Potterversity Episode 56: The Murky Marshes of Memory - Part 2

The journey to the past continues as we delve deeper into the magic of memory in Harry Potter.

In the second part of our conversation with Louise Freeman, we continue discussing the ethics of Memory Charms and move on to the memories stored in wizarding portraits and Horcruxes. Magical portraits can carry some of the memories of their subjects, allowing viewers to converse with them after their deaths. New developments in artificial intelligence purport to offer something similar. How healthy is it to dwell on memories, for wizards or Muggles? Portraits, the Mirror of Erised, and the Resurrection Stone all offer glimpses of lost loved lones, which can be helpful to a certain extent but come with warnings about becoming too attached.

While portraits can be a safe and healthy expression of the transhumanist impulse to live on through an object, the creation of Horcruxes is a dark, dangerous, evil expression of that desire. The Tom Riddle who emerges from the diary refers to himself as a memory, indicating a connection between memory and the soul. The Dementor's Kiss presumably removes memories along with the soul, as Dumbledore says that Barty Crouch, Jr.'s testimony is lost, implying that his memories could not simply be retrieved and placed in a Pensieve.

Memory is such a key part of the series partly because there is such an emphasis on grief. Harry, who was too young when his parents died to remember them, gradually reconstructs memories of them through photographs, stories from those who knew them, the Mirror of Erised, the Pensieve, and the Resurrection Stone. The grieving process, and Harry's journey more broadly, necessitates exploring the past. Is it possible that even his conversation with Dumbledore in King's Cross is entirely constructed from memories?