Bad books and impressionable youth

Cowboys and Indians, Enid Blyton`s Famous Five series, Carolyn Keene`s Nancy Drew books, Buzz Lightyear, The Little Mermaid; every beloved childhood fable deals with the battle between the goodies and the baddies.

Children`s stories generally take a black and white view on the world. The good guys are immaculate, the bad guys are evil incarnate. In this fantasy with no grey areas, we can applaud the triumph of good over evil, celebrating our heroes and sparing no empathic notions for the fall of the villains, or analysing what incident in their childhoods might have prompted them to commit such heinous crimes.

Children emulate their fantasy protagonists with vigour, and take great joy in repeating, in their own backyards, the fall of the nefarious anti-heroes. But children are not stupid. They understand this isn`t reality, that their faithful dog cannot fly, that the closest they will come to magic is witnessing a clever sleight of hand and that these stories are merely that: stories.

A matric student who had his poor impressionable head turned by reading an excerpt from a review of a book would be hard pressed to find a wand containing the hair of a unicorn so that he could set along the path to the dark side.

Georgina Guedes, Editor, ITWeb Brainstorm

John Smit is a very real boy. He is writing his matric exams this year. He refused to answer a comprehension question that counted for 30% of his paper because it contained references to a Harry Potter book. He has the support of his parents, who are of the firm conviction that the Harry Potter books, instead of functioning as motivation for millions of children to resume the nearly lost art of reading for pleasure, are manuals for witchcraft.

The comprehension in question didn`t in fact contain an excerpt from a Harry Potter book, but was in fact a review of the book, taken from Time magazine. Newspapers and periodicals should form a significant portion of the reading material of any matric student hoping to be well informed. And any person who is willing to dismiss a certain subject or narrative as evil should do their own research, rather than blindly buying into the notions of others.

Harry Potter books, in particular, don`t deal with any "real" witchcraft of which I am aware. A matric student who had his poor impressionable head turned by reading an excerpt from a review of a book would be hard pressed to find a wand containing the hair of a unicorn so that he could set along the path to the dark side. Harry Potter himself is concerned with friendship, generosity, free choice and the battle against evil. If he uses his totally fantastic powers to this end, I can`t believe that any child will be negatively influenced by reading about his trials.

This is why I see Smit`s behaviour as unforgivable. By the time he reached his matric year, old enough to drive, drink and vote, he should have been armed with the analytical tools that allow him to discern the difference between damaging propaganda for the dark side, and a book review.

Even if he has slight moral problems with the content, he should also have the gumption to weigh up the alternative of failing his matric paper against making a narrow-minded and meaningless stand against a Time magazine reviewer.

I also have to acknowledge that his parents played no small part in the opinions of their child. These are the kinds of people who are so preoccupied with the avoidance of things that they have termed evil, that they prevent themselves from thinking about the good and positive aspects of life.

They are the kinds of people who forwarded the original mail that exacerbated all the trouble. The mail, taken from an Onion article, ridicules the statements made by the religious far right that Harry Potter books are encouraging children to join satanic cults.

This article was circulated in e-mail format as "evidence", along with totally fictional accounts of school children attempting witchcraft. The article could not be more tongue in cheek. One quote reads: "`I used to believe in what they taught us at Sunday school,` said Ashley, conjuring up an ancient spell to summon Cerebus, the three-headed hound of hell."

And yet, with the same lack of insight that prevents these people from discerning fantasy from reality, satire and actual reporting were confused and the e-mail was forwarded with rabid fervour. That they have had to resort to the propagation of fictional evidence in support of their cause only undermines their argument further.

Smit will probably have the opportunity to rewrite his exams, as will any other child that fails a subject, but I don`t think this should be regarded as a special indulgence. I also don`t think that any apology should be made on behalf of the teachers who set the papers using topical and interesting subject matter to challenge the minds of the young writers.