Death, Killing and Harry's Angst (WAS: A Simpler Scenario

[Lyn J. Mangiameli]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "nrenka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:
> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Lyn J. Mangiameli" 
> <kumayama at e...> wrote:
> 
> > Lyn:
> > So thus, the awfullness of the fate can only be with respect to some 
> > lost afterlife, which at least thus far JKR has (mercifully IMO) been 
> > rather vague and ambigous about.
> 
> There may be no pain and suffering per se, but there is the loss of 
> one's personness, which is often considered bad in many value systems.

Lyn now:
Yes, it does seem to be a loss of sense of self. Indeed, the loss of sense of self is explored 
by JKR with respect to Gilderoy Lockhart as well, though through a different and slightly 
less drastic (but thus far no more reversible) means. But, there is no evidence that it is a 
painful one, quite the contrary, it seems rather like a morphine induced coma. 

So, the "awful" consequences of having one's soul sucked seem to be primarily two: the 
premature loss of one's functional life , which is little different than death; the other is the 
loss of a soul to take forward into an afterlife. Now Rowling teases us that there may be 
something significant in an afterlife, but she doesn't really offer much to make it 
compellingly appealing, either. The ghosts weren't so sure it was all that desirable, LV is 
quite convinced it isn't (and for all his faults, he is well informed and well educated), and it 
strongly appears that the principals of this series have given up their lives for the benefit 
of what is happening in this world, rather than because they were looking forward to what 
an afterlife held for them. So, I don't think JKR has yet made her case about why having 
one's soul sucked is a fate worse than death. Not that I recommend the practice. 
> 
> But the afterlife...do you really think *nothing* is coming in that 
> category?  Dead never leave us, voices behind the veil, some religious 
> connotations that she won't talk about until after book 7?

Lyn now:
I'm not sure. I think it is likely, but not essential to a satisfying conclusion to the series. 
There are many plot components that appear likely to never be fleshed out, and these may  
not be as well. Frankly, to this point, JKR has shown nothing to make a wizard's afterlife 
seem appealing.


Now just to go off on another tangent. I'm wondering if Draco will be the one to off LV. It 
would provide such interesting symmetry to the scene of him standing before DD and not 
being able to raise his wand to kill. I'd find it quite satisfying to see Draco be before a 
similarly compromised LV, and this time do the deed. After all, "Never tickle a sleeping 
dragon" and perhaps Draco is going to come to believe LV has "tickled" him way too much. 

In a way, Draco owes DD a "soul debt" and it should be interesting to see if he ever 
recognizes this, and  pays it back.