Memories: Part I

Memory is a huge theme in the Potter series. From Neville Longbottom, whose dreadful memory we first learn about in Philosopher's Stone to the diary horcrux "memory" of Tom Riddle in Chamber of Secret's to the stored memories of Dumbledore, Snape, et al which we encounter in the pensieve, the very concept of memory is studied in detail. Since each book contains the elements of a mystery plot, there is always a point at which a character remembers something to help solve the mystery, or remembers a clue after the fact which explains an event. But I'm speaking of the aspects of the plot which deal directly with memory per se. I've compiled a short list: Harry's strange memories of the events of his infancy. Neville's Remembrall. The diary "memory". Lockhart getting his memory erased. Forgotten memories remembered in presence of the dementors. Happy memory needed for successful "Patronus" charm. Harry's stumbling into the pensieve memories. Ability to "see" another's memories via legilemency. Dumbledore and Harry's research using memories and Harry's retrieval of the memory which Slughorn attempted to hide. I particularly like the concept of the patronus charm. The patronus is kind of a juncture of past memory and future hope. The happy memory is something from the past. The word expecto means "I look forward to" and is used in the Nicene creed to express the hope of the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. This reminds me of something G. K. Chesterton said: "We all live in the past, because there is nothing else to live in. To live in the present is like proposing to sit on a pin. It is too minute, it is too slight a support, it is too uncomfortable a posture, and it is of necessity followed immediately by totally different experiences, analogous to those of jumping up with a yell. To live in the future is a contradiction in terms. The future is dead, in the perfectly definite sense that it is not alive." One of the reasons that Harry has trouble with the patronus charm is a lack of really good memories. It would seem that this deficit in a person would have a direct effect on the amount of hope a person could have as well. Later in book 5, Harry shows his patronus skill by creatively summoning a patronus without any real memory - he imagines Umbridge getting sacked! So it seems like pure imagination can do it, but you need hope. The plaintive thoughts in book 3 "I'm going to live with Sirius!" did not work in the presence of the despair-spreading dementors. As we can see in the tragicomic character of Gilderoy Lockhart in book 5, a man without any memories is a man without a past, i.e., a man with nowhere substantive in which to live and operate. The diary-horcrux is the opposite travesty, a memory without a man. "Lord Voldemort is my past, present and future," Riddle tells Harry in the chamber; luckily Harry's victory over Riddle and the basilisk prevent this statement from coming true via the embodiment of the horcrux soul fragment. Ghosts and pictures are also disembodied memories to a degree, they can pass along wisdom and can obey commands to communicate information, but otherwise are incapable of becoming involved very much in the present or developing as people. Even so, much is learned from the ghosts like Professor Binns, Sir Nick and Myrtle and pictures like Sir Cadogan and Phineas Nigellus. --Part II to follow.-- Note: Thanks for bearing with us through this (hopefully momentary) dry period for our blog. Merlin and I both are both dealing with some things which are demanding much of our attention involving a new baby (for me) and sickness in the family.