Rowling and Philosophy

dimercury7 thorn360 at yahoo.com
Wed Mar 12 06:24:47 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 53626

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Caius Marcius" 
<coriolan_cmc at h...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "psychodudeneo" 
> <psychomaverick at h...> wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, dimercury7 <thorn360 at y...> 
> > wrote:
> > "There is soooo much to go in to, such as whether or not V is the 
> > ultimate evil in the world, or is he just a representation of the 
> > ultimate failings of mortals (ala Plato)..."
> > 
> > It's driven into our heads again and again that Voldemort isn't 
> > human.  First, we learn that he's probably not human because he 
> > survived the reflected AK. Then when he kills the Unicorn, we're 
> told 
> > that doing something like that causes one to lose humanity.  Even 
> > when restored to a body, Voldemort no longer looks human.  JK 
> really 
> > drives it into us.
> > 
> > With that in mind, I think it's unlikely that Voldemort is a 
> > representation of anything in mortal man, or how they would act.
> > 
> > "psychodudeneo"
> 
> 
> But Tom Riddle began as fully human - Being Lord Voldemort was a 
> gradual but conscious process of renouncing his humanity, getting 
in 
> touch with his inner Reptilian brain. So, yes, this is a 
> representation of what mortal men undergo when they renounce 
goodness 
> and avidly pursue the diabolic. 
> 
>    - CMC

... exactly my thought... Tom Riddle was human (or mortal to use 
Plato's term)... Plato (I can't remember exactly where at the moment) 
tells a story of a man who finds a ring that makes him invisible. 
Eventually, the ring corrupts him so much that he winds up seducing 
all these women and killing his king. The power is what corrupted him.

This is what I believe happened to Tom Riddle before he became the 
evil dark lord. Riddle was a great (terrible but great) wizard. His 
avalibility to use power is what corrupted him. (see those old dead 
guys actually have some import on our lives now!)

Here's the obvious next question... There are alot of powerful GOOD 
wizards out there... why hasn't the power corrupted them? Since I 
can't remember for the life of me remember at the moment what Plato 
has to say, you'll have to bear with me and my own thoughts...

Power is a great and wonderful thing. However, differnt people use 
power in a different way, each according to your own desires. If one 
desires good, then the power you posses will help you become even 
more good. If your desires are not good, then the opposite will 
happen and you get Lord V... either way, however, the power you 
posses will affect you life. Take Crouch - he had the political power 
to do what he wanted. And although his intentions were good, his 
desires were to gain more power. This allowed the power to corrupt 
him and (to him) justified the killings of the Death Eaters... Did 
Dumbledor sanction the killings? I honestly can't remember at the 
moment, but I do not believe that he would have approved.

To get back to the topic at hand - V's desires are what allowed the 
power to corrupt him. He started off just as mortal as the rest of 
us, however, he desired more than what was good. Thus, over time, he 
became the evil snake-creature we see today.
              <dimercury7>






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