ChapDisc - DH 16, Godric's Hollow

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 182148

> Alla:
> 
> Well yes of course that IS the difference I agree, but my question is 
> whether you would understand the difference had you been not familiar 
> with the complete passage and where this passage comes from, based on 
> that one sentence only.
> 
> And of course I know that JKR wanted the allusion to be clear, it was 
> pretty clear to me even though I did not memorise the passage, but 
> remember reading it.
> 
> But for folks who never read the Bible and who never intend to the 
> allusion is lost, isn't it?

zgirnius:
I disagree (though, in a childhood during which I was baptised and 
confirmed as a Roman Catholic, I have probably seen or heard the 
passage a time or two). I did not recognize the line as from the New 
Testament when I first read the book, but I did know what it meant. The 
line is just one line, but where is it written? On a tombstone. I think 
that makes all the difference.

Unless one has a pretty dark and twisted sense of humor, one would not 
put a slogan about prolonging *this* life on the grave marker of the 
dear departed. Hence, the line must be expressing an idea that is still 
relevant - a hope or faith that the undeniable fact of the death of 
those buried beneath, is not final.

Also, in the Voldemort/Death Eater sense, why would the *last* enemy to 
be destroyed, be death? Surely if one lives on through application of 
the Dark Arts, one can go on making and destroying enemies indefinitely.

That's how I see it, anyway.