Ministry and Dementors/Dark Magic

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 176726

> Alla:
> 
> But this is the heart of disagreement isn't it?. You see the 
> arbitrarity with the Dementors, because for you those other 
> punishments are worse and when you think of cruelest moments in 
the 
> series, you would not think only of the Dementors .
> 
> Isn't the point what JKR considers the cruelest moments in the 
series 
> and how **clear** she shows it?

Magpie:
She shows me that I'm supposed to think it's bad by having everybody 
say it's bad and talk about damage to souls as a bad thing. But 
obviously she didn't make me feel it because she made people do too 
many things that made me think "uh-oh, underlying corruption!" 
besides them.

To me the difference between how awful it would be to have your soul 
sucked by a monster or have somebody hex pimples across your face is 
like...well, both of them sound like something I'd expect to be held 
up as a cruel thing to do. I think it's absurd I should be 
constantly having to worry about that kind of distinction so that 
the latter can be something good. The books might be "concerned" 
with spiritual harm but to me showing it means showing the heroes at 
risk themselves, not showing them skipping off without feeling 
anything as long as they haven't done it using one of the 
specifically marked Spiritually Harming At All Times things that 
other people do. 

In the real world, even in religions, there's generally something 
more concrete going on if people fear for the state of their soul. I 
would think even stories where people sell their soul to the Devil 
are supposed to reflect real world temptations that everyone 
succumbs to. The Dementors for me therefore wind up just scary 
Gothic touches that don't stand out against other things. As I said, 
they're just yet another way that other people are worse than our 
heroes and yet another scary thing that Harry might face. Do I think 
the author clearly shows that they're supposed to be very awful, 
making all these other things just fine by comparison (if they were 
even bad to begin with?)--sure. But making clear what I'm supposed 
to get out of something doesn't mean she's convinced me she's said 
anything much of note about this subject. I wouldn't use this story 
as any sort of guide on how to avoid spiritual corruption or harm to 
my "soul" any more than I'd use it as a guide for choosing what's 
right over what's easy. 

-m