Jenkins on the Modus Moriendi of the Church
(my comments on the blog post “What if the Nones Really Do
Herald the Decline of Religion?” by Philip Jenkins)
It is unbelievable! I have been thinking for the last couple of
weeks exactly about this (preparing on preaching a sermon as
a guest in my old church). Here in …
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Historical Harry Potter stories
(my comments on the reddit thread “Fics like Starnlicht?” by
BallZealousideal2109)
It is strange how little fanfiction authors investigated the
whole area of the historical stories, a life of the magical
community outside (and before) the canonical storyline. Aside
from replants of the normal fanon stories to the past (“Prince …
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Horcruxes and Unhappy Dark Lord
Originally published as “Quest for Immortality by the Unhappy
Dark Lord” on Reddit.
I was thinking about this very unhappy adept for the Dark
Lordship, Tom Riddle:
- Hufflepuff’s Cup — while Tom Riddle was still travelling after
leaving Borgin and Burkes, and he considered dropping it into
The Mariana Trench …
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Overall post on “Breakfast in New York”
(cover letter for presenting my reviews of “Breakfast in New
York” by Radaslab; the first post and the second post)
I was rereading again “Breakfast in New York” by Radaslab and
I don’t know for certain why it aggravates me so much. Certainly
there is the conflict between generally …
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One more on “Breakfast in New York”
(second round of my comments on “Breakfast in New York” by
Radaslab; the first post)
There is this author’s note:
Eros Syndrome was not named or defined back then, but it was
there. Eros Syndrome was needed to explain certain things.
Namely, how could Hermione have let that happen …
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On Humanism
I have heard today yet another sermon where the preacher fought
against the great evil of humanism (fortunately, this was
a tangential comment, the main point of sermon was something else
and it was very good). It irked me again as it does anytime (most
often) American protestant pastor fights …
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Working class Snape?
(my post “All Our Kin: Snape and Evanses flight from the urban poverty of early 1980s”)
Discussing the character of Severus Snape in other thread, I was
made to think about the class structure behind the story. We know
that Severus Snape was a son of a jobless worker in …
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Good Petunia Stories
(my Reddit post “LF: Petunia is a witch afterall”)
I know about these:
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How not to use your character as a mouthpiece
(my contribution on the thread “Using your character as a mouth
piece” by Snoo)
If you are interested in the theory of writing, then I have to
suggest to you two very obscure and old books (yes, old books are
quite often better than the new ones): “The Mind of …
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Foundations of The Dark Magic
(my comments on “The Light and the Dark” by Uncommonality)
One of the many issues with the universe of the Harry Potter
books, which has never been fully resolved in the books by Ms
Rowling is the true nature of the Dark Magic. It is really not
explained. Dark Magic …
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On Vampires
(my comment regarding vampires on AO3)
Technical question of the day. Would the Homonum Revelius
spell reveal a hiding vampire? I figure it will reveal
a hiding werewolf but they’re still sort of human. Aren’t
vampires supposed to be “dead” and so would such a spell
reveal them …
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On Pelagianism
(my comments on “The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage” by Katherine
Stewart in The New York Times, 2021-01-11; letter to a friend who
raged against Senator Josh Hawley right after The Storming of US
Capitol)
OK, let me start by quoting Alan Cox, Welsh (he would killed me,
if …
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On Faith after Witch-hunts
(my comments on “Doesn't it make sense for wizards to be
Christian? A Historical Perspective” by u/PhantomKeeperQazs)
Of course, all Europeans almost without an exceptions were
Christians well into the 19th century. It was traditionally
unacceptable (or perhaps only unfashionable) not to be Christian
in Europe well into the …
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Werewolf stories
(my entry on “What are you reading? Weekly Post for 2021-01-06”)
After the discussion on other
thread,
I was given reference to three Harmony+werewolves stories (Lupin bites
somebody in the end of the third year). I found them surprisingly good:
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Magicians’ Realism
(thoughts after listening to the episode “Victorian Realism”
of the BBC’s In Our Time, originally developed as a review of
“Strangers at Drakeshaugh” by Northumbrian and also a possible
commentary on “Everything Wrong With HARRY POTTER Fanfictions”
by Purplemist14, which is HIGHLY recommended reading for any
hopeful fanfiction writer …
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Micro review of “Grow Young with Me” by Taliesin19
(my reaction to the published review of “Grow Young with Me”
by Taliesin19)
Except the quality of this review is on par with those on the DVD
box. This is not a review, it is a promotion by a fan. There is
not one weakness found, and although I like …
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Muggles-centred Harry Potter fanfiction stories
(my comments during the thread “Stories where Ginny is actually
nice to Harry’s girlfriend?” by /u/AcerbicOrb)
Let me add here a dump of my “muggles” folder (for later
reference):
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Their finest
(my comments on the review of “Their Finest” by Susan Wloszczyna)
I really wanted to like this film, it started nicely, and
generally I like it, but then there are points which just don’t
make sense at all. It is even worse when whole film is about
scriptwriting.
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Faith is from hearing
(this sermon was in seriously modified version preached at the
Prague Christian Fellowship on Sunday, August 30, 2020).
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of
Christ.
—Romans 10,17 ESV
This is one of the famous verses in the New Testament, and if you
were among …
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One More Anti-Harmony
(my comments on the thread “why does almost everyone hate the
Harry/Hermione ship?” by patriot_man69420)
I don’t hate the ship, although I generally prefer Hinny,
I could admit that Ginny is extremely poorly written by JKR,
and fanfiction has to add a lot of her personality to make …
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O literárních stylech biblických knih aneb Job
(kázání, silně krácené pronesené ve sboru ČCE Praha-Braník, 26.
července 2020)
Druhé helvétské vyznání, které Českobratrská církev evangelická
přijímá i za svoje vyznání víry, celé začíná ustanovením našeho
postoje k Písmu svatému:
Věříme a vyznáváme, že kanonická Písma svatých proroků
a apoštolů obojího Zákona jsou pravé slovo Boží samo a …
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No superheroes!
(my comments on “the thread on reddit”)
First of all, you should avoid the dark trap of all
adventure/fantasy stories: my story must be more dramatic than
the previous one, my heroes and my antagonist must be more
significant than the previous one. It is not enough to save …
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Live like you are not a Christian
(my comments on “Breakfast in New York” by Radaslab)
Finished reading the story and there are two overwhelming
thoughts in my head. The first is obvious and rather normal for
most of the fanfiction stories (and especially so-called romantic
ones): it should be cut to like one quarter or so …
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Ad “My theory on Christianity in the Wizarding World”
(my comments on “My theory on Christianity in the Wizarding
World” by LordMacragge)
I prefer the explanation in chapter 16 of Thou Shalt Not Suffer
by TheWizardsHarry: there are horrible problems with our
translations of the verse, because all Bible translators were
Muggles, and they just couldn’t grasp the …
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On bashing
Bashing and similar are not the cause of poor quality of their
stories, but they are just a symptom of the author being lead by
the poor design of his story into areas, which would be
impossible to resolve or it would be too difficult, so bashing is
then just …
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