Harry Potter WAS: Re: crumpets & muffins

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Thursday, January 18, 2001 10:42 am -0800 Your Name
<Lina.Hawkins at BERLITZGLOBALNET.COM> wrote:

> I am astonished to find out that the UK edition calls Harry Potter a
> philosopher and the US edition calls him a sorcerer.
>
> Not too long ago, I received a letter from a Christian Orthodox priest
> saying not to buy Harry Potter's books because they are evil and they
> promote Satanism.

No, Harry's not called a sorcerer or a philosopher, he's called a wizard.
The name of the book is _Harry Potter and the {Philosopher's/Sorcerer's}
Stone_.  The philosopher's/sorcerer's stone is an alchemist's invention.
No one in the book is called a philosopher, only witches and wizards.

I'm reserving comment about the priest.

Lynne

M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320