Well some of us who have read the books (all 7) and aren’t really that impressed by the overall writing and messages have no problem with the ‘witchcraft’ aspect (I personally thought that Hogwarts the school was the best done part of the whole series). We see the themes are certainly not overtly anti-Christian. We see examples of positive teaching. We see some excellent characterizations. (In fact the character whose development I enjoyed most was that of Neville who went from ‘wimp’ to hero over the 7 books).
However, a lot of the material, particularly in the longer books, was sloppy. (the ages of the older Weasleys for example should have been much greater than JK later made them to be. However, she didn’t like ‘maths’ and so she just let errors stand.
Nobody expects ‘perfection’ in a book, let alone a series, but there is a difference between things which just slip by (typos) and things which should have been caught. JK herself complained that she was ‘pushed’ too quickly and did not have the ‘time’ to go over her work, especially in editions outside of Brittain. I understand that, but the errors could have been corrected in subsequent editions and never were.
Finally, a lot of the supposed ‘good teaching’ is skewed. For example, Hermione, Harry and Ron bond in book 1 when Hermione LIES (in order to ‘save’ the boys from possible expulsion). The whole foundation of the ‘trilogy’ is based on a lie, not even a lie to peers, but a lie TO ADULTS.
Imagine how much more powerful the friendship could have been had the boys told the truth. . .“we had upset Hermione earlier and we heard she was in the bathroom crying. Since we had been the ones who hurt her, we wanted to apologise in person, and that was what we were thinking of. Now we realize that in leaving the group without saying anything, we were putting everybody in danger which was irresponsible of us. Hermione is innocent of anything but we, Ron and Harry, were only focused on trying to right our wrong. We’re sorry. We have learned our lesson and we will accept the consequences that you see fit.”
Since we later find out in book 3 that Harry is so danged important that even after he actually does wrong in using a spell outside of school time (and should be automatically expelled for), he gets a ‘free pass’ by the Ministry itself!-- Harry and Ron’s ‘confession’ in book 1 would not have met with ‘expulsion’ but rather with some kind of detention or point loss (as indeed later happened for another infarction!). Instead of the boys getting away with wrong, and Hermione actually taking a rap for something she didn’t do, we would have had a friendship built on taking of responsibility and on forgiveness.
That’s just one example of some morally ‘skewed’ plot lines presented as a ‘good thing’.
Personally I don’t mind if people read the series, enjoy the series, etc. and as I said, there are some examples of good moral teachings in there. There really are. And as I said, I loved the Hogwarts scenes. But for me personally, I just find too much of the ‘relative’ mindset. So I’m certainly not a ‘fan’. . but I’m not a ‘hater’ either.
