Tap! Tap! Tap!

For those of you who don’t know, I am an avid reader. Over the decades, my taste for literature has gone through all kinds of phases. There was the Anne Rice obsession, the historical European fiction addiction, the chick-lit romance year and of course, the Harry Potter lifestyle (yes, I said lifestyle). I can get hooked on just about any genre from Romance to Horror, Self-Help to Fantasy. I do not discriminate on the playground of Barnes and Noble.

The same goes for movies. While scary movies, as we’ve already covered, scare the BEGEEZUS out of me, I do enjoy most everything else. I can even respect (from an eyes closed position) some of the horror ones, as long as I don’t have to sleep alone after watching them. J

I enjoy reading a lot of material that is deemed religiously inappropriate in a lot of my circles of influence. I am no stranger to being “one of questionable judgment” when it comes to books and movies. I guess it all began when I wrote my senior research paper on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which is still, in my opinion, an excellent novel. While I understand and agree with a lot of the points made by the church against such writings, I’m still amazed at the amount of religious fanaticism that goes into deeming books and films as “evil”.

My earliest memory of this witch hunt behavior was probably the whole “Boycott Disney” thing. Anyone else remember that? I was still in the Southern Baptist ring during that time and until some overzealous adult pointed it out, I HAD NO IDEA that there was a penis on the cover of my Little Mermaid VHS! While I do not condone the inappropriateness of such oversights, I do believe they were oversights. I’ve worked with jokers like the ones I’m sure were in the drawing room that day. I imagine the conversation went something like this, “Dude, we should put a $*(% on the cover of the Mermaid movie and see how long it takes someone to see it!” Whatever the reason was behind all that scandal is really irrelevant. The fact of the matter is I would’ve been better off to have not ever noticed the cover. The Little Mermaid is still my favorite Disney movie to date and I do not blame it or Alladin for any sexual experiences I may (or may not) have participated in over the years.

Book burnings, picket lines, anti-whatever parades, blogging rants… it’s all the same thing. It’s hype and it’s publicity and in extreme cases such as depicted below, it’s ignorant.

Harry Potter book burning in New Mexico. (tear)

I pose this thought. If our eyes are so bent on finding evil under every stone, isn’t the devil winning? Surely our sights are on him and not where they should be and isn’t that exactly what he wants?

I will not advocate for anyone to go against their religious convictions and ride down the Harry Potter or Twilight trail with me. However, I don’t believe the devil is going to be any more or less interested in me because I happen to appreciate excellent literature.

Now, if I start filing my teeth into points and drinking TruBlood, feel free to say, “I told you so!”