I think we’ve got Dumbledore to thank for this one, honestly.
CanonVoldemort went to every effort to kill Dumbledore, but it seems clear that RationalistVoldemort could have murdered him at leisure. He keeps Dumbledore around as a sort of Batman to his Joker. It puts the story where he taught him not to respond to hostage taking in perspective.
Despite his disdain, Voldemort has to recognize that Dumbledore’s madness is occasionally an advantage. Since he elects not to kill Dumbledore, he has to compensate for it. I’d argue that he actually enjoys it on some level.
Thus, while all logic has Voldemort dead long ago (for all the reasons Harry/Quirrel discuss) Dumbledore leaps to the conclusion that Voldemort is alive and behind everything. That is, he leaps to the correct conclusion, for no reason.
Similarly, given a belief in the existence of Voldemort somewhere in the world, any other wizard would be searching diligently and inventively. Dumbledore, by contrast, sets up a trap that couldn’t be more obvious if it was a box propped up by a stick. Quirrel openly mocks it earlier in the tale.
Its a trap that should never work, and yet, here we are, with Lord Volodemort entering the trap.
Harry is, to Voldemort’s mind, mostly just a subset of his own abilities. Not as smart, shackled by stupid teachings, not as magically powerful. If the creator of the defenses was some kind of RivalVoldemort there would be no need whatsoever for him to bring the potentially traitorous Harry, but the defenses were designed by Dumbledore, and will be just as stupidsmart as you’d expect.
The traps set up by faculty are more or less just foreplay. They are set up by the Snapes of the world, just weaker and dumber versions of Voldemort. But Dumbledore’s might be a whole other kettle of fish.
Perhaps, in order to reach the mirror you must pass a Dementor? Its a stretch to imagine him having a dementor in the school, but maybe its trapped somehow so it can’t kill students?
Maybe you have to persuade a phoenix to bring the mirror? Or casting the spell to get to it requires your life energy so that if you don’t have a phoenix giving you strength you’ll die in the process.
Perhaps its as simple as the magical equivalent of a rock that only Dumbledore is strong enough to life. Or it is just keyed to only open for Harry Potter, because Dumbledore irrationally believes that Harry will be the next Great Hero.
The edges of Voldemort’s abilities, those minor tricks and habits that Harry has that Voldemort hasn’t deigned to acquire yet, might be the key to Dumbledore’s final barrier. Its worth bringing Harry along for that.
Beyond that, I think there is a bit of Steerpike syndrome here. Voldemort is probably, on some level, lonely, and Harry/Tom is useful as a sop to this.
I don’t think Dumbledore does shit for no reason. I think he knows more than he can let on, so he acts on what he knows but doesn’t provide the real justification because it would compromise his sources and methods. He probably has extensive access to prophecies, which are the only way we know about that information can travel back more than 6 hours. Dumbledore has done some very long range things, like “your father’s rock”, and the hint to Lily about thestral blood. This is a guy who has access to many more relevant prophecies than we have seen. He at least has bugged Trelawney’s bedside, and he may have sorted out better access than that. Plus, by being someone who is very powerful and extensively engages with, interprets, and acts upon prophecy, he becomes a relevant actor that prophecies tend to come to. Dumbledore is an excellent tool for prophecy, and vice versa.
Spoilers for Chapter 108 should be in rot13 in the thread on Chapters 105–107. (At least, I think that’s the rule, and I support such a rule. For now, I am having the good sense to not scroll up.)
The Gormenghast books are more or less about a castle full of what I’d call anti-rationalists. They are entirely ruled by customs passed down from prehistory, and are generally incapable of change or improvement.
Enter Steerpike, villain of the piece and scullery boy. He is, I guess I ’d call it awake, and strives to improve his lot rather than being content with what his birth dooms him to. He is resisted at every turn by the denizen’s bloody minded traditionalism (Spoilers: at one point he murders the 90 year old Master of Rituals, hoping to take his place, only for his 70 year old apprentice to come creeping out of the Room of Abiding where he has been waiting for this moment his entire life.)
Steerpike ultimately descends into terrorism out of more or less pure frustration. There’s an incident where his evil works are discovered, but he feels relief more than anything else, since he no longer has to pretend to swallow their dogmas. I see shades of him in Voldemort’s expressed deep loathing of the ordinary folks. I think he’s delighted to have Harry to talk to, despite being his enemy.
Thanks. Gormenghast is one thing that I found in my Google search, but the description that I read of Steerpike didn’t highlight loneliness as a character trait.
I started reading the first book, but stopped about 20% of the way in (may have been less, it’s been a while since then), because I found it stupefyingly boring. Does that trilogy get any better later on ?
If you find it boring it’s probably not for you. I enjoy the language, the descriptions and so on. It’s the same as my recommendation for LOTR. I liked it a lot but I don’t think everyone should. I find both pleasant to read even when nothing is really happening in the story.
Oddly enough I really like LOTR as well as The Silmarillion… So maybe I should give this Gormenghast thing another shot, I don’t know.
I think the difference between LOTR/Simlarillion and Gormenghast is that Tolkien’s books contain well-crafted language and descriptions of scenery that are punctuated by moments of sheer epicoverload; whereas Gormenghast contains the former but not the latter.
But again, I haven’t made it that far into it, so I could be wrong.
I think we’ve got Dumbledore to thank for this one, honestly.
