(no subject)

[malsperanza]

Something else I liked: Harry goes into the Underworld, the Dept. of Mysteries, without having any clear idea ofwhat he is Seeking. He goes, in fact, seeking something that not he, but Voldemort wants. To me this suggests, at least a little, that Voldemort is or was once something other than pure evil--is, or was, himself a true Seeker. So the line between the Dark and the Seeker is a thin one, at least for Harry, who is on his way to being the greatest of all the wizards/heroes/seekers.

Of course, Harry, like Aeneas, is Seeking his dead father.

Harry hunts for the unknown Object of desire in the Underworld by following the message of his repeated dream (in the best vatic tradition). Someday I will write an essay on the theme of the Cabinet of Wonders in literature. Those cabinets of curiosities, magical archives, secret libraries, marvelous repositories of strange and arcane collections--well, the history of science and art is full of them, and the Dept. of Mysteries is a fine addition to the tradition. My favorite, though, remains this:

"Alice looked at the sides of the well [as she fell] and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE" but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it."

And:

"She came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted! Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head though the doorway; 'and even if my head would go through,' thought poor Alice, 'it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.' For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible."

And most of all:

"Alice...contented herself with turning round, looking at the shelves as she came to them. The shop seemed to be full of all manner of curious things--but the oddest part of it all was, that whenever she looked hard at any shelf, to make out exactly what it had on it, that particular shelf was always quite empty: though the others round it were crowded as full as they could hold. `Things flow about so here!' she said at last in a plaintive tone, after she had spent a minute or so in vainly pursuing a large bright thing, that looked sometimes like a doll and sometimes like a work-box, and was always in the shelf next above the one she was looking at. . 'And this one is the most provoking of all -- but I'll tell you what --' she added, as a sudden thought struck her. `I'll follow it up to the very top shelf of all. It'll puzzle it to go through the ceiling, I expect!' But even this plan failed: the `thing' went through the ceiling as quietly as possible, as if it were quite used to it. "

and a bit farther down the page:

"She bent over the side of the boat, with just the ends of her tangled hair dipping into the water -- while with bright eager eyes she caught at one bunch after another of the darling scented rushes.

'I only hope the boat wo'n't tipple over!' she said to herself. 'Oh, what a lovely one! Only I couldn't quite reach it.' And it certainly did seem a little provoking (`almost as if it happened on purpose,' she thought) that, though she managed to pick plenty of beautiful rushes as the boat glided by, there was always a more lovely one that she couldn't reach.

'The prettiest [rushes] are always further!' she said at last with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off, as, with flushed cheeks and dripping hair and hands, she scrambled back into her place, and began to arrange her new-found treasures. What mattered it to her just then that the rushes had begun to fade, and to lose all their scent and beauty, from the very moment that she picked them? Even real scented rushes, you know, last only a very little while -- and these, being dream-rushes, melted away almost like snow, as they lay in heaps at her feet ...

'Are there many crabs here?' said Alice. 'Crabs, and all sorts of things,' said the Sheep: 'plenty of choice, only make up your mind. Now, what do you want to buy?' 'To buy!' Alice echoed in a tone that was half astonished and half frightened -- for the oars, and the boat, and the river, had vanished all in a moment, and she was back again in the little dark shop. 'I should like to buy an egg, please,' she said timidly. [...] The Sheep took the money, and put it away in a box: then she said 'I never put things into people's hands -- that would never do -- you must get it for yourself.' And so saying, she went off to the other end of the shop, and set the egg upright on a shelf. 'I wonder why it wouldn't do?' thought Alice, as she groped her way among the tables and chairs, for the shop was very dark towards the end. 'The egg seems to get further away the more I walk towards it. Let me see, is this a chair? Why, it's got branches, I declare! How very odd to find trees growing here! And actually here's a little brook! Well, this is the very queerest shop I ever saw!' "

Brilliant book.