Snape's worst memory

[feetmadeofclay]

No: HPFGUIDX 81158

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "yahtzee55555" <Yahtzee63 at a...> 
wrote:
>But I still have trouble saying that it is his WORST 
> memory. The memory that causes you the most pain isn't 
> necessarily the same as the memory that you most want to keep 
> secret. 

Golly: But Rowling said it was.  She titled the chapter "Snape's 
Worst Memory". She could have entitled it "A very bad 
memory"; "Snape's Miserable Day", "Snape's Outburst"; "Dueling James" 
or a million other titles.  (I guess "Snape's Grudge" was already 
taken...)  Then we would be left to ponder why that memory was put in 
the Pensive. 

If Snape had said it there might be better claim for the idea that he 
is exaggerating - focusing unduly on an embarrassing rather than 
traumatic memory. But I can't take Rowling's titles for her chapters 
as hyperbole. Otherwise I would never be able to believe anything she 
tells us when she's speaking as the author. 

 Are we going to give the authorial voice, this same treatment over 
the whole series?

> >CLIO: How is that not
> > worse than his school rival embarassing him what 20 years ago?
> > 
> > That made me wonder why Snape didn't remove that. 

Golly:  Why should a grown man be embarrassed about crying as a young 
child, while he watched one parent abuse the other. He was uspset 
about his enviroment and the treatment of his mother. 

 Who wouldn't be? That is nothing to be embarrassed about. I don't 
see crying as weakness. Would you think it was still embarrassing if 
he was a girl and not a little boy? 

Golly