Such a searing pain... (Re: Harry's experiences : what's missing ?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116958


Del wrote:
> "Physical pain ? Well, I don't know for you, but I'm getting tired 
> of being told 10 times in each book that "Harry had never felt such 
> intense pain before".
> 
To which SSSusan replied:
> "Hallelujah & amen, Del!! I know some people find JKR's (over)use of
> adverbs to be annoying. Well, I find her "searing" scar pain
> and "never felt such intense pain before" lines to get really old.
> There *has* to be a new way to express scar pain!"
> 
Iris added:
> Speaking of the `searing pain' expression

> It can sound odd, but there's at least one advantage when you are 
> not a native English speaker: you need to read the books with your 
> dictionary at hand. 
> As you did, I noticed the repetitive use of `searing pain', and 
> needed to check my dictionary, because I didn't know what `searing' 
> meant. That's how I learned it comes from `to sear', a very 
> interesting verb if you consider it is associated with the double 
> idea of burning and drying out (if I'm mistaken, please be kind 
> enough to correct me). 
<alchemical theory snipped>

Carol notes:
"Searing pain" is a cliche in English and I can see why SSS would be
tired of it. To me "searing pain" suggest what a branded animal would
feel as the red hot iron burnt through the hair and touched its flesh.
There was also the old and terrible process of preventing infection by
cauterizing a wound (applying a hot iron to it). That, I think, is the
mental image JKR is trying to conjure--Harry being branded on the
forehead in infancy and reliving that pain with ever greater intensity
each time his scar hurts.

I don't know whether this is relevant or not, but the Dark Marks are
*burned* into the skin of the Death Eaters (possibly with a morsmordre
curse), so they would quite literally have felt "searing pain" when
the marks were applied, and possibly again when the mark "calls" them
or when Voldemort fell. Possibly when Snape clutches his arm as
Crouch!Moody calls him a "Death Eater who walked free," he is feeling
a pain much like Harry's (a punishment, IMO, for his disloyalty to
Voldemort, and a common bond with Harry if they only knew it).

Just a thought.

Carol