CanonVoldemort went to every effort to kill Dumbledore, but it seems clear that RationalistVoldemort could have murdered him at leisure. He keeps Dumbledore around as a sort of Batman to his Joker. It puts the story where he taught him not to respond to hostage taking in perspective.
Despite his disdain, Voldemort has to recognize that Dumbledore’s madness is occasionally an advantage. Since he elects not to kill Dumbledore, he has to compensate for it. I’d argue that he actually enjoys it on some level.
Thus, while all logic has Voldemort dead long ago (for all the reasons Harry/Quirrel discuss) Dumbledore leaps to the conclusion that Voldemort is alive and behind everything. That is, he leaps to the correct conclusion, for no reason.
Similarly, given a belief in the existence of Voldemort somewhere in the world, any other wizard would be searching diligently and inventively. Dumbledore, by contrast, sets up a trap that couldn’t be more obvious if it was a box propped up by a stick. Quirrel openly mocks it earlier in the tale.
Its a trap that should never work, and yet, here we are, with Lord Volodemort entering the trap.
Harry is, to Voldemort’s mind, mostly just a subset of his own abilities. Not as smart, shackled by stupid teachings, not as magically powerful. If the creator of the defenses was some kind of RivalVoldemort there would be no need whatsoever for him to bring the potentially traitorous Harry, but the defenses were designed by Dumbledore, and will be just as stupidsmart as you’d expect.
The traps set up by faculty are more or less just foreplay. They are set up by the Snapes of the world, just weaker and dumber versions of Voldemort. But Dumbledore’s might be a whole other kettle of fish.
Perhaps, in order to reach the mirror you must pass a Dementor? Its a stretch to imagine him having a dementor in the school, but maybe its trapped somehow so it can’t kill students?
Maybe you have to persuade a phoenix to bring the mirror? Or casting the spell to get to it requires your life energy so that if you don’t have a phoenix giving you strength you’ll die in the process.
Perhaps its as simple as the magical equivalent of a rock that only Dumbledore is strong enough to life. Or it is just keyed to only open for Harry Potter, because Dumbledore irrationally believes that Harry will be the next Great Hero.
The edges of Voldemort’s abilities, those minor tricks and habits that Harry has that Voldemort hasn’t deigned to acquire yet, might be the key to Dumbledore’s final barrier. Its worth bringing Harry along for that.
Beyond that, I think there is a bit of Steerpike syndrome here. Voldemort is probably, on some level, lonely, and Harry/Tom is useful as a sop to this.
I don’t think Dumbledore does shit for no reason. I think he knows more than he can let on, so he acts on what he knows but doesn’t provide the real justification because it would compromise his sources and methods. He probably has extensive access to prophecies, which are the only way we know about that information can travel back more than 6 hours. Dumbledore has done some very long range things, like “your father’s rock”, and the hint to Lily about thestral blood. This is a guy who has access to many more relevant prophecies than we have seen. He at least has bugged Trelawney’s bedside, and he may have sorted out better access than that. Plus, by being someone who is very powerful and extensively engages with, interprets, and acts upon prophecy, he becomes a relevant actor that prophecies tend to come to. Dumbledore is an excellent tool for prophecy, and vice versa.
Univat ernq 108, V srry fhcre cebhq bs guvf thrff.
Spoilers for Chapter 108 should be in rot13 in the thread on Chapters 105–107. (At least, I think that’s the rule, and I support such a rule. For now, I am having the good sense to not scroll up.)
Edit: Thanks!
Reference for Steerpike syndrome please?
The Gormenghast books are more or less about a castle full of what I’d call anti-rationalists. They are entirely ruled by customs passed down from prehistory, and are generally incapable of change or improvement.
Enter Steerpike, villain of the piece and scullery boy. He is, I guess I ’d call it awake, and strives to improve his lot rather than being content with what his birth dooms him to. He is resisted at every turn by the denizen’s bloody minded traditionalism (Spoilers: at one point he murders the 90 year old Master of Rituals, hoping to take his place, only for his 70 year old apprentice to come creeping out of the Room of Abiding where he has been waiting for this moment his entire life.)
Steerpike ultimately descends into terrorism out of more or less pure frustration. There’s an incident where his evil works are discovered, but he feels relief more than anything else, since he no longer has to pretend to swallow their dogmas. I see shades of him in Voldemort’s expressed deep loathing of the ordinary folks. I think he’s delighted to have Harry to talk to, despite being his enemy.
Thanks. Gormenghast is one thing that I found in my Google search, but the description that I read of Steerpike didn’t highlight loneliness as a character trait.
It’s a reference to the Gormenghast trilogy, of which one of the main characters is an isolated teenager named Steerpike.
I started reading the first book, but stopped about 20% of the way in (may have been less, it’s been a while since then), because I found it stupefyingly boring. Does that trilogy get any better later on ?
If you find it boring it’s probably not for you. I enjoy the language, the descriptions and so on. It’s the same as my recommendation for LOTR. I liked it a lot but I don’t think everyone should. I find both pleasant to read even when nothing is really happening in the story.
Oddly enough I really like LOTR as well as The Silmarillion… So maybe I should give this Gormenghast thing another shot, I don’t know.
I think the difference between LOTR/Simlarillion and Gormenghast is that Tolkien’s books contain well-crafted language and descriptions of scenery that are punctuated by moments of sheer epic overload; whereas Gormenghast contains the former but not the latter.
But again, I haven’t made it that far into it, so I could be wrong.