Saw an interesting article from The Telegraph in the UK the other day wherein a scientist postulates that in about twenty years human beings could become immortal. This would come about through accelerating technology such as nanotechnology and a better understanding of how the human body works.
What do you think? In Harry Potter we discuss the desire of Voldemort to overcome and conquer death while the true master of death, Harry, realizes that death can’t be avoided. We’ve been discussing vampires this week on the site, and there is certainly undertones of human mortality and immortality going on in the vampire mythos.
Mull over the article and feel free to share your thoughts on the subject.
John Granger quotes a section of one of Melissa Anelli’s interviews with J.K. Rowling in which she talks about the veil and the afterlife:
But when they surround that veil [in Order of the Phoenix], I was trying to show that depending on their degree of skepticism or belief about what lay beyond – because Luna, of course, is [I believe this is meant to be ‘isn’t,’ but will check audio] a very skeptical character. Luna believes firmly in an afterlife. She’s very clear on that. And she feels them speaking or hears them speaking much more clearly than Harry does. This is the idea of faith. Harry thinks he can hear them; he’s drawn on. But Harry’s had a life that has been so imbued with death that he now has an uncharacteristically strong curiosity about the afterlife, especially for a boy of 15, as he is in Phoenix. Ron’s just scared, as I think Ron would be – he just knows this is something he doesn’t want to dabble with. Hermione, hyper-rational Hermione – ‘can’t hear anything, get away from the Veil.’ So if you walk through the veil, you’re dead.You’re dead. What you find on the other side, well, that’s the question.
If you’re inclined to think that what Rowling intended is the real meaning, then we’ve got some pretty clear evidence that she constructed her world with a real afterlife in mind. This would tend toward the interpretation (which I share) that at King’s Cross, Harry wasn’t having a conversation just with himself, and that his parents, Remus, and Sirius all really were called from the dead during the walk through the forest.
There will likely be a few more gems like that one in Anelli’s forthcoming book, Harry, A History, which can be pre-ordered.
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