The Philospher's Stone (was: Harry's Protection (was Re: Questions))

[eloise_herisson]

No: HPFGUIDX 119487


Nadine:
> >Am I the only one to be bothered by the fact that Nicolas Flamel
> > (and his wife) postponed their deaths by six hundred years and 
> > nobody complains while it seems a terrible crime for Voldemort to 
> > have tried to achieve immortality ? He is an evil lord, a cruel 
> >assassin, an  outlaw, but why is his work on immortality so 
> >reprehensible ?


Kneasy:
>The Flamels - yes. I can't help  but feel that they're important 
>somehow.  We still haven't had confirmation that they're actually 
>dead. I did once suggest that DD was Nicholas Flamel's partner and 
>had much more to do with the Stone than being its guardian - he 
> might even have used it.
>But really I don't think that Voldy grasping for immortality is so 
>terrible  in itself -  it's just what he'd do with his life if he 
>was unkillable.



Eloise (chiming in late):
I hadn't thought about this until you two mentioned it, but yes, 
there are some interesting questions raised here about the 
Philosopher's Stone.

The search for the Philosopher's Stone was not the same as the search 
for the Holy Grail (another object thought to grant eternity) in that 
the Grail was/is an unique object, whereas the search for the 
Philosopher's Stone was the search for a *formula*.

This being the case and Flamel having found the formula, it doesn't 
seem to have been shared, it has remained a secret. At the very least 
it doesn't seem to be accessible to anyone else as we haven't heard 
of anyone else making use of it.

Likewise, there appears to have been only *one* Philosopher's stone 
in existence. Granted, Flamel only needed one for his personal use, 
but was he unable to repeat the experiment to make more? If the 
search for immortality is so universal (it certainly seems to have 
been in the days of the alchemists) then surely it was something to 
be shared?

If there were just one Philosopher's Stone and one wizard in command 
of its secret (plus possibly Dumbledore and any other partners he had 
previously) then surely both Flamel and the Stone itself should have 
been the target of every power-mad/immortality-seeking wizard for 
centuries. Surely the Stone would have had to have been kept closely 
guarded even before Voldemort needed it for his resurrection? So why 
the sudden move to Gringotts? Are we really to believe it wasn't in 
danger before?

In fact, why did Voldemort go through all those dangerous, 
disfiguring experiments in his own search for immortality when the 
answer, in the form of the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life 
was there all the time? Are we really to believe that Voldemort, pre 
his downfall wasn't powerful enough to have gained control of the 
Stone then? Did he really have to wait until he was himself powerless 
in order to try to win it? Something doesn't add up there.

There are two ways I can see to explain the anomaly. One is the 
boring one: the Philospher's Stone plays kind of a central role in 
PS/SS and if account were taken of all my objections, then there 
wouldn't really be a plot.

The other is that the kind of immortality being offered is different, 
though what that means, I'm not sure. Voldemort seems to be working 
towards making himself innately immortal, rather than dependent on an 
elixir but I can't explain why he couldn't make use of the one method 
whilst working for the other. 

But you ask an interesting question regarding why Voldemort is 
censured for his search for immortality whilst Flamel isn't. As 
suggested above, the search for immortality was a respectable 
scientific (viz, alchemical) pursuit for generations, even down to 
Isaac Newton. Flamel's apparent hogging of the secret is ethically 
troubling, especially as one suspects that Voldemort would be equally 
reluctant to share. Of course immortality for the human race as a 
whole would be disastrous; even if just the WW were given access to 
the secret and the Elixir, then overcrowding would no doubt ensue 
before too long, however just think of how many lives it might have 
saved. And if there are other reasons why immortality is deemed not 
so good a thing by the WW, then why did Flamel and his wife embrace 
it for so long? 

I suspect the answer is thematic. Flamel is presented to us as an 
example of deliberately (eventually) eschewing immortality even 
though he has it in his grasp, bolstering Dumbledore's view of death 
as the next great adventure (or was that Peter Pan? Something like 
that.) This contrasts with Voldemort and his desire for immortality 
beyond all else. I guess we're not meant to ask the more difficult 
questions.

~Eloise
(who always wondered - and don't answer this here - whether Indiana 
Jones' father became immortal after drinking from the Holy Grail.)