The perils of immortality (Was: Harry's Protection)

[snow15145]

No: HPFGUIDX 119302






Carol snipped quite a bit:
I don't know how any of this fits with the power behind the locked
door, but I think there's a difference between the immortality
(eternal *earthly* life) symbolized by Voldemort's yew wand and the
eternal *spiritual* life or resurrection symbolized by Harry's holly
wand. Yew trees are planted by graveyards; holly is associated with
Christmas and the ancient Druid festival of Yule.

I'm not trying to turn HP into an overtly Christian allegory (as
indicated, there are Greek and Druid elements as well), but does
anyone see what I'm driving at, that the pursuit of immortality is
unwise and even possibly evil in itself and Voldemort is in a sense
dooming *himself* by his pursuit of it?

Snow:

I realize you don't want to go into another bout of whether or not 
JKR has written the story from a Christian point of view, and I don't 
relish the fact of butting heads with anyone on this specific topic 
either, but if the books have been written with a Christian overtone 
how can we possibly divert the topic? As you have questioned earthly 
vs. spiritual life given the symbolization between the metaphors of 
the wood the wands were made from, Christianity could very well be 
significant, as could any religious background that realizes good and 
evil. 


Wouldn't you agree that if this last question you asked is true, it 
would make it even more evident that immortality and its studies 
would need to be under protection from the greatest power that is 
known? What else could require more protection than time travel, than 
the answers to the planets and the stars, than the intelligence of 
superiority, than even death itself, for none of these are as 
protected as what lies within this locked room. What could be more 
powerful or deadly that it needs more protection than the 
aforementioned? Time travel can alter time to the point of 
destruction and yet it is not as protected as the force that lies 
within the locked room. What could be greater than all of these other 
forces?  

The force in the locked room could be immortality. If you were to 
live long enough, all answers would eventually become evident. The 
negative side to immortality is when it would fall into the hands of 
someone who could create such a disturbance, with the knowledge that 
they would acquire over time, that they would reach the enormous 
eventuality of the apocalypse. The supreme power that lies within the 
unprecedented knowledge of immortality should be protected by a power 
equal to or greater than its force. 

Snow