Black Eyes!! , more musings about Voldemort

[jll3sonex at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21809

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., pigwidgeon37 at y... wrote:
> OK, let's become serious: In some post of last week, I read the )
> (uncontradicted) phrase that Voldemort is heading towards world 
> domination. IMHO, that's simply not true: He himself says to his 
DEs 
> that (inexact quotation, as I have lent the book to my best friend) 
> his "ultimate goal was to conquer DEATH". Why else would he have 
> thought of giving his followers the strange name of "Death Eaters"? 
> And wouldn't he have, during 11 years of steady rise to power, 
> thought of expanding his reign outside England, if he had really 
> aimed at dominating the world? As far as we know, wizard and Muggle 
> killings have all taken place in England, there is no hint 
whatsoever 
> at any V-activities in other countries. All the DEs are English, 
with 
> the exception of Karkaroff, who IMO went to Hogwarts and was living 
> in England, before being sentenced and, some time after his 
release, 
> named Headmaster of Durmstrang.
> World domination would be a bit cliché, wouldn't it? It would make 
> Voldemort another Lex Luthor or Dr. Mabuse. I think that conceiving 
> him as the person who tries to overcome the ultimate obstacle, 
makes 
> him a lot more frightening than "poltical" ambition.
> 
> Susanna

Hi!  I find something you said interesting...

"As far as we know.." - As far as WE know... and that's the problem.  
All we've SEEN is from a teen-ager's perspective.  

I may be wrong on this, but we (as readers) are encountering the 
history of the Wizarding world almost at the same rate as Harry is.  
We're getting fed bits and pieces as it's necessary.  Nobody's 
mentioned V's activities in other countries - but then again Hitler 
wasn't much of a problem outside Germany until he consolidated his 
power base in the mid 30's and started expanding it.  And consider 
trying to explain WW2 to a 13 year old who had no background in 
geography.  (I hate to use WW2 as a parallel since it may seem like 
I'm saying the Harry Potter series is just a thin rewriting of the 
times - but that's what you get when you study history, you see 
parallels when you might not before...)  Wouldn't you be tempted to 
tell the young teen-ager that there was a guy who was trying to take 
over, and it took a whole lot of people fighting and dying to stop 
him, rather than go into a long-winded explanation he may not have 
the background for in the first place?  

So you'd point the teen to some good books and movies on the 
subject.  And there's ANOTHER problem, IMO.  The general prohibition 
of even MENTIONING Voldemort's name doesn't help much either.  He's 
been gone long enough so he's become the boogyman, and may well have 
more influence and power over people from their fear alone than from 
the actual magic he can perform to hurt them.  (Witness the problems 
that Pettigrew had with his fear.)  There's been no mention of books 
on the Voldemort Conflict, that I recall - so all you have is word of 
mouth, and that's pretty darn tightly closed off...  So how is Harry 
(and by extension, the readers) supposed to learn the background?

The Death Eaters, however, don't seem to have a problem organizing 
and likely recruiting.  It's not about WORLD domination, at least at 
this point - it's about power and control to do what they want 
locally.  Take control over the Wizarding world, then take control 
over the Muggles - then see where they go from there.

Or so I think.  That and 60 cents will get you a granola bar from the 
machine down the hall.  It's just as nutty as I am.  ;-)

Jerry