Tuesday, July 10, 2007

it would only be blasphemy if he insulted harry potter

Walking out of the Harry Potter movie.

Tom: It'd be cool if J.K. Rowling wrote another book after the Harry Potter series.

Me: [nodding]

Tom: Her book cover would read, 'From the author of ... HARRY POTTER.' How can anyone beat that?

Me: True.

Tom: Unless it's, 'From the author of ... THE BIBLE. God himself.'

Me: [laughing]

Tom: The Newest Testament. [pause] Even then, I don't believe in God, so I'd still pick up J.K. Rowling's book.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, :) I stumbled upon you since the YouTube video fawning over you. You're so blessed (by God) - Google, love, beauty, admiration & crushes all around you! :D

Anyway. Between JK Rowling's creation of (fictional) Harry Potter & the (real) universe - I take God AlMighty anytime. He beats my heart - I can't escape it. :)

Anonymous said...

There are many forms of irony, and I always love stories about Tom and his near complete unawareness of his own. Your Tom reads like some Dickens character- a kind charicature portrait of the newly graduated. One reason to read, (hopefully other authors than Rowling) is to come to have a better understanding of yourself and who you really are. Great literature can help you understand not only human nature but also your own. Not sure that Rowling offers much depth in this regard, but you might persuade "Tom" to read The Brothers Karamozov. Or if that is too tedious for him, just skip to the chapter of the Grand Inquisitor. Tom today seems very much the representation of human nature described there in. In the same breath that he affirms his atheism, he confirms that he has merely replaced one deity with other demigods --R.K Rowling today, programming in previous readings, other ideals on other days that he puts up on pedestals. But "Tom" is a useful foil. It's the problem with "atheists" you know; they don't understand that there are no real atheists. Whether their deities are environmentalism, socialized medicine, global warming, free market capitalism, or what not... is it not human nature to have irrational faith in some philosophy? Hopefully though when you read the Bible, or Doestoevsky or Shakespeare,(for starters) you come away with more than bedknobs and broomsticks-and are more the wise for it. Keep reading; both that Rowling stuff if you must but great works when you can and you will come to know who you are, and so will Tom.

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your blog for some years, longer than most other blogs. But I only noticed the tagline a few weeks ago.

I wondered who first said that. A quick google and some digging in wikiquote, came up with some philosophers name. I felt like posting it as a comment to 'code as seen by hollywood' because I was wondering why you picked it as a tagline.

But a few days ago I realized it was Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe it was all an elaborate ruse by Tom to make us think as much, lest we have irrational faith in our own speculative conclusions?

N said...

re: kj.

"The truth shall set you free" is Caltech's motto. Unfortunately there is little web presence of it, but I used to see it all around campus emblazoned on various plaques.

Anonymous said...

So, Jesus Christ went to Caltech?

Anonymous said...

Jesus mows my lawn