[HPforGrownups] IHHS, the I Hate Horcruxes Society (was Re: Harry Horcrux redux)

[Kemper]

No: HPFGUIDX 155133

On 7/9/06, lupinlore <rdoliver30 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> <SNIP>
> > > Carol, wishing she'd never heard of Horcruxes
> >
> > Neri:
> > I think we've finally reached the bottom of it. You simply don't
> > like Horcruxes. The truth is that I don't like them much either.
> > But it seems that JKR does, and this is what counts.
>
> Count me in on the "don't like the whole horcrux angle" crowd. First
> of all, for those of us that have a D&D background the whole thing is
> wearily familiar. In fact, when I first read it my thought
> was, "Okay, so Voldy's a lich with six phylacteries, check. I wonder
> what used comic book shop she found the D&D module in."
>
> (For non-D&D people, a lich is a very powerful and evil wizard who
> insures immortality by storing his soul, or a part thereof, in an
> object called a phylactery. He thus becomes a very dangerous kind of
> undead and essentially unkillable unless you can get your hands on the
> object he's stored his soul in. But you have to be careful, because
> those pesky evil wizard souls have a way of invading people's minds
> and taking up residence. Sound familiar? :-))
>
> ... snip ...
>
> The ordinariness of it is what I think has lots of people annoyed. We
> had strong hints and speculations of strange and original themes with
> strong spiritual overtones. Instead, it seems most of defeating
> Voldemort will be purely mechanical - find the Maguffin and destroy
> it, basically a video game in written form.
>
> ... snip ...
> Thus, I think a lot of people, people who otherwise come at the
> Potterverse from VERY different angles, all end up standing shoulder
> to shoulder, looking at the horcrux plotline, and as one scratch their
> heads and say "Okay, that's nice, but really JKR, nobody cares. Maybe
> if you had started all this oh, two books ago at least. But right
> now, there are more interesting and important things for Harry to do
> than chasing around all over God's Good Greenness looking for
> Ravenclaw Cups, big snakes, and Lord only knows what else."
>
> 

Kemper now:
Are you saying that JKR steals?  Because the idea of hiding the soul has
been around well before the D&D geekdom.  There's a Russian fairy tale that
depicts a magician (evil, obviously) who separated his soul from his body
and hid it in an object; his nickname was The Deathless.  Maybe Alla can
expound further.

My brother guessed that Voldie was doing the same prior to HBP, but what
made his read more refreshing was that JKR had Voldie split his soul,
separated those pieces, and hid them in various objects.

If that sounds uncreative, then I want to be as uncreative as JKR.

Neil Gaiman, another of my favorite authors has used the soul-in-an-object
device.  Similarly, he put his style on it as JKR does to hers, both to
great effect.  It's not stealing an idea, it's enhancing on an idea.

Also... SPoiler alert for Pirates of Carribean: Dead Man's Chest"
.
.
.
.
I think Pirates use the same device, though a bit differently


Kemper, who rather join the HINAHS (Harry is not a Horcrux Society).


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