The power LV knows not

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 94028

David wrote:
> > Like Melanie, I'm inclined myself to the view that Riddle did 
know 
> > love and decided, at some level, to reject it and, having 
rejected 
> > it, now cannot understand it.

Tip:
> I don't see real textual evidence for this.  Also, to reject 
> something, doesn't a person of LV's intelligence usually 
understand 
> it first?  What if it were useful to him?

That (textual evidence) is a fair comment - I was being fairly 
speculative in my approach.  My reasoning is essentially based on 
themes: that it is choices that make us what we are (or at least 
show what we are, which is what Dumbledore actually said); thus that 
some fairly mega choices were made by Riddle fairly early in his 
life; that one thing that crops up at key moments is love; thus that 
likely a major life-defining choice of Riddle's involved love in 
some way.  A secondary line of reasoning is that Harry is a sort of 
mirror of Voldemort - or Riddle at Harry's 'current' age - and that 
a key element of Harry is the love protection he has (interesting to 
note that combining these two lines of thinking implies that, even 
as a baby, Harry's co-operation in his protection may have been 
required, presumably some kind of inner acceptance and trust of his 
mother), and thus that Riddle's own relation to love is a key 
element for him.

But I agree, there is no direct support from Riddle or Voldemort's 
testimony about his early life.

As far as Voldemort's intelligence is concerned, that's an 
interesting issue in its own right.  I wasn't thinking of him 
rejecting abstract 'love' as a useless or unnecessary concept, 
rather of his moral development being formed by his responses to 
specific loving actions.  You are right about Dumbledore - he is 
distant in the one scene we see.

However, while no doubt Voldemort is very good at exams and, you 
know, maths and stuff, one must question the intelligence of someone 
who so systematically earns the hatred and fear of so many people, 
and sacrifices even the goodwill of his supporters (what do you 
suppose Wormtail, say, or Avery, might do if offered genuine 
security from punishment by their master?).  There is more to 
intelligence than calculation, or even legilimency.

> Ceck out my journal: http://www.livejornal.com/users/tipgardner

journal, not jornal

David