Skip to main content

Dr. Demento


So the Dementors are an evil creature from the Harry Potter universe. They're used as guards for the wizard prison Azkaban, where they feed off of the positive, happy, and energetic thoughts and feelings of the prisoners, eventually turning them insane.

Their most powerful weapon, however, is called the Dementor's Kiss, where they literally suck the soul out of a person. 

Harry describes the effect of even being around a Dementor as feeling like one would never be cheerful again. JK Rowling attributes the powers of her fictional Dementors with the very real effects of depression on a person, sucking the cheer and life right out of a person. What is left, then, is a terrible, muted existence - you breathe and exist, but are you alive?

Some people have this effect on others, trampling out their souls and stamping on the very spark of life that makes them who they are. Instead of providing love and nurturing, they tell you to "suck it up" and change who you are, abandoning your very soul in an effort to survive. They do not apologize for offenses, but make you feel like it's all your fault that things are the way they are. That you're being too sensitive, too weak and easily hurt, and that you're the one with the problem. 

Until you just stop caring out of complete need to protect that little bit of yourself that does actually remain. You learn not to kiss, because you never know when it will be a Dementor, trying to suck the soul out of you. And you become a rock. An island. Surrounded by that which feeds off of your positive emotion and energy, you close yourself in.

And in this, perhaps, the evil one gains victory.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ephesus

Paul got around. Ephesus is right on the Aegean Sea, on the coast of present-day Turkey. Yesterday he was in Galatia, which was much more towards the middle of Turkey. And when he actually wrote these letters, he was in Rome... So the man could travel. He probably walked. Today's item of interest comes from chapter one in Ephesians. Verses 18 and 19 are particularly interesting: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power This is not the first time Paul talks about an inheritance. In Galatians he talks about the inheritance that comes of being part of the Abrahamic Covenant. He notes that we are joint-heirs through and with Christ. In Ephesians, he uses the word "adoption" - that we are adopted as the Children of Jesus Chris...
7 comments
Read more

Engaged

Three Dog Night got it wrong.  One is not the loneliest number. They were more accurate when they said Two can be as bad as one.  I really wonder how people can survive Without being fully engaged. How they live through each day Without the intimacy I so very much crave... Maybe I am unusual in my desire  To have this intimacy, To want to feel that soul So close to my own Sharing light and warmth, Sharing love and passion, Sharing life. Alas! Alas! Alas! For when I do seek to share It is often only to be rebuffed Denied Or used up, Sucked dry, And left an empty husk.  I want SO MUCH to share And all I have is the cold, digital world Of typing out a blog.
12 comments
Read more

The Other Art

I'm not sure we appreciate photography as much as we do other art forms. Part of this comes from the reality that surrounds and permeates a photograph - it's very, very real, and the photographer strives for clarity and crispness in the representations. Perhaps this is why black and white images continue to be relevant - they strip away extraneous information (color) and leave us with something that is at once familiar and also non-existent - for nothing exists in black and white. Nothing. I also think that pictures are becoming too common-place... Everyone has a camera in their pocket, and while that's a very democratic thing (everyone can express themselves in a picture easily and readily, and can find an audience for these images, which are casually taken and casually viewed, and perhaps just as casually forgotten) I think that we embrace that casual attitude, and it spills over to all aspects of the media, making it impotent. So I read this article this morning: h...
Post a Comment
Read more