Hyperbolic Chapter Titles; Was Re: Snape's worst memory

[feetmadeofclay]

No: HPFGUIDX 81316


feetmadeofclay" wrote:
> > 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. 

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "msbeadsley" <msbeadsley at y...> 
wrote:
> > Are we going to give the authorial voice, this same treatment 
over 
> > the whole series?
> 
> SANDY: Aren't we already? We have ESE!Lupin fans and Hero!Malfoy 
theories. 
> We even have ESE!Dumbledore, for Pete's sake. Why aren't chapter 
> titles grist for the mill if characterizations are? 

Golly: It is not different. When Rowling says something point blank 
about a character, like hair colour, I believe it.  Same is true 
about any point blank given information. 

> 
> Sandy: Didn't we (well, I did) spend four books hating Snape, only 
to find 
> in the fifth one that he had a hard childhood and was the victim of 
> bullies, 3/4th of whom are people we've been rooting for? 

Golly: You hate Snape less? I don't. He's still a 36 year old man 
who picked on an 11 year old because he had a grudge with said kid's 
father. 

He's still the same man who picks on Neville - what reason is that. 
We knew from the first that Snape had a reason (other than Harry 
himself) to hate Harry. We only wondered what it was. I can't say I 
was surprised by the Pensive revelation. I figured that it was 
pretty much a popular kid vs. the loser after POA. It had that 
flavour in POA. Realistically James was not likely to be an angel if 
Sirius was his friend. Harry wouldn't have been friends with a kid 
like Sirius - a boy who would think such a prank was an acceptable 
thing to do. Nor was it likely that Snape's dislike of Harry and 
James likely to be founded on nothing. 

Snape was a jerk and STILL IS. Nothing has changed. He's just now 
more sympathetic to some. But really he was that before. Many 
people loved Snape and figured he was a better person than Harry saw, 
given hints and evidence Rowling provided us with - like Snape saving 
Harry's life and DD trusting him. 


> SANDY: Petunia 
> turned out to be someone we need to approve of in at least a 
> rudimentary way for doing a distasteful (to her) but important (to 
us)
> duty. 

GOLLY: Well this is exactly what I always figured it was. I have a 
feeling there is a magical element to this sense of duty as well. 
Just as we are told saving someone's life produces a magical bond 
between the two. Details to be worked out later.

It doesn't make her any less nasty. No matter what she saw her duty 
as, she still treated Harry horribly. I doubt that was necessary. 
Most ordinary people, when they take in orphaned relatives are kind 
to them. 

> SANDY: Dudley almost gets demented and even that is written in such 
a 
> way that we are not disappointed when Harry saves him. (Are we?) 

GOLLY: Dudley's a jerk who beats up ten year old boys. What's new? 
We know Dementors can effect muggles and that muggles are not 
protected from magic. 

> SANDY Ron's pet rat of the first two books turns out in the third 
book to 
> be a former and future Voldemort flunky. The dangerous criminal 
> everyone is so terrified will catch and murder Harry in that same 
> book turns out to be Harry's most ardent protector. 

GOLLY: This is the most stock mystery plot, that there is. 

Sure I didn't expect Scabbers was an animageous, but this is hardly a 
denial that he was also Scabbers. Everything in this revelation is 
consistend with what we were told earlier. 


>SANDY: Yes, I 
> think we *are* going to give the authorial voice the same treatment 
> over the entire series; besides, what else have we obsessed fans 
got 
> to do for the next couple of years? Is nothing sacred? 

GOLLY: Nothing to do with being sacred. Merely with being somewhat 
logical about reading the text. I have no problem with wild 
theories. They are fun. 

But what is the likelihood that Hermione is really secretly in love 
with Draco and that together they will help the Dark Lord kill 
Harry? Probably would make a great fanfic.

Fun to speculate. But surely when someone objects to such a theory, 
they do so with good merit. 

The Authorial voice is always right - even when it doesn't give you 
the whole picture. The facts it gives you are true. Scabbers was a 
rat - undistinguished and long lived. Spells wouldn't work on it 
apparently. 

As I said before, if you are going to not believe it, everything has 
to be given equal treatment. Not just the desire for Snape to have 
worse memories than being panted. 


SANDY: With this many 
> people looting it for valuable artifacts, no. 

The key work is 'valuable'.

Golly