Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Vatican slams J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy

Only days after giving the new James Bond film a ringing endorsement, the Vatican has slammed the new novel by J. K. Rowling saying it Only days after giving the new James Bond film a ringing endorsement, the Vatican has slammed the new novel by J. K. Rowling saying it "needed a sprinkle of magic".

L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See's official newspaper, subtitled its damning review of The Casual Vacancy with "J.K Rowling's first adult novel disappoints". 
The newspaper said it had "only admiration" for the billionaire author who had smashed sales records with her Harry Potter series and overcome "wretched times" as a single mother. 
It also congratulated Rowling for donating a large sum of her earnings to charity in 2011 "thanks to the power and fantasy produced by her pen" but said her latest book was unconvincing and Rowling's perspective "disappoints". 
"Fifty-six years after Peyton Place, an up to date – and British – version of that masterpiece of a social chronicle might make sense," the review says.

"Rowling probably has all the qualifications to be the worthy successor of Grace Metaloius. But there's something missing."
The newspaper's review gave only a sparse outline of the book's storyline and revealed little about the casual sex, drugs and self-harm contained in the book. 

However in the past L'Osservatore Romano enthusiastically embraced the Harry Potter series and debated many of the issues raised by the children's series. 

In January 2008 the paper dedicated a full page to a philosophical debate about whether Harry Potter was an appropriate hero or not. 

In July 2009 the paper praised the moral stance of the film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and two years later praised Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for championing friendship and sacrifice.

As the new James Bond film Skyfall opened in Italian cinemas on Wednesday, the Vatican paper of record said it was one of the best of the 23 Bond films that have been made since the franchise began 50 years ago.

The paper stopped short of proclaiming 007 a Catholic hero but praised the latest incarnation of Bond as being "more human, capable of being moved and of crying: in a word, more real".

As the mouthpiece of the Holy See, L'Osservatore Romano, which was founded 151 years ago, has long had a reputation for serious editorials about Catholic saints, interviews with cardinals and accounts of the Pope's official engagements. 

Since a new editor was appointed in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI has urged the paper to expand its coverage of popular culture, commenting on everything from Harry Potter to The Blues Brothers, Under the headline "007 – license to cry", the broadsheet said Skyfall contained all the classic ingredients of a Bond film. 

The paper said that for his third outing as Bond, Daniel Craig was "even more convincing" than in the first two films, Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale.