Rowling vs. Meyer – My Perspective May 27, 2009

I am not ashamed to admit that I love fiction – very much.  I love it more than non-fiction.  There was a time when I thought that made me less intellectual or philisophical or just less in general.  Now I say who cares?  Jesus loved fiction.  That fact is apparent to me based on how many parables He told.  There is something so very powerful and impacting about fiction.  It bypasses the part of our minds that wants to work it all out logically and speaks to our hearts.  As a heart person, I get that.  Fiction for me is an experience. 

There are two movies hitting the big screen this year based on works of fiction.  Both are part of a series of books, and they have been compared to one another quite a bit.  They have also both been embraced by young and old alike, and the authors of both have become very weathy thanks to their stories. 

I must admit to being irked whenever I see an article with pictures of J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer next to one another.  These two authors penned the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series, respectively.  I am not sure why people seem to believe that they are similar.  Yes, both women created an alternate universe that does not exist.  One consisted of witches and wizards, the other had vampires and shape-shifting wolves.  Both have drawn much attention and spurned moves, bringing fame and wealth to a handful of young people.  One actor went so far as to have played a role in a Harry Potter move and then the lead in Twilight.  In my opinion, that’s just about where the similarities end.

I will take the next couple of posts to discuss these series of books.  I will be looking at the over-all writing, strength of plot, character development, and themes.  Also, since I come from a Christian background and used to be among circles who were literally afraid of Harry Potter, I will look at these books from a moral and spiritual perspective.

I have really thought about this for several weeks and have taken a lot of notes.  Hopefully, I will get this all together in a way that is helpful and  interesting to read (and also infused with some humor ).  I will also include spoiler warnings.  I plan to tackle Twilight first, and hope to have my next post up by Friday.  This topic is important to me as a person who loves fiction and as a mom.  At the end, I will give my input on which series I hope that my kids will embrace when they are old enough to read them.

Please feel free to comment as I tackle this.