The Living Philosopher's Stone (Was: Re: The Spiritual Symbolism of HP)

[mongo62aa]

No: HPFGUIDX 56163

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hp_lexicon" <hp_lexicon at y...> 
wrote:
> This is the most incredible and delightful thread I've seen on this 
> list for years. I was thoroughly engrossed in reading it through, 
so 
> much so that I haven't been actually, you know, working for the 
last 
> twenty minutes or so. 
> 
> So here's my question:
> Would it be okay with everyone involved if I would copy this entire 
> synopsis of the discussion and create a page on the Lexicon for it? 
> I really wont' do any editing, just plop the whole thing down in 
> discussion form for people to read through. Fans of the Lexicon 
> often remark about how they love the essays most of all, and this 
> one will knock 'em dead! I would try to edit it into an essay, but 
> it's more effective as a discussion, with ideas flowing and one bit 
> of genius feeding into another.
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Steve Vander Ark
> The Harry Potter Lexicon

I have often thought that it was a terrible shame that so many 
wonderful posts to this board end up buried deep in the archives, 
never to be seen again.  I myself have participated in, or simply 
read, many threads which delved into symbolism, foreshadowing, ect. 
in the HP books.  Sadly, this board has little in the way of search 
functions, so most have never been seen again.

It would be a monumental task to re-read every post to this board, 
but if somebody were to do so, marking out the 'significant' posts 
along the way, it would be of enormous value.  This would be a HUGE 
task, as this board is currently using 197 MB, compared to the 90 KB 
for 15 000 words of my post.  By simple algebra, 197 MB would be 
roughly 33 million words, in over 56 000 posts - 600 words per post.  
The actual value would be something less than this number - maybe 
half, which is still greater than 15 million words.

Now, regarding the collected posts that you are referring to, many of 
the original posters are still active on this board, and can speak 
for themselves.  As for myself, I have no problem with the idea, as 
this would keep the ideas discussed in them in public view.  However, 
I should point out that this was an abridged version of the original 
posts, with much of the incidental back-and-forth chatter removed.

Bill