Seeking: Is it meant to be a good thing?

[Melody <Malady579@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48315

For an remedy to my melancholy, Sherry suggested:
>Perhaps a large brandy? It worked for Vernon Dursley...

Well Sherry, Keats advices against that too since all it does really
is "drown the wakeful anguish of the soul".  I think I'll happily
settle for Dumbledore's remedy - Hot Chocolate.

So with a mug full sitting next to me and my melancholy cloud lifting,
I will attempt to find what it is I was asking in the first place.

Oh and since this fractured into two different discussions, I'll
answer your bit in another post CK.

So-let me recap, for my own sanity.

I asked if the "seeking" of the book is implied in the text as being a
singular-pursuit and thus an encouraged course of action by Voldemort,
which is not a good thing since if *he* likes it then it must be
wrong.  If that is so, then Harry's education in his role of "seeker"
is contradictory to this notion and could in fact be a flaw in his
education.

I think this matters because there is a lot of parallels between
Voldemort and both Crouchs and then between those Crouchs and Harry.
Harry could possibly be heading down a dangerous path if he is not
well guided.


Voldemort and Crouch Sr.:
single minded pursuit and let nothing (good/evil) get in the way

Compare to Harry:
single minded pursuit of snitch and does not let dementors, bludgers,
other opponents, rain, or bucking brooms get in his way.

Problem:
Voldemort and Crouch Sr. go too far and let their pursuit completely
consume their soul
Harry, for right now, just lets it break his arm.  A fact that is not
discouraged by the professors or students.


Voldemort and Barty Jr.:
idolize dead mother as their savior

Harry:
greatly respects his dead mother and she *was* his savior

Problem:
Voldie's and Jr.'s idolization goes too far and becomes perverted into
saint worship
Harry, for right now, just defends her honorably

These parallels are there and can become dangerous for Harry if he
lets these actions and thoughts go too far.  That is why I question
Voldie's creed.  Harry *is* an awful lot like the intelligent bad guys
to date, and from the above, it seems he is playing with a dangerous
fire and is even to an extent, encouraged to do so.

But - it is his choices that keep him from becoming evil.  He chooses
to toy with the fire, but not let it consume him.  He is told just
enough to deeply appreciate his mother, but not enough to make her
human.  She *is* Saint Lily right now as annoying as that is.  She has
done no wrong in Harry's eyes.  James has.  James chose the wrong
secret keeper.  James snuck around Hogwarts with his friends as a
stag.  James is human.  Lily is not.  *That* is dangerous.  That was
the fuel for Voldie's and Barty Jr.'s obsessions with their own
mothers and caused them to turn to think there is no good and evil.

Now, I was also trying to draw the same parallel with the seeking of
the three.  Voldie and Crouch Sr. *do* take their pursuits too far in
JKR's eyes, and she says so in the text clearly.  She says their
seeking is wrong, and y'all pointed out why it is wrong in her eyes.
Not because it is the seeking style, but because of what they did
while they sought.  They crossed the faint line between good and evil
and became hypocritical.  Well, Crouch Sr, did, but Voldemort never
professed to be good, so he is just evil.

So with Harry, I was also trying to imply, I think, that he too is
playing awful close to this line.  He *does* play Quidditch in a
single-minded dedicated way.  He does this so much that he breaks his
arm and works hard to not let *anything* affect his game.  While his
motives are still pure, he is being taught that singular pursuit is
alright, but he is not being taught when he would cross that line.
Breaking his arm was not too far.  Spending his free waking hours
alone with boggarts and a werewolf was not too far.  Even pushing and
shoving is not too far.  Has Harry been taught when "seeking" becomes
obsession?  Frankly, single-minded pursuit is a hop, jump, and a step
right next to obsession.  And obsession leads to the grey morality
between good and evil and thus was Crouch Sr's downfall.  He did not
choose to be evil like Voldemort.  He was boiled up to it.

And that is what I fear.  This lack of guidance in Harry's life.
Dumbledore, nor anyone else, does not tell Harry, while his mother was
a wonderful, sacrificing woman; she was also human and made mistakes.
 She is not someone to idolize.  Even though, this was a downfall for
Barty Jr. and Voldemort, Dumbledore does not worry that *Harry* would
be susceptible to this.  That is folly on his part in my mind.  Really
Harry is *more* susceptible because she actually *did* save his life.

Now with the "seeking", it has been shown that Harry has been
instructed in the encouraged forms of seeking.  In task two, he was
awarded more points for not being of a one track mind.  That alone
would tell him a lot, but did he learn that though?  Harry did say
that he was being stupid for his actions.  He was embarrassed because
of them.  Even though he got more points, we left that task wondering
if Harry had it to do over again, would he have just cut Ron out and
gone back to the surface?  He would of arrived first and still had the
most points.  Did Harry learn that it *was* better, more noble, for
him to do what he did?  Seems to me, he just learned that sometimes
you get lucky with judges.

But, I really like the Krum example of seeking because Harry admires
him so much during and after QWC.  Harry learns what "real" talent in
seeking is, so maybe there is hope in Harry's skilled seeking
decisions after all.  To play fair and even rough, but not let that
honor down.

I am scared of single-minded seeking because it is *so* close to
obsession, and Harry has not been taught to avoid that.  Obsession is
such an ugly affair.  He has seen nice obsession with Oliver Wood.
Wait - he has seen the ugly obsession.  Sirius and Crouch Sr.  He has
seen what happens to one if they *have* become truly obsessive.  But
does Harry know what to do to avoid going that far?  Does he know how
to not let himself boil up to that point?


So - where am I in figuring out the creed?  What does JKR mean by the
words "seek", "weak", and "power"?

I say:
seek- single minded pursuits
weak- those that do not engage in said seeking
power- achieved goal

So from that the "bad" creed would read:
"There is no good and evil, there is only achievable goals and those
who do not engage in single-mindedly pursuing them.

So with that good and evil part added, can all be happy?  Did I
incorporate all the ideas at present?  They all are wonderful, so I
greatly wanted to.  This way the motive behind the action is there,
the action is defined to what is implied, and the weak are those that
do not achieve in this way.  Seems, that is a more exact
representation of what Voldemort admires, JKR finds disdainful, and
what Harry is teetering between.

As before, Harry has all the qualities of both sides of good and evil,
but because of his education (at Hogwarts and at the Dursley's), he is
able to refrain from falling off the tightrope.  Or at least I *hope*
he is.  I see holes in his education.  Mostly surrounding his mother.


Melody