RHYS: If you can have one item from the world of Harry Potter, what would it be and why?

JKR: Ummmm.... I think the Pensieve would be tempting. Very tempting. To be able to go back and relive moments and look at them from different angles would be wonderful, but quite frightening as well. The thing is, most of the magical objects in Harry Potter are double-edged in some way. There are very few objects that are straight -- that are completely benign. They all seem to have some sort of negative quality to them. So... it's how you use them.

In this sense, object that let you look back, whether fictional objects or real things, are truly double-edged and shouldn't be taken lightly, so to speak.

I think you are right with regard to journal writing. I have kept a journal off and on for most of my adult life...and it does operate like a pensieve. Sometimes I go back and re-read entries from many years ago and its almost like reading someone else's journal at times - sometimes that is the easiest way for me to find how much I've changed and in which ways. Some entries are also terribly hard to re-live, and others are just a breath of nostalgia. Sometimes even the distance between then and now seems terribly far and can consequently be joyful or sad.

Rowling's depictions and use of memory in the HP series also seem very connected to death...giving the memories that double-edged, bittersweet quality. I have the impression that in spite of the depth of detail in Rowling's fantasy world she still is almost using the HP series as others use their journals. I think she is working out her own philosophy of dealing with death in a sense. So memory becomes very key to her understanding of death, but it also seems to be a lure to obsession with loss. I believe she has made comments about her devastation over her mother's death and how she has had to battle with her memories and her desire for more time with her mother, even while knowing that it is impossible to have.

Many of the feelings that are drawn from memory and emotional responses to memories seem to take physical forms in Rowling's HP universe. For instance her Dementors are apparently a sort of personification of depression. Even the alzheimer subject can be seen to some extent in 'memory modification', in memory charms that alter the ability for the person to remember certain things. There is some sadness with the loss of memory and it also has a bit of a sinister quality to it in the sense that it can be a bit like lobotomy as well. But it seems more as though a pathway of connection is just blocked in her memory charms which is very similar to the way alzheimers opperates - except that it of course can be willfully done (which in a way is a bit like repressed memory).

I think it is significant that Rowling has Harry drop the Resurrection Stone in the forest when he is finally ready to confront death. It seems as though she is saying that bravery is really the ability to 'be' in the present and not to be dwelling in the 'autumn glow' of the past or in fantasies of the future. In a way DD's words about the Mirror of Erised seem like they could be seen as Rowling's attitude toward memory. He says: "this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible." This could apply to memories, dreams or fantasies. They can bring joy but can also bring madness.

In a sense, it seems that the 'recollections' of Lily, James, Sirius and Lupin in the forest could easily be defined by DD's statement. Although the mirror just shows the "deepest, most desperate desires of our hearts", memories are often that very thing, but of course they can also be much more. They can be nightmares of the past like DD's 'visions' in the cave, or they can be 'fears' that a boggart reflects. The boggart is also interesting in that it deals again with the interiority of thought, though this time with both real and/or imagined fear. It can be both memory and imagination.

It really seems that so many of the magical objects, creatures and spells embody psychological states and preoccupation with memory.

I have the impression that in spite of the depth of detail in Rowling's fantasy world she still is almost using the HP series as others use their journals. I think she is working out her own philosophy of dealing with death in a sense. So memory becomes very key to her understanding of death, but it also seems to be a lure to obsession with loss. I believe she has made comments about her devastation over her mother's death and how she has had to battle with her memories and her desire for more time with her mother, even while knowing that it is impossible to have.

I'm not saying she wrote it specifically with that in mind, I just think she definitely used it to express, like you stated, her feelings about death, the past, the future, life, love and loss. Almost every major theme in the Harry Potter books deals with a raw, human emotion or condition. That's why the theme of memory plays such an important, yet almost subtle role throughout the series. It is simply the longing for what was in the face of gaining knowledge - sometimes knowledge you don't necessarily want.

In another thread topic which asks the question of what we think the main, major theme, or message from the Harry Potter series is in its entirety, I stated that I think it is love.

I feel like Rowling's public "journal" asked the questions all of humanity has been asking since the beginning of time - and in some cases, such as when Harry achingly asks if it "hurts" to die - taking it further and imagining scenarios where those questions would be answerd - and as a result, Rowling came to the conclusion that despite all the "madness" in the world and the numerous questions that may never be answered, the only thing she is certain of, the only absolute, raw, truth that she knows is real - is love.