stopper death

[Matt]

No: HPFGUIDX 114321

To Beatnik:
There was a thread on this subject earlier this month, starting at
#111850 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/111850).
 I agreed with your read.

To Annemehr:
Yes, Muggles can "stopper death" in the same sense Snape means.  They
can also "bottle fame" and "brew glory" -- ask Jonas Salk, or Johnnie
Walker for that matter.  Snape is waxing poetic, but it's not about
the magical nature of what he does; it's about Power.  Potions will
get you noticed.  Potions will get you praised.  Potions will give you
the power of life and death.  

(And, correspondingly, I don't find it surprising that a certain
segment of the WW might find poisons just as fascinating as Muggles
do. I don't think Snape is offering to teach the first-years about
poisons any more than a chemistry teacher who drops a hint that "in my
advanced classes, we make cyanide.")

-- Matt



beatnik24601 wrote:
>> I've heard a lot of people referencing this quote from 
>> Snape (about wizards ability to 'brew fame, bottle glory, 
>> even stopper death" from PS/SS), and seeming to interpret 
>> it as meaning 'stopping death'. However, I always thought 
>> that Snape meant 'stopper' the bottle of death (i.e. put 
>> a cork in the flask which contains 'death'). In other 
>> words, he was talking about ability to brew poisons....

Annemehr replied:
> I completely agree with Beatnik24601 that the sense of 
> the words certainly seem to imply brewing up a flask of 
> something lethal.
> 
> The trouble with that, though, is that it's boring! Isn't 
> it? Ordinary Muggles are perfectly capable of mixing up 
> poisons, after all.