OOP: Land of the Dead

[minetourjunkie]

No: HPFGUIDX 67284

Hello,

Well here's my first post having just joined the list.  I would have 
posted sooner but was trying to read all the messages first ... 
sadly, my eyes have blurred and I've given up.  So if this has been 
said before - especially before I joined - apologies all around.

I was facinated by several points being brought up today, but for 
this post, I'll focus on Death!  Firstly, digger's thoughts about 
Harry travelling to a Land of the Dead.

It reminded me of this interview with JKR in Entertainment Weekly 
from around the release of GoF, where the interviewer asked about 
Cedric's death and its parallels to Greek Mythology.  Specifically 
the Iliad and how the recovery Cedric's body is similar to Achilles 
and Patroclus.  Given this and a bevy of other examples of JKR's love 
of Greek/Roman myth (names of people, for starters, Minerva, Remus, 
etc.), I would think she's schooled in the whole issue of visits to 
the Land of the Dead (or Deadland ... as it were).  After all, one 
marker of a classical hero is such a visit - Herakles did it, so did 
Odysseus.  So, if JKR is trying to place Harry into some sort of epic 
tradition, a visit to the land of the dead would have a lot of 
historical precident.

Kirstini said:

>I don't think that Harry, if he manages to get into DeadLand (great 
>name. Do they have rides, do you think?) will manage to learn 
>anything there of use to
> him whatsoever. He's on a forward trajectory, and this sort of
> communion with lost family can bring him pleasure, and temporary
> solace, but I doubt it can give him extra knowledge. It's like the
> Mirror of Erised in this sort of respect. 

Digger replied:
> The point (ie my theory! post no  59498 ) of his going to DeadLand, 
> is not for solace or to regret the past, but to get vital info from 
> his parents, who were Unspeakables, about the different ways of 
> dying, and how to use Love Magic. 

I'm going to lean towards Digger's theory here.  If he does wind up 
going, I don't think that it will be a simple "live in the past, 
commune with the dead" sort of thing.  As I said, it is a heroic 
tradition to go visit the dead and the knowledge gained is always 
useful on the quest.  The ghosts of the dead do provide knowledge - 
but you don't get to pick who you visit.  Maybe he'll even wind up 
talking to other wizards entirely.  Having that veil floating around 
seems to point that an entrance does exist.  Of course, she may not 
use this at all - it's not like she's using classical mythology as a 
blueprint here.  But it would make it easier for me to justify Harry 
Potter as an epic to my former classical studies prof ... :)

And by the way, I'm sure a scholar somewhere has picked up on all 
this.  Anyone have a direction to some papers to point me in?

Cheers,
Sarah