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

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 116322


Iris:
> 
> 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.

Finwitch:

Depends more on which level you are, I'd say. I'm not a native 
speaker either, but I don't need to use a dictionary anymore when 
reading a novel in English. Reading novels in English is a good way 
to learn the language, though. Although, there have been times when I 
read my Finnish-English-Finnish dictionary (Thought that sort would 
be boring enough to help me sleep at first - didn't work for that, I 
just got *excited* for all the new words, but I guess the habit 
helped me to learn a good vocabulary at least). As it is, I 
occasionally read English books about English language just for the 
fun of it...

Iris:
> 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). 
> Burning and drying out: that's precisely what an Alchemist has to 
do 
> with the Materia Prima of the Work in order to create the 
> Philosopher's Stone. In many treaties, it is said that the 
Alchemist 
> has to make the Materia Prima `suffer' to purify it and to improve 
> it. The alchemist uses the fire of his melting pot as an instrument 
> of torture. The Materia Prima suffers, but at the end of its long 
> agony, it becomes the Philosopher's Stone. 
> In other words, every time Harry's scar inflicts `a searing pain' 
on 
> him, the boy steps up to what he has to become: a human 
> Philosopher's Stone, i.e., the one with the power to vanquish the 
> Dark Lord and `heal' the wizarding world of his evil influence (I 
> wish him good luck). 
--- It's the old `what doesn't kill you makes you 
> stronger' story. Apparently, the Dark Lord doesn't know that 
> proverb. But he's not the only one

> As for the "Harry had never felt such intense pain before" 
> repetition, it could work the same: the use of `before' implies a 
> comparison, and implicitly an evolution.
> It could simply mark the evolution in the process, every 
> new `intense pain' being like a point of no return. 

Finwitch: 

I like this theory. Except that the Dark Lord is planning to *kill* 
Harry, rather than just make him suffer. What I see, is that each 'he 
had never felt such intense pain before' - well, as that *before* 
includes all previous times it happened, it makes it more intense 
each time.

Finwitch