09:52 PM
I wonder if The Museum will place a Dixie Chicks CD in the display next year?

Blue Monk
8th May 2003, 09:53 PM
That's great news and I tip my hat to them for taking such a dramatic stand on a contemporary issue.

The absurdity of burning Harry Potter books sometimes conceals the sinister undercurrents of such an act and I for one am glad to see that aspect revealed in such a public and relevant light.

Ove
8th May 2003, 11:47 PM
Any book burning - campaign to exclude certain writers from a library - CD burning - Campaign to take artists off the air - etc. is very worrying. We must not forget what happened last time people started burning books. We are unfortunately becoming increasingly self centered theese days. Young people are not interested in history "Why bother reading a bunch of old books"? and history forging is going on in a grand scale.

The laziness means that a lot of people tend to believe myths and take movies like "Pearl Harbour" or "Saving Private Ryan" or U571 for the truth, next step is "I guess this holocaust stuff was grossy exagerated, who knows if it really happened"?

Don't forget the old saying: "People who forget their past sometimes has to repeat it.

Incitatus
9th May 2003, 05:02 AM
Originally posted by Ove

The laziness means that a lot of people tend to believe myths and take movies like "Pearl Harbour" or "Saving Private Ryan" or U571 for the truth, next step is "I guess this holocaust stuff was grossy exagerated, who knows if it really happened"?



Why do you include Saving Private Ryan in this list, just curious.

Ove
9th May 2003, 05:10 AM
Because of the plot, i realize off course that it is one of the most graphically realistic descriptions of D-Day, actually it probably was a bad example........ Forget it OK ;)

I stand by the others.:D

Dancing David
9th May 2003, 06:52 AM
I was shocked to find out that Harry Potter was on the top of the banned list, Christians lack faith if they can't expose thier children to ideas.

Peace

blackadder65738
9th May 2003, 07:04 AM
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dancing David
[B]I was shocked to find out that Harry Potter was on the top of the banned list, Christians lack faith if they can't expose thier children to ideas.

What do you think home schooling is for? It's to make sure they don't get exposed to ANYTHING satanic! :D

a_unique_person
9th May 2003, 07:13 AM
Originally posted by Ove
Because of the plot, i realize off course that it is one of the most graphically realistic descriptions of D-Day, actually it probably was a bad example........ Forget it OK ;)

I stand by the others.:D

After the bit on the beach, SPR was all downhill.

DialecticMaterialist
9th May 2003, 12:28 PM
Yeah they burnt books to stop people from reading Harry Potter, looks like that worked well.

Seriously, book burning isn't always a great evil but it is rather primitive. It accomplishes nothing, wastes money and time. I mean there is not liking an opinion then there is taking it to a childish and ridiculous extreme. That's some red neck, children of the corn crap right there.

Let me just say you won't see leading biologists in the street burning books by Duane Gish.

Blue Monk
9th May 2003, 12:31 PM
Well burning those Beatle records in the 60s sure as hell worked.

I mean who ever heard anything of them after that?

DialecticMaterialist
9th May 2003, 12:38 PM
One time in recent history it "worked" (couldn't have been boycotting now could it?). And I imagine in the Middle Ages it had some impact. Still a pretty stupid thing to do.

Gee lets spend 12-15 dollars buying a book or CD, lighting an unsafe fire and burning stuff with our friends. I mean that why they teach you about the Dark Ages and Nazis, so you can copy the behavior.

I don't like Dixie chicks either but you won't see me at a stupid CD burning. Just like you won't see me at a McDonald's asking for "freedom fries".