Of love and LOLLIPOPS

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

Cap'n Tabouli wrote:

> As for the driving force of Lurv, like it or not, it *does* happen, 
>as well you anti-romantics know.  Eros is a powerful force.  People 
>make all manner of drastic decisions as a result of their sexual 
>relationships.  

Yes, all true, but I still don't want Snape to have been motivated by 
the Love, or Lurv, of a Woman, or the longing for such.  I think what 
I like least about it is a different twist of the Romantic Paradigm:  
the way it makes a woman the prize in a primitive battle between the 
chest-beating men.  Snape doesn't hate James because he was a popular 
guy whose personal characteristics rubbed Snape the wrong way, no 
sir, he hates him because He Got Snape's Woman.  As if men can't hate 
each other just fine without a Woman involved somehow.

Just as Lurv *is* a driving force, I fully concede that in real life, 
women *do* play the role of Grand Prize (even with agency intact), 
and men *do* ruin their lives and each others' vying for it.  I just 
don't find it a very interesting dynamic for fiction, unless explored 
in a lot more depth than "I loved her, she went with him, I'm going 
to hate him and his offspring forever."  My comfort is that Snape is 
a complex character and likely to remain so even if Lurv does figure 
into it.  He has all those delicious complications, like loyalty, 
guilt, and (my pet interpretation) a lot more in common with Harry 
than he would care to admit.

Amy
suspiciously on-topic