Dark Magic

[cunning_spirit]

No: HPFGUIDX 114331


> >>cunning spirit -
> Please forgive me if this has been discussed before -- wading
> through over a hundred thousand posts is a bit daunting...BUT 
> has anyone here ever discussed just what constitutes Dark Magic?
 
> Kethryn <kethryn at w...> wrote:
> Dark Magic, to me so far as we have been shown, are magics that are 
> unforgivable or that severely distort or change (permanently) the 
> natural order of things (imperious - removes free will, crucio - 
> removes free will through agonizing pain, ak - kills you). <snip>


cunning spirit replies:

There is an interesting essay by J. Odell (Red Hen) here:
http://www.redhen-publications.com/HistoryofMagic.html
which basically posits that "dark magic" has nothing to do with intention, but how the forces behind magic are channeled.  I'm not sure I totally buy the argument. The author seems to be trying to make the magics that appear in the Potterverse conform with magic as it appears in earlier British folklore, particularly Celto-British Arthurian magics -- an honest mistake, given how frequently Merlin's name is invoked in the Potter books, but Rowling has clearly set up her own rules for how magic works. We just haven't seen them 
all yet.