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05-15-2009, 08:34 AM | #1 | ||
Lady of the Ulairi
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Minas Morgul
Posts: 2,783
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Inked - thanks!
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Yet in realistic word any activity: physical or mental should drain your energy, one can haul only so much boulders in one day so to say. No one is similar to perpetuum mobile... Thus I don't see how advanced magic could not take its immediate toll on one's energy (physical and magical). Quote:
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05-15-2009, 09:13 AM | #2 | ||
Entmoot Minister of Foreign Affairs
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Copenhagen
Posts: 2,145
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Quote:
The magic in HP J.K. Rawlings has actually described quite neatly, and this theme she also ties up to the Choosing Hat and which House Potter would land in, Slytherin or Gryffindor. I can't paraphrase it where I'm at, but it was something like 'in Slytherin you could do great things'. This pursuit of greatness, going beyond a healthy balance, is the underlying story of going to the dark side. There is much greed involved and they are willing to kill and sacrifice whomever comes in their way. Obviously it's a given that killing a lot makes it easier for a person to kill, but the premise here was that you found magic to be 'TOO EASY', and you mentioned Avada Kedavra as not requiring anything of the one who performs the spell. I'm pointing out that it does: It punches holes in the soul. The devilry and subtleness of it, and which I like about J.K. Rawling's way of characterizing it, is that the witches and wizards who performt he unforgiveable curses at first do not feel any great physical strain. Everything seems very well at first. But the more dark spells are cast and the more killing that is performed the emptier it gets, and as Voldemort epitomizes, the physical appearance begins altering by time. It's a wear and tear, albeit a slow one. And as many of the fallen witches and wizards in the HP world show, it becomes a perpetually vicious circle of greed, emptiness and weakness. The Malfoys are an excellent example: Both Lucius and Draco are seen physically weakened at the end of the books: the demands of more darkness and more black spells give them more agony, mental and physical. In fact Lucius falls right through a proverbial floor of rotten strength and cunningness. Quote:
Voldermort, the one who went as far as anyone else, fragmented his soul into multiple parts. Thus Voldermort has a mechanical view of the world, he does not understand love, and he thinks that the Horcruxes can divide up his life and thus make him potentially immortal. He didn't just choose the wrong method, he had the wrong idea based on his flawed misconceptions: The misconception being that fragmenting the soul = protection = strength, while in reality it was fragmenting the soul = dividing the indivisible = losing strength (and humanity).
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"Well, thief! I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself again, there is plenty and to spare." Last edited by Coffeehouse : 05-15-2009 at 09:21 AM. |
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05-15-2009, 09:43 AM | #3 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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JK ROWLING set the parameters of magic in her world to be what they are in the Potterverse. These do not correspond by necessity to those of the Tolkienverse.
The nature of magic in the Potterverse is very like that of technology in our culture and its scientism. In fact, the proper use of and identifying the abuses of magic correspond very closely to the proper use of and abuses of technology in our society. The theme of social commentary is NOT limited to racism and classism or sexism in HP. The Philosopher's Stone is the product of alchemical restructuring of the soul into the Edenic state in which the created intended relations of humanity to the Creation, self, and others, and God, is restored. Thus the Philosopher's Stone was a rare item produced by few individuals. Harry, you will note, is the master of the Philosopher's Stone in a unique mode. See Dumbledore's commentary in THE HALFBLOOD PRINCE. Harry, symbolically and alchemically, is the Philosopher's Stone, or becomes the life-giving humanly enfleshed stone by his surrender to death and triumph over death and evil. See what happens at the battle of Hogwarts. Harry is Everyman ... the Christian striving to become as the Master (who said that to follow Him was to "take up your cross" and thereby indicated the path He and all his disciples would trod) and to experience passion, death, and Resurrection into the very Life of God - Love (the deepest magic -multiple citations through the HP series).
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
05-15-2009, 10:02 AM | #4 | |
Entmoot Minister of Foreign Affairs
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Copenhagen
Posts: 2,145
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Haha... here come the Christian allegory, or should I say pseudo-Biblical interpretation. The bottom-line here is, and I hate to break to you, but that as a Christian you are hard-wired to find your belief system and corresponding motifs/allergories in the type of literature that Harry Potter is. So I'm not surprised. When I say these words: Self-sacrifice... celebration of humanity... brotherly (and sisterly) love... dying and resurrecting... I'm pretty sure Jesus jumped right into your mind on at least one occasion The point is that none of the above words are unique to Christianity. If there is an allegory to Christianity in Harry Potter it is at best microscopically weak. Now, although I'm no Christian I have been one, and I know a Christian allegory when I see one: It should dawn on the vast majority of readers when they read Harry Potter that there's something profoundly Christian. It hasn't happened. Having finished Harry Potter my feeling was that JK Rowling had written a very good book and dealt with some very interesting themes, but Christianity isn't it. Anyways, finding hidden messages in works like Harry Potter usually reflects more on the beliefs of the reader than what is written in the book!
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"Well, thief! I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself again, there is plenty and to spare." Last edited by Coffeehouse : 05-15-2009 at 10:04 AM. |
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05-15-2009, 04:43 PM | #5 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
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Coffeehouse, you probably say the same things about Tolkien and CS Lewis. But this thread has connections to the Christian themes in HP which you can peruse and refute one by one should you care to do so. Also, JK ROWLING contradicts you herself.
But, hey, you are entitled to your opinion! However wrong it may be!
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Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 |
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