[HPforGrownups] Re: Dark Magic

[Kethryn]

No: HPFGUIDX 114347


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.


Kethryn now - 

He/she makes some really good points but I am not sure that I buy that either, to tell you the truth.  But I do admit that the vast majority of my personal literature dealing with magic in any form (other than HP, of course) stems mostly from my D&D books, Mercedes Lackey, and the Forgotten Realms stuff.  So I think I tend to put on my D&D rules when dealing with magic in any form (that is why the end of PoA would bother me if I let it - according to the physical rules of spell casting, Harry would have been flat on his back for a couple of days, not hours, days after driving off that many dementors) but I also take a lot of it on faith...especially if I can fit the rules to the spell.

Ah, sorry, that was a sideways step.  Back to the other person's post.  I do see a lot of the folklore in her (JKRs) writing (and, to be honest, some Lucas as well - wizard's chess looks just like chess in Star Wars) but, if you look hard enough, you can see that stuff in darn near everything you read.  Well, except maybe for the USA Today.  As an english major, I can't begin to tell you how many times I have read flood stories, for example.  There are just so many ways to tell stories and there are some things that only make sense to the majority of people one way.  Like the rules of AI robots that Heinlein wrote...I bet those rules will be physically implemented into any AI robots we manage to create because it only makes sense to do it that way.

So, dragging myself back from the meandering train of thought, basically what I am saying is that I tend to view the magic from a D & D perspective and, playing with those rules, most of the spells themselves are not evil (there are, I admit, a few that are super duper nasty).  Using said spells (the nasty ones) can cause your DM to change your alignment to an evil variation but it is, again, all about choices.  The spell does not make the man evil, what he chooses to do with the spell does.

Kethryn - who hopes this post is clear...

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