Chapter 23 - Horcruxes

[cheeringcharm]

After a throw-away scene with the Fat Lady and Nearly Headless Nick, Harry runs up to Dumblegod's office to give him Slughorn's memory. They journey into the pensieve and see the same memory as before, this time with substance instead of mist. Turns out Slughorn did tell Riddle about horcruxes and how they are created. Riddle is most interested in

Comments

[cadesama]

Throw-away is right. I'm not typically in the camp demanding that JKR shorten her books, but why waste page space on something as boring and useless as the Fat Lady harassing Harry when she could do more character development

[rainfletcher]

Yeah, that sound you heard was the can of worms being opened. Not differentiating between murder and killing really makes the ending suspect. So does Harry have to defeat Voldemort without killing him? Will Harry die rather than live with a shredded soul? Or do you get a Special Karmic Exemption if you're taking out the Bad Guy?

I wonder if this was moral posturing? JKR says she's not in this to teach the kiddies any lessons (Buddha knows, she didn't do girls in love any favors), but I wonder if not addressing the Difference Between Killing And Murder was intentional as a way to avoid the issue entirely, thus making it appear that she's NOT proselytizing? I don't know if I'm making any sense, but it seems like the author winds up looking like she's making a stand (all killing is bad, period) while trying to avoid making one (sometimes killing is justifiable or unavoidable).

[cadesama]

I don't know if I'm making any sense, but it seems like the author winds up looking like she's making a stand (all killing is bad, period) while trying to avoid making one (sometimes killing is justifiable or unavoidable).You make about as much sense as JKR does on this issue. Just kidding, you make more sense than trying to tell a classic hero's journey while removing all the parts that make it about a hero. She's left behind a contradictory, morally incoherent story for the purpose of "realism" or trying to avoid prosletyzing. If she wanted to do either of those things, I think she should have avoided writing an archetypal, heroic epic

[schtroumph_c]

If this Lestrange is indeed Bella's husband, and they all shared knowing looks about Riddle's heritage, why did Bella freak at the suggestion that Voldie wasn't a pureblood in OotP? Of course, maybe it's Rastaban (do we know if he's older or younger?), since Sirius said that all of Snape's gang (including the Lestranges) ended up Death Eaters, so it presumably they were all contemporaries. Still, you'd think Rastaban would let his sister-in-law in on the secret.

It was 50 years ago, it was probably the father of Bella's husband.

[cheeringcharm]

True, but we know how bad JKR is with maths.

[schtroumph_c]

I don't think she's bad to the point to confound Hagrid and Riddle's generation with Snape's generation.

[pilly2009]

We're left with no distinctions, which really muddies the waters about Harry's destiny quite a bit, as well as making their universe seem morally absolutist in an illogical fashion. Not all killing is murder, even leaving aside self-defense, but if all killing rips the soul . . . well, that's not particularly fair to the person who accidentally kills in ignorance, or by happenstance. There's no room for intent, which is very odd since intent, mens rea, is one of the cornerstones of the justice system (well, the US, but I would think that would carry over to other countries). This is really odd, actually, because intent tends to carry a lot of weight in the Potterverse as well. But I don't think JKR was only speaking in a condemning way when she described the splitting of the soul

[cadesama]

As is implied, the splitting of his soul doesn't seem to bother Voldemort at all, whereas Snape may be disturbed by it. Of course, the wizarding legal system and such can still distinguish between murder and say, mercy killing (hopefully), but I believe that spiritually, the end-effect is the same.

I see your point, and a big part of me wants to agree. I just don't think that's quite what's being set out by JKR. Well, more to the point, I think that even if it is it's not really the most logical of moral laws for the HP universe. Voldemort's soul splitting is linked to his transformation into the inhuman. So, where does that leave soldiers who kill repeatedly for a good cause? Do they automatically become less than human as well? Is that the sacrifice that has to occur in the books, the sacrifice of humanity and ethics? It's like she trying to make a point about all life being valuable, despite undermining via her Dumbledore Megaphone of Truth. And, yeah, it just all seems extremely muddled to me.