Myrtle's glasses, Basilisk, Camera, Ghost

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 78537

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Dave" <impherring13 at y...> wrote:
> ... Why then was Myrtle killed when viewing the basilisk straight 
> through her glasses(CS 16)?  Basically, Myrtle shouldn't have died,
> she should only have been petrified because of her glasses just as
> the camera and Nick saved the other two.
> 
>    -SD

First, let's ask a fundamental question about Basilisks. 

Exactly how does a Basilisk kill you with a look?

Do you have to look INTO it's eyes or do you merely have to see it's eyes?

For example, if you were standing off to the side hiding, and you
could see the Basilisk's head and therefore, it's eyes, would you die?

I don't think so. I think that is how Tom Riddle was able to look at
and command the Basilisk without being injured. It's not just seeing
the Basilisk's eyes; it has to be eye-to-eye contact.

So, let's refine it a bit further. If a basilisk looks into your eyes
but you don't look into it's, or if you look into a basilisk's eyes
but it doesn't look into yours would you be hurt or injure?

This is harder to resolve, and I will point out, it's also much harder
for this situation to occur. The best we can say is you would
definitely be injured, and probably dead; but just probably.

Of course, when you and the basilisk are looking directly into each
other's eyes, you are dead dead dead.

Although, Basilisk intent could also come into play. There could be a
difference between a Basilisk looking into your eye, and looking into
your eyes with deadly intent. I suspect this particular issue can
never be resolved by anything but a random guess.


Now, let's look at the injured people and their situations.

Justin/Nick - Nearly Headless nick acted as a barrier between Justin
and the Basilisk, or if you prefer, more like a filter. Visible ghost
have to have some apparent density for them to be visible. That is,
they must have some substance, even if it is a ghostly, ethereal,
ectoplasmic substance. So, looking at the Basilisk through Nearly
Headless Nick would have been like seeing it through dense smoke. Some
eye-to-eye contact would have occurred but it would have been mostly
obscured. This would prevent Justin from getting the full impact of
the deadly look. Nick would have absorbed most of it like a filter,
thus saving Justin.

Colin/Camera - If the camera is one of several types where you do not
see the image you are going to shoot directly, but the reflection of
that image through mirrors and/or prisms, and lenses, then the matter
is settled. You are not looking directly at the Basilisk, so you don't
get the full impact. 

If it is a simple box camera where you look straight through a series
of lenses that mostly distort the size of the image, the matter gets
more complex. 

So, let's look closer. 

First, when you look through a camera like this, it's blocking your
face; no one can see or see into your eyes. Second, it's like looking
through the wrong end of a telescope or the wrong end of binoculars;
everything is reduced in size.

Because the image was reduced in sized, it would have been harder for
Colin to look into the Basilisk's eyes. Certainly, he could have seen
where the Basilisk's eyes were, and even safe to say, he could not
only detect the location, but actually see the eyes. But when they
were as tiny as the camrea mades them, he would have had difficultly
gazing deep into the Basilisks eyes. And again, I point out that the
Basilisk would have been unable to look into Colin's eyes because the
camera would have been blocking them. So, we lack any real eye-to-eye
contact. Therefore, Colin is only pertrified.

Myrtle/Glasses - There is a big difference between looking through a
piece of glass and looking at the reflection in a piece of glass. Any
reflection is not the object itself. You are not seeing a Basilisk,
you are seeing a visual duplication of the image of the object. So a
reflection in a mirror or window would not produce the same effect as
a direct look. 

Looking through glass is completely different; through glass, you are
looking directly into they eyes of the Basilisk, and while some amount
of the original image will be absorbed by even the best glass, that
amount is insignificant. Until the quality of glass becomes so bad
that it actually obscures the Basilisk, you are still making
eye-to-eye contact. So, you die because, glass or no glass, you are
still looking directly into the eyes of a Basilisk. Bang... you're dead.

That seem reasonable to me.

bboy_mn