Thank you for the essay. I agree with it! (That's quite new for me when Tom Riddle's involved.)
Thanks especially for drawing a line between moral and pragmatic choice. That really is important - do you think that when Dumbledore talks about "it is our choices...abilities etc" he means just moral choices? I'm inclined to think that he does, since the message "do not kill people because it is not in your longterm best interests" is rather a shallow one and, while true, doesn't fit with the tone of the HP series. And yet making it a matter of moral choice doesn't make sense when, whatever JKR says in interviews, the text implies Riddle is incapable of making proper moral choices.
As you say, humans are ants to him. He is good at manipulation, but shows no sign of having the ability to empathise with anyone other than himself. No wonder he fears death: in his world, he is the only human being in existence.
I wrote my own rather flippant ramble on Riddle here: http://community.livejournal.com/hp_essays/117798.html
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Thanks especially for drawing a line between moral and pragmatic choice. That really is important - do you think that when Dumbledore talks about "it is our choices...abilities etc" he means just moral choices? I'm inclined to think that he does, since the message "do not kill people because it is not in your longterm best interests" is rather a shallow one and, while true, doesn't fit with the tone of the HP series. And yet making it a matter of moral choice doesn't make sense when, whatever JKR says in interviews, the text implies Riddle is incapable of making proper moral choices.
As you say, humans are ants to him. He is good at manipulation, but shows no sign of having the ability to empathise with anyone other than himself. No wonder he fears death: in his world, he is the only human being in existence.
I wrote my own rather flippant ramble on Riddle here: http://community.livejournal.com/hp_essays/117798.html