Slack for RL / Fawkes / Snape = Snake?

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 34218

I'm with the crowd that wants to give Remus some slack.  (An acronym! 
 We need an acronym!) 

Several people here have talked about Remus going around in his youth, 
terrifying people while in wolf form.  We don't know that he ever did 
any such thing.  All he talks about is "near misses" -- it's not clear 
that any of these misses involved terrifying anyone.  Maybe Remus 
sometimes got away from Sirius and James while roaming around, and the 
"near miss" was that it tok a few minutes for them to catch up with 
him.  Perhaps the near misses included times when a group of humans 
headed in their direction, and Sirius and James only just got Remus 
away in time.  There's no evidence that anyone outside the group saw 
Remus in wolf form. Even if someone saw Remus, unless he 
attacked them, they'd probably just think he was a real wolf, since 
the differences between werewolves and real wolves are subtle.  I 
think it's pretty clear that Remus never actually attacked anyone; he 
mentions the risk of biting someone, but no actual bites.  So, quite 
possibly no one ever saw him and knew that he was a werewolf. 

Cindysphynx wrote:
> Remus' main sin was in not showing maturity beyond his years by 
> refusing to accompany his friends on their adventures.  I can 
> forgive that.

I agree completely.  Can't you just see Sirius (and maybe James) 
saying "Oh, come on, Remus, you can't expect us to spend all night in 
that boring Shack.  We've spent years learning how to become animagi 
for you!  Let's get out and run around!"  Given their personalities, 
I'd expect leaving the Shack to be Sirius' or James' idea, not Remus'. 


On to Fawkes:

In message #34196, Lucky_Kari suggested that if Guy Fawkes was a 
wizard, this would explain why Dumbledore's phoenix is named Fawkes. 
Actually, JKR may have named Fawkes after a character in another book. 
I've heard that there is a children's fantasy book, featuring a 
phoenix named Fawkes, and that JKR really likes this book.  
Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it. 


And, now from phoenixes to snakes:

Several people have said that Snape's name gets translated as "snake", 
or some particular kind of snake, in other languages.  I think that's 
an example of the pitfalls of translation.  Giving Snape a name that 
means snake ties him way too closely to Voldemort.  We're not even 
supposed to know he was Death Eater, until Book 4.  And, calling him 
snake interferes with his bat-like qualities; snakes are very 
different from bats.

In fact, the name "Snape" makes me think of snipe and snide, not 
snake. Snipe and snide could both refer to Snape's habit of insulting 
people.  For the benefit of our many non-native English speakers (who 
do a great job of writing in English, by the way!), let me define 
these terms. Snide means "sneering or derogatory in a sly way."  Snipe 
literally refers to shooting someone, but it also has the meaning of 
"to make sly critical remarks attacking a person or thing." Another 
word similar to snape, "snap", also can refer to insulting; to "snap" 
at someone is to make an angry comment at them.  And, while verifying 
these definitions, I noticed that my dictionary also lists "snip" as 
having the slang meaning of "an unpleasant person", although I've 
never heard it used that way.  

So, I see the name "Snape" as conveying an unpleasant, insulting, but 
not necessarily evil, person.  "Snake" would suggest a much more evil 
person. I wonder if other fans of Snape see the name "Snape" as 
implying someone who is basically good but has a nasty manner, while 
Snape-haters think of a snake?

-- Judy