Do you agree? (Harry as Horcrux)

Geoff Bannister gbannister10 at tiscali.co.uk
Thu Jan 18 21:26:20 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 163919

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Mike" <mcrudele78 at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups/message/163780, "Geoff Bannister" wrote:
> > However, if a person is made into a Horcrux, where does the soul 
> > piece reside? Indeed, what form does a soul fragment take? Where 
> > does our own soul reside for that matter? Can we see it, touch it? 
> 
> Mike:
> I'll try this while leaving out religious references. Realizing that 
> many think of the soul in the context of their religion and that JKR 
> being a Christian probably does also, this may not work, but here 
> goes anyway. I see the soul as an ethereal, non-physical essence. 
> Unlike an organ, like the heart, the soul does not occupy any 
> physical location. It resides everywhere and nowhere within the 
> physical body of the person. So, no Geoff, you can't see it or touch 
> it, imo. But you are always in contact with it. With me so far?

Geoff:
Don't leave out the religious references becasue it holds good there. 
Speaking as a Christian, I can quite visualise my soul as you describe 
it because it is an ethereal non-corporeal link to God. 

Mike:
> As hard as it is to envision a non-physical soul, I imagine it must 
> be twice as hard to write about it in a way that conveys your 
> meaning. For this reason, imo, JKR chose to treat the manipulation of 
> the soul as if it was an organ while still not giving it any physical 
> presence. So she speaks of "splitting", "tearing", and "ripping" the 
> soul as if it were a heart, but still doesn't envision the the end 
> result as having any physical components, only a split essence.
> 
> This would mean that a Horcrux is holding an essence that resides 
> everywhere and nowhere within the object. The Horcrux encasing spell 
> must create a portal through which the soul piece enters the object 
> then closes like one of Captain Kirk's doors after the soul piece 
> passes to within. When Harry stabbed the diary he created his own 
> portal. It is written so we can envision it physically, we can 
> picture the diary with a hole in it. But I suspect that it was the 
> magical quality of the Basilisk fang that *magically* created the 
> portal by which the soul piece escapes it's confines.
> 
> You see where I'm going here? Harry has a physical representation of 
> a magical portal on his forehead. JKR had to "mark" Harry to simplify 
> the concept for her target audience. We can see the mark so we 
> understand that Voldemort "mark[ed] him as his equal". But the soul 
> piece doesn't *reside* in any particular location. It isn't in the 
> scar, it *got in* through the scar when it was still a cut.

Geoff:
In my reply, I was commenting on the view expressed by some 
contributors that the scar WAS a Horcrux, not merely a portal. 
This would have implied that the encased soul fragment was 
being held close to Harry's head, hence my concern about a potential 
threat to his health.

I rather see the soul in this context as being rather like a volume of 
gas contained in a closed container. If some is removed, the amount 
of gas present is less but expands to fill the volume available.

Geoff
Still believing that Harry is really a Noncrux.





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