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PAA:
“(By the way I assume that when you wrote “the means to the end” you meant the opposite.)”
No, he used the words correctly. The “means” is murder, and the “end” is immortality (through the Horcrux). (“Means” is a way of accomplishing, as in “by any means,” and “end” is the accomplishment, as in, “to that end.”)
(I haven’t been reading the fancruft – I came in for the official study. When I saw you say you’d shlugged youself up, I went to take a look, and read up through Yekke2’s Horcrux post.)
yekke2:
“What was so evil about Horcruxes[…]?”
Have you forgotten that Horcruxes involve dividing/ripping/tearing
(or whatever words are used in the book) the soul?*
Besides, Dumbledore describes murder as the “ultimate evil” – it
is no stretch from there to saying that something created to depend on the ultimate evil is the “wickedest of magical inventions.”
(Also, perhaps the evil of the Horcrux is that it is not merely murder as a means, but murder as a means for life. The creator takes that which he values so highly as to kill for it from his victim. An extreme degree of selfishness must be present for this (not precisely) vampirism.)
Your Dumbledore quote seemed a major issue – I thought you had J.K. over a barrel with the “if it’s so evil to conquer death” question, but then this occurred to me – can’t “Was I better?” be interpreted not morally, but character-wise? He could simply be admitting being subject to the same fear as Voldemort was – but is then comforted either by the fact that he had not succumbed to it in the same way as Voldemort had, indicated by his morality not failing, or simply that he had not failed morally as did Voldemort.
So:
(a) It is personal weakness that lies behind the effort to avoid death.
Additional answer: As in Judaism, wizard “X?”ology could hold
that the purpose of life is not in this world but somewhere
one goes after death. Attempting to avoid death is, then, an attempt to frustrate the purpose of life itself. Note the ending of Book 1? (It’s been a long time.)
(b) Dumbledore had not been as weak, and/or failed morally as well. Why Harry was needed to give this answer is beyond me, but don’t many fans criticize the portrayal of Dumbledore towards
the end of the series?
(c) Horcruxes involve damaging the soul (and denying another,
in favor of oneself, that which one holds most dear).
*
So what? A question for another post.