[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape's oily hair, depression, insomnia

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 37185

In my post on Snape's hair, I mentioned an old theory:

Eloise asked in reply:
> Can I ask this question again? PLEASE will someone explain to me about
> Dementors and hydrophobia?

You might already realize this, but this was something Cindy came up 
with, round about post #33862. I shall defer any further explanation to 
her.

Me again:
>    Maybe I'm being really boring here, but I've always felt that it lay
> squarely in the
> > realm of iconographic characterization and hence a) misdirection 
> leading us
> > (and Harry) to see him as villainous (i.e. sleazy people have greasy 
> hair);
> > and then b) exactly the way you'd depict someone who is, well I hate 
> to say
> > it but, clinically depressed, or if that's too strong, beset with 
> grief and

Eloise:
> I completely agree with (a). It is in addition, I feel, an example of 
> the
> very shorthand way JKR has of describing people. For each individual, 
> there
> is a small vocabulary of descriptive phrases or adjectives which get 
> trotted
> out, with minor variations, time and time again.
> <...>
> I'm sorry, but JKR is not the world's greatest at description, no
> matter what her other strengths. This was particularly brought home to 
> me the
> other day. We're now listening to Northern LIghts as our in-car book 
> and at
> one point Philip Pullman describes a smile with incredible complexity, 
> the
> sort of place where I'm sure JKR would have inserted something like, 
> 'an odd,
> twisted smile' and left it at that.

Tee hee. I agree with you there. I always have to wonder whether the 
stock description of Snape which is trotted out rather laboriously every 
book is trying to drum secret clues into our heads, or whether JKR just 
thinks her readers will somehow forget what Snape looks like from book 
to book. I tend to think it's the latter, I'm afraid.

> As to (b), I have some reservations. I certainly don't think he's 
> clinically
> depressed.

Well, I did hesitate to use that term for a reason. Let me explain. He's 
a literary character. To that extent, there is no sense in "diagnosing" 
his condition. He doesn't have a real psyche, real brain chemistry, etc. 
He's *really* a collection of symbols and characteristics. These 
include: black clothes, irritable disposition, rage triggered on account 
of certain hot spots, greasy hair *in his eyes all the time* and thus a 
little unkempt. So what I'm saying is this is JKR's shorthand for 
something, and apart from villain-misdirection, I think it's shorthand 
for something like a prolonged mourning, a failure to get over 
something, sort-of-but-not-quite like lots of other adults in the book. 
I agree it's not like depression IRL (and I've known my share), but I'd 
say for a literary character in a book designed to be accessible to both 
young and old, it's close enough for jazz.
Another thing about Snape is that he's <big, pretentious word warning> 
overdetermined. By which I mean JKR seems to be cramming a lot of 
symbolism and meaning into him at once. This sometimes winds up being at 
cross purposes and contradictory. Thus we sometimes get the image of 
someone energetic and in love with his craft, and other times someone so 
oppressed by his inner demons that he becomes completely derailed. 
Sometimes he seems disdainful about his appearance and sometimes (such 
as in the Celluloid Beast) he looks damned fine stylish. (I admit my 
appetite for black-wear might be excessive, but I'm not alone in this 
opinion.) And yes, sometimes it seems like whatever's eating him must 
have been the result of the last conflict with LV, and sometimes it 
seems, like his hair, to have always been with him since childhood. In 
that last case, I'd still say it qualifies as villain-misdirection, 
since Sirius' description of him occurred at a point in time when Snape 
was on the short list of suspects who might have put Harry's name in the 
goblet, and Sirius' description of him was probably not above being a 
little mean-spirited. But it's just impossible to imagine he had a happy 
childhood, isn't it? So it's probably a little of both. Mind you, I'm 
not criticizing JKR's complex depiction of him; it is after all what 
keeps us arguing about it *two years* after we've had any new material, 
and it makes him seem fairly three-dimensional.

However, here's one thing I've been itching to mention for awhile, even 
though it runs counter to my Snape-is-sort-of-symbolically-depressed 
argument. I'm hoping people will argue with me about this. Here it is:

Snape is not an insomniac. He does not *make a habit* of prowling the 
school late at night, if by late at night you mean after the time at 
which you would expect a grown man to go to bed. I've been combing the 
canon for an essay I'm writing and I can back this claim up. If anyone 
would like to dispute me on this I will post a very LOONy list of 
Snape-encounters with notes on the time of day. :-) If there *is* a 
professor who is afflicted with insomnia, that honor would have to go to 
McGonagall (maybe she's the real vampire! <*cough*>).

~~Porphyria, who, being a horrid Yank, always imagined that a British 
character who merely had yellow, uneven teeth was the UK equivalent of 
Donny Osmond. >:-D



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