[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape is an honest nasty DISLOYAL person (who will betray Dumbledore)

[awc2]

No: HPFGUIDX 39323

On Saturday, June 1, 2002, at 07:22 PM, Irene Mikhlin wrote:

>> 1.  Snape.  Boy, that would be a shocker!
>
> But would it? I think lots of readers are not convinced
> he is on the right side at all. And the younger readers hate
> his guts, I would guess.

It might work two ways. In one way, it isn't a shocker at all. We've been set up and set up to mistrust Snape only to have him turn out to be doing something legitimate at the end. On the micro level, it would be consistent to lull the reader into assuming that Snape's actions--specifically malicious as they might be--are motivated by a 'goodness' that will be later revealed then pull that carpet out. On the other hand, if you zoom out further, it doesn't seem unreasonable that that's just too obvious. All the anti-Snape people would just shrug and say "see?" and that certainly isn't any fun. Any role Snape has in the ultimate downfall of any of our heroes would certainly be more elaborate than a "told you so" engendering sleight of plot. (At least, I hope so.)

-awc

P.S. This is my first post to the group; I hope I haven't made any missteps. Nice to finally talk to y'all.