Themes and theories

[naamagatus]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> 
> My own feeling is that the 'big themes' and the 'central mystery' 
> are the same thing.
> 
> My impression of JKR is that, despite the many elaborate 
> speculations that have arisen in fandom, she just doesn't do 
> complexity.  She also, IMO, mostly sucks at tight plot 
construction -
>  POA is the least bad, and even there Sirius' actions are hard to 
> construe.  I am strongly suspicious that Dumbledore's 'screw-ups', 
> for example, are really JKR's screw-ups - or rather, JKR's lack of 
> concern for consistency in a magical fantasy series.
> 

I couldn't agree more. The very diversity and complexity of the 
conspiracy theories here are an indication of the number and variety 
of the holes that beg to be plugged. Like you, I think they are 
simply that - holes (rather than clues). 


> However, I feel she has more grip on the themes, and that the 
> eventual revelation of the series will be a theme-related one, not 
a 
> plot-related one.  My best guess has been that Voldemort also has 
> mother-love protection, but his attempts to reject his father and 
> Muggle ancestry and to live forever have progressively undermined 
> that.  


I don't think that Tom Riddle had a love protection - as it would 
undermine the point of the efficacy of Love. For purposes of 
symmetry, I had suggested that his mother put on him a protection of 
hate - arising from her reciprocated hatred of his father. This would 
make Tom a child of hate vs. Harry the child of love. It's a bit too 
neat, though. Most likely, and it chimes better with the choice 
theme, is that Tom made himself into what he is, without external 
(magical) influence.

>The crucial clue, in this theory, is Dumbledore's assertion 
> that 'Voldemort doesn't understand love'.  Harry's mother love 
> protection is the inadvertent means by which Harry is marked (we 
> know AK leaves no scar of itself) by Voldemort as his equal.  
> Sirius' death advances the theme because while it seems that Lily's 
> protection involved a spell, Harry is able to cast Voldemort off by 
> direct appropriation of the love between him and Sirius - consider 
> the parallel with the Christian sloughing of Mosaic ritual.

Feeling dense here - I don't get the last bit about Mosaic ritual. 
Could you elaborate on that?



Naama