Harsh Morality - Combined answers

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 121097


Tonks wrote:
"Love is a repeated theme in the books starting from book 1. It was 
Harry's mother's love that saved him. DD repeatedly shows that love is
very important. It is in Harry's very skin and why LV can not touch
him without pain. JKR does not always hit us over the head with it,
because her writing is meant IMO to be subliminal in some of its
teaching. The ancient magic has to do with Love as well, I think we
are not told it directly... but indirectly... in many small ways."

Del replies:
Well, I guess JKR's writing has been too subliminal for me, because I
fail to see, say, Harry's amazing love, or DD's amzing love. The only
amazing love I ever saw is Lily's love. So much so that Lily's love
looks to me like a light in the darkness, the light of love in an
ocean of mean feelings. I mean, people in the Potterverse do love each
other, but this love is so, well, normal, never nothing exceptional,
that I really don't see that Love is such a big thing in the HP books.
Lily's love, yes, but that's it. The only other person I associate
with strong love is Molly, because of the way she tries to give Harry
some maternal love, and because of her breakdown when dealing with her
Boggart. But none of the other characters strike me as exceptionally
loving, or as putting any particular emphasis on Love.

Tonks wrote: 
"That is quite a leap from someone never loving another person to
saying that they are therefore born evil. I don't follow that logic at
all."

Del replies:
Actually, there was an additional step in my reasoning : the concept
that "not loving" is "being evil". I'm not the one who introduced that
concept by the way, but I don't remember who did. Considering that
additional step, it logically follows in my mind that someone who
never loved was always evil.

Tonks wrote:
" From a Christian perspective which we know JKR is, God created human
beings and in so doing, He created them as good."

Del replies:
Careful, not all Christians believe that. Some actually believe that
humans are born evil but can be redeemed through Christ. I'm
personally on a middle ground where I believe that people are born
(not God-created) in different stages of goodness and evilness.

Tonks wrote:
" It is the teaching of the church and I believe JKR point as well
that it is our choices that determine what we become.  "

Del replies:
She has DD say that our choices *show* who we are, which is immensely
different. From such a perspective, making an evil choice doesn't make
someone evil, it *reveals* that this person is evil. Hence someone who
supposedly systematically made evil choices like LV, revealed through
those choices that he *was* evil to start with. Tom Riddle didn't
become evil through evil choices, he *showed* that he was evil through
his evil choices. Enormous difference.

Tonks wrote:
"SO here is the logic here: born good,  free will to choose ones own 
course, fully understanding the choice and choosing to do what is 
unloving and against the law (ancient magic) of Love = evil.  The evil
did not come first. Good came first, was corrupted by free choice, and
not just one choice, but a series of choices, knowingly (this is an
important point) making the choice time and again, without
repentance... Tom Riddle became Lord Voldemort bit by bit over time...
through a series of conscious deliberate choices."

Del replies:
I cannot believe that a little boy could :
1. understand the law of Love
2. deliberately choose not to love
3. know the consequences of such a decision beforehand
which is what Tom Riddle would have had to do in order to *never* love.

On the other hand, if we apply DD's statement that our choices show
who we are, then Tom's "choice" of not loving showed that he was
always evil, even as a very young boy.

The only thing that doesn't square with this theory is JKR's statement
that nobody is born evil. However, this is a statement of personal
belief, of belief *outside* the books, that doesn't necessarily
reflect the morality she used in her books.

Del