[the_old_crowd] Re: Of Hxs and parasites

[ewe2]

On 8/21/06, Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady at ...> wrote:
> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote
>   in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/4367>:
>
> << I think [Horcruxes}'ve been there all along, or at any rate since
> Book Two, when we learned that Sally left. The school survived when it
> should have died, but  in a weakened, fragmented state, unable to heal
> itself. || Sound familiar? >>
>

I don't think Harpsicruxes have anything to do with Salazar other than
that they are very old ideas that noone had thought (or dared) to try
for centuries. Tom seems to be a miner of old lore, methodically going
through every avenue of magic to see what was possible, what could be
adapted or updated. To me they are deliberately reminiscent of fairy
tales, to suggest that old magic had been lost, and the fairy tales
are dim memories (ala Tolkienian myth yet again).

> I really, really, really *like* Possession Theory (that there is one
> Dark Lord, either a memory+soul piece of Salazar or a parasite that
> came into the school on Salazar, which lurks in the Chamber of Secrets
> and seduces one exceptionally talented student every 50 to 150 years
> into being its host, so the host can use the parasite's strong magic
> powers but gradually has its mind/personality/self/soul eaten by the
> parasite) but I don't think it's true.
>
> Possession theory suggests that the wizarding culture wouldn't keep
> producing Dark Lords on its own, despite good discussion in past years
> of the cultural traits (e.g. great admiration for power regardless of
> what is done with that power) that produce Dark Lords. I think *human
> nature* keeps producing Dark Lords on its own, and I'm always a bit
> surprised that Kneasy, of all people, supports a theory which offers
> to let human nature off the hook.

I'll waddle to Kneasy's defence and point out that there are plenty of
self-evidently evil people in the Potterverse that are neither Dark
Lords nor wizards and none seem to require possession possibly because
they aren't obsessed with immortality to the exclusion of all else.

Given that, and the moral framework we've been threatened with,
perhaps the idea that evil stems from attempting to subvert human
limitations fits in very well with wizards who have more power than
they know what to do with and deciding they'll use it for their own
ends. Ironically wizards use just as many machines to achieve this as
Muggles do to achieve similar goals. But tools are dangerous things,
particularly when you come to so depend on them, you see them as an
end in themselves.

I'm dreadfully afraid that what we'll get is a lesson about How Our
Limitations Are Good For Us And Look Where It Got Those Wizards,
Praise God.

> It also suggests that Salazar was already evil when the school was
> founded or at least became evil due to the parasite before he left the
> school.  I *like* the idea that Salazar was already evil when the
> others invited him to help found the school, them thinking that he was
> less dangerous inside their team than outside it, but that contradicts
> the Sorting Hat's statement that Godric and Salazar were best friends
> before they quarrelled and the current conventional wisdom that
> Salazar's image is the victim of the winning side's propaganda.

Conveniently we know next to nothing. What did Sally do after he was
"cast out"? Did he, like Melkor, infect the very fabric of the Wizard
World so his influence could never be removed? Were his "results"
horrifying enough that all knowledge was suppressed and Tom has been
hunting that very knowledge? Given Tom's carelessness with his own
soul, I'd venture to suggest that souls are the key and Horseboxes are
merely one of many soul-related contraptions. The Hat is another, and
useful though it is, I would take care not to believe everything it
says. The moral lessons are fine, but after all it's just a school,
there are others; it's difficult to understand the apparent fervour of
the Founders unless something else very important was involved.

My theory? They came across something best left hidden and the school
is there to hide it. Salazar wanted to use it and when the others
refused to allow that, he left, but secretly prepared a way to
retrieve it, or more likely, prevent the others from controlling it
without his knowledge. Tom and DE's have been trying to control that
school from the beginning of the tale, and I always wondered why the
Headmaster's position is such a prize to Lucius, he's not in it for
vanity's sake, there's real power to be had. I'll wager Lucius thought
he could bypass old Tom in the hunt.

And the diary story is also odd. Why imprint a memory and then a
soul-piece? It seems clumsy not to do both at once or just one and the
intentions clash. One is to be picked up by an innocent and then
devour them, the other is to hide and be retrieved when desired, which
suggests Tom has a way of knowing where they are. In that sense the
diary could be a breadcrumb on a more important trail. And we know who
lives in gingerbread houses....

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