CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 27, The Centaur and the Sneak

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 114006

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> wrote:
> Petra Pan:
> > Instead of wasting time on "trivial 
> > hurts, tiny human accidents" that are 
> > "of no more significance than the 
> > scurryings of ants to the wide 
> > universe," Firenze talks of watching 
> > "the skies for the great tides of evil 
> > or change that are sometimes marked 
> > there" and of divining through the 
> > "burning of certain herbs and leaves, 
> > by the observation of fume and flame
."  
> 
> Jen: It occurred to me this might sum up Dumbledore's outlook on 
> life as well. Not the burning of herbs and leaves exactly, but he 
> does consult those mysterious silver instruments ;). It could 
> explain some of his omissions with Harry and his belief that growing 
> too close to Harry was the "flaw in his plan." 
> 
> In fact, along with the Phoenix imagery around him, I'd even say 
> this isn't Dumbledore's first and only lifetime. I don't know if JKR 
> wants to get into reincarnation exactly, but within the context of a 
> fantasy world Dumbledore could be a 'being' who spans lifetimes. 
> After living not only 150 years, but many thousands of years, it 
> would make sense that Dumbledore is somewhat removed from individual 
> suffering, just as the Centaurs are removed from "trivial hurts, 
> tiny human accidents." Dumbledore personifies "community over the 
> individual" as seen by the refuge he's created at Hogwarts and the 
> creation of the Order
> 

But wouldn't that make all his pronouncements about death hypocritical? If =
he reincarnates, 
how is it fair for him to tell Voldemort that death isn't the worst thing? =
Or telling Harry 
that "to the well regulated mind, death is but the next great adventure"? A=
nd more 
importantly, how will it reflect on JKR's message regarding life, death and=
 morality? 

I think (and in fact JKR has said as much in interviews) that in the Potter=
verse, death is 
irrevocable. Although I agree that the Phoenix is an important imagery, and=
 DD *is* a 
Phoenix (it's his Patronus), I understand it under a general Christian syst=
em of belief. So 
that the Phoenix represents Christian immortality, which is *true death* (t=
he Phoenix burns 
to ashes), and the faith in true resurrection coming after it. In a recent =
post, I pointed 
out the difference between the true life that is associated with true death=
 and represented 
by the Phoenix, and the false immortality associated with the snake.

DD represents the true and full acceptance of death, and this does agrees w=
ith what he has 
said. To me that means he must be fully human, fully mortal. It would cheap=
en him and the 
morality he stands for if it turns out he's immortal in some physical, eart=
hy way. Any 
immortatliy that is hinted at, is achieved (again, think Christianity) thro=
ugh and beyond 
true death.


Naama