[Lush]

A thought struck me today (better a thought that a truck, right?);

What if, the seeming discrepancy between the way that LotR and Harry Potter are perceived by "concerned" parents might have something to do with the advent of the information age and the way people have reacted to it?

Think about it. Back when Tolkien was first beginning to be published, the illusion of living in a vacuum still pervailed for many conservatives. The positive aspect of that, in my opinion, was that this made parents feel somehow more "responsible" for the way their young children behaved. The media was gaining power, but it did not yet seem omnipresent.

When Tolkien arrived on the scene, sure, religious concerns were raised and addressed. Protesting a work of art is not a 20th century invention; yet the past centuries organized religion's primary concern was science. The outlets used to popularize art were not nearly as powerful as they have recently become. In the context of the family, therefore, art did not seem to be an immediate threat to children. Furthermore, parents felt that they had more of a say in terms what their children read and how the reading affected them.

Flash forward to today. Mass-media appears to be taking over human conscience; the exchange of information is easy; news are merging with advertising and suddenly media executives have become "experts" on how to live.

How many local news reports do you watch a week that purport to intimidate you into leading your life a certain way? How many journalists/pundits/talk-show hosts appear to reach out to you and tell you that it is up to them to solve your problems?

In this climate, with Harry Potter arriving fresh on the scene and immediately becoming as familiar as Cindy Crawford's mole through the power of hype, parents feel marginalized. It's as if raising their children is no longer up to them anymore; it's up to Disney, it's up to MTV, it's up to...Rowling.

If an average conservative Christian father, for example, suddenly discovers his daughter to be dabbling in the occult, his immediate response may not be: "what have I done wrong in explaining to her that our religion does not approve of this?" Rather, it may go along these lines: "What has the media done wrong?" "What has Harry Potter done wrong?" "What has the chain bookstore done wrong?"

Tolkien, having already become an intrinsic part of pop culture, is safer by comparison. His books have been around. They seem to have been time-tested. They're alright.

Right?

(Though it would be curious to see just what the recent films have been doing to that image)