I Hate Snape...

[joywitch_m_curmudgeon]

No: HPFGUIDX 56313

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jenny_ravenclaw" 
<meboriqua at a...> wrote:
> "Keeps Snape away"?  Who says Snape wants to be DADA professor, 
> anyway?   [snip] I love how JKR can create a rumor within her own 
writing and convince 
> so many of us it is true.

So true.  JKR loves to play with us; to manipulate our beliefs and 
our feelings about the characters.  Some characters, anyway.  Look 
how well she fooled us with Sirius Black.

> 
> I still can't say Snape is the worst of the worst, though.  It's 
fine 
> and understandable to hate him, because he *is* an asshole.  Maybe 
he 
> should even be fired.  It doesn't mean, though, that he can't teach 
> what he knows effectively.  It just means he needs some mentoring.

I think that Snape is by far the most complex and mysterious 
character JKR has created.  He is full of contradictions.  On the one 
hand, he is a terrible teacher, in that he is sadistic and mean and 
unfair to the students.  OTOH, as Jenny points out, he does teach 
effectively.  Somewhere JKR talks about Snape's ability to hold a 
classes' attention -- the teachers on this list can attest that that 
is no small skill.  And the students are certainly learning to make 
potions.  We can't even define whether Snape is a good or a bad 
teacher, let alone a good or a bad person.  He is just so damn 
mysterious...even if I didn't like the HP books, I think I would have 
to continue reading them just to find out what his story is.

And why is he *so* loyal to Dumbledore?  If I don't find out his 
story soon, I may explode.  Is it June 21 yet?

> Hagrid needs a lot more than that, though, but there's no need to 
get 
> me started.

Jenny, you are a wonderful human being, a charming individual, and 
one of my most favorite people ever, but you are SO wrong about 
Hagrid.  Wrong wrong wrong.

--Joywitch, who hasn't posted on this list in awhile.  It feels good 
to be back.