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pedanterrific comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 8 - Less Wrong
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Er. That's not actually what I was referring to. (Although it could work... ideally you would make sure the information would be transmitted down through generations, and through multiple lines, to ensure redundancy... and it would need to be an oral tradition, as it couldn't be written down... and you would need to make sure every new Muggle was trustworthy before letting them in on the secret... anyone else thinking Freemasons?)
This is perhaps stretching the analogy a little too far, but... powerful wizardries can only be passed down that way because of the Edict; martial arts can theoretically be learned from books (or ghosts, or paintings) but it seems like it would be really hard.
Maybe it was a little too obscure? I feel like "non-wizard" is a really clumsy way to lump a Basilisk and a Muggle into one category, but it was all I could come up with.
Well, now I have to reread Quirrell's description of the monastery incident and see if it makes sense as an allegory for the Chamber of Secrets. I'll vote you up or down when I get back.
Okay, apparently it was too obscure. To clarify, my interpretation is that Tom Riddle went to that monastery, learned martial arts and how to (pretend to) lose, and once he was done, put on the glowing-red-eyes schtick and killed everybody (except his one friend) to prevent anyone else from learning what he had. He wasn't foolish to want that story spread by the one survivor - he wanted to be underestimated, to make people think he was murderously impatient when he was coldly calculating.
Rule Twelve is more general than just "kill Slytherin's Monster," it applies to all sources of power.
(The account is about halfway through Chapter 19, btw.)
OK, you were simultaneously describing, with the same text in that one paragraph, two different episodes in Tom Riddle's life. Now I get it!
Well, that was the idea, anyway.
It was a good idea! I just didn't get it.