OOP: On Pensieves, childhoods, Sirius and Snape

Tue Jun 24 22:38:04 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 63244

*de-lurks*

I am trying to keep up with all the mail, but try as I
can, I am a few digests behind, so forgive me if it
has been discussed in the interim.

S

P

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 ON THE PENSIEVE
I found the whole Snape-MWPP bullying incident
fascinating. However, I was even more interested in
the nature of the Pensieve than in the
not-so-surprising revelation that James was no Saint.
(Children can be horribly cruel and I would shudder to
think of my offspring judging me on the basis of a few
minutes in my adolescence.)

What is the nature of the Pensieve? I do not think it
records unbiased reality, but only the reality as the
"rememberer" remembers it. There is no such thing as
objective reality in perception. We all percieve the
same situation differently. Pensieve would be the most
useful thing ever invented if it could recall past
events completely accurately. Instead, it collects
your *memory,* a notoriously unreliable and coloured
sense. In the case of Harry peeking into the Pensieve,
we get a double layer of distortion, because not only
is the scene of Snape's bullying is interpreted
through a prism of Snape's memory, but also through
Harry's sense of viewing it and attaching various
levels of importance to things in it (notice how he
fixates on James, much more so than Snape probably did
during that event years ago). 

 However, if all it does, is record a memory, than are
there boundaries? If Harry hypothetically decided to
wander around in the Pensieve world, would he hit a
blank wall (a la "Truman Show") outside certain
boundaries of Snape's immediate visuals, or does a
Pensieve contain a whole mini-world and he could walk
all the way to London? And how about Hary's hearing
what MWPP are saying which Snape was highly unlikely
to do? 

Here's my hypothesis: Pensieve amplifies the memory,
really, it feels in the blanks of the remembered world
(e.g. a person is unlikely to observe the ground under
their feet, or remember the texture of it, but it is
clearly there, and has to be there, for visual and
coherent representation). It feels them in however,
based on the "rememberer's" perception/knowledge of
the world: it picks a pattern of plausible behaviour,
so to speak (like a computer simulation). This would
explain the characature-like conversations of the
MWPP. This is how Snape imagines them, so that is how
they are in his memory. 

 ON BULLYING AND JAMES:
 And as to the event itself: this is how Snape
remembers it. Is it how it really was? We don't know.
All we know is this is how he percieved it. This fits
in with my above theory of filling in the blanks in
the pensieve world from the author's opinion of the
others' plausible behavior. Look at James' remark:
"Because he exists." Whether James really said it or
not, this is what his reason and behavior would seem
like to Snape: being picked on for no reason. Snape
remembers James as being utterly loathsome, and so he
*is* utterly loathsome in his memories (whether or not
he was such in fact).

Note: all this is not to argue against the fact that
MWPP at 15 were, as Sirius so aptly put it, "berks."
More to speculate on the nature of memories and
pensieves. 

 However, I would not be too quick to condemn James
whatever his behavior towards Snape really was. Not
only did he grow out of it, and into a man someone as
good as Lily apparently loved, who Sirius apparently
thought worthy of undying loyalty, and who was thought
of highly by many, many people, but he fought against
Voldie and died trying to protect his family. 

 Also, it seems as if he came from a pure-blood
background, yet, knowing his culture's prejudice
against werewolves, did not "dump" Lupin as a friend
when he found out but thought of ways to join him (the
same can be said for Sirius in relation to Lupin). He
took in Sirius when he had nowhere to go, and
apparently, his hatred of DA notwithstanding (the way
he reacts to Snape's use of the M-word), he looked
past it to realize that Sirius was different and made
friends with someone from the notoriously DA family of
Black.

 Did he treat Snape horibly in school? Most likely.
But
that is why I love JKR. Her characters are not 2D,
black-and-white. James grew up to be a wonderful man,
even when a boy he could apprently be thoughtful and
loyal, and yet he was a horrible bully to Snape at 15.
That does not make him an evil person, it makes him
real. 

 SIRIUS AND SNAPE
 And speaking of real people, OOTP made me think even
more of the stuff in common between Sirius and Snape.
Snape, as we see in the few flashes, had a pretty
miserable (possibly abusive) childhood. And Sirius? I
don't think his was much better. People keep talking
about Sirius being a "spoilt rich boy." Why? Rich,
certainly. But his home-life must have been truly
awful. Just reading about that house and the portrait
gave me the willies. The thought of having to live in
that house as a child, with the malevolent occupants
still alive, *as your family*, and the horrors in the
house functional...*shudder* Especially considering
that he was different from the Black mold. A person's
home life has to be pretty bad for them to run away,
especially if you consider that at that point he has
less than a year till his "manumission" anyways (only
one year at Hogwarts left). 

 So, what do we get with Sirius and Snape? We get two
flawed men who manage to overcome their DE
background/heritage, and join the good fight. That is
why I don't get the Sirius v. Snape debates. They both
inspire both pity and admiration from me. 

 SIRIUS AND DRACO
 And on overcoming heritage: in describing Sirius'
background, JKR dealt with one problem that plagues
Draco-redemptionists: the belief (that I agree with)
that coming from a dark family doesn't make you a DE.
That because your daddy likes to torture muggles,
doesn't mean you have to. In OOTP, JKR once again gave
us an example of choices, not inherent traits,
mattering. Sirius came from a Dark Wizard family, yet
he was utterly stalwart in his support of the right
side. Hogwarts is a place to make choices, to expose
people to different beliefs, and make them chose their
own path. Sirius and Draco come from similar
backgrounds. Sirius choses to fight DEs, Draco to join
them.

 In a way, Sirius is what Draco-redemptionists (and
certainly many fanfics) want Draco to be: a kid from a
Dark background who renounces his family values and
stands up for the right side. So JKR is not mired in
the traditional good is good and bad is bad position.
She just chose to demonstrate it with Sirius instead
of Draco.

 SIRIUS AND HARRY
 And on another Sirius note. I think Hermione is only
partially right when she says that Sirius is mentally
transforming Harry into James, because he is relieving
his youth. I think part of why he tries so hard to see
Harry as James Jr is because all the good things in
his life were associated with James. If you think
about it, with his home life horrible, being in
Azkaban and then on the run, the only good times in
his life were when he was at Hogwarts (with his best
buddy James), living with James' parents, and the few
years in between graduation and the Potters' death
when he had James and his young family. In a very sad
way, James, Lily and Baby Harry are the biggest good
things that ever happened to him. 

 OK, this is a tremendously long message, and I've
noticed I've rambled mainly about Sirius (he is (or
actually was *sob*) one of my favorite characters), so
I better stop.

 Marianna,
who cried so hard at Sirius' death that she scared the
plane passenger next to her.

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