That "Love" thing

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 180380

Betsy Hp:
So I was reading through JKR's interview with Pottercast (and eating 
my popcorn *g*) when I hit on something that I think explains why the 
series failed so miserably for me.  I think I've said before that I 
felt like DH had no "there" there.  That it was missing a moral core 
or foundation and so the rest of the series collapsed like a 
particularly flimsy house of cards.  (Again, all of this being my 
opinion.)

I think this is what I was talking about:
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2008/1/2/pottercast-131-j-k-rowling-
interview-transcript
************
SU: Can you tell us what was in the Love room?

JKR: ...I think what's in the Love room, it's the place where they 
study what love means. So that room, I believe, would have at its 
center a kind of fountain or well containing a love potion, a very 
powerful love potion.
[...]
So you would see wizards and witches taking it, they would study the 
effects. The room of course has to be locked. And, you know, again, 
there's this thread running through the books, what love does, and it 
raises people to the heights of absolute heroism, (SU: It does.) as 
in Lily, Harry, Neville, and it also leads them into acts of 
foolishness and even evil, which is Bellatrix and also Dumbledore. He 
became foolish, he lost his center, his moral center, when he became 
infatuated. So that's what it does, that's what makes it dangerous.
***********

Betsy Hp:
To my mind, this is the most messed up definition of love, and the 
most messed up way to study love I've ever heard of.  Create a false 
illusion of obsession and lust and *that's* supposed to teach you 
about love?  THAT'S what's in the "love room"?!?

And this is what the "good side" is apparently built on: this idea of 
love as something possesive and weakening and dangerous.  To equate 
the lust of Bellatrix and Dumbledore with love...  To my mind it 
speaks to a basic misunderstanding of what love really is.  It 
explains why Snape was made pathetic and weak by his "love" for 
Lily.  It explains why we never see the Weasleys interact as a loving 
family would, supporting and building each other up rather than 
constantly sniping and pulling each other down.  Heck, I think it 
explains some of the weird vocabulary used to try and capture Lily's 
love for Harry when her ghost appears to encourage Harry to die.  It 
certainly explains the "chest monster" as the analogy of choice for 
Harry's big romance.

I'm not going to suggest that this is JKR's personal view of things, 
but I think this is what she's comfortable with writing.  And I think 
it goes a long way towards explaining why her "epitome of goodness" 
is such a cold-hearted bastard.  Love is a weakness and a danger, 
apparently. Of course her good guy avoids it if he can.

Betsy Hp

PS:  I have to mention this gem...

"JKR: No! God, it wasn't Pansy Parkinson! I loath that girl. (JN and 
SU laugh) I don't love Draco but I really dislike her. She's every 
girl who ever teased me at school, she's the anti-Hermione. I loathe 
her. Yes, sorry, sidetracked there by my latent bitterness
"

Hee!  No wonder I liked Pansy. :D

Betsy Hp