Snape and the Edinburgh Festival

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 110985


Well, I picked a bad week to go on vacation.  All sorts of Harry 
Potter happenings occurred while I was at the "other" Magic 
Kingdom.  I've been fighting a losing battle to catch up on the 
posts.  I've skimmed some and skipped some, but I expected to see 
more from the Edinburgh Festival.  Here are two quotes that caught 
my eye.

Quotes from the Edinburgh Book Festival:

Also, will we see more of Snape?

You always see a lot of Snape, because he is a gift of a character. 
I hesitate to say that I love him. [Audience member: I do]. You do? 
This is a very worrying thing. Are you thinking about Alan Rickman 
or about Snape? [Laughter]. Isn't this life, though? I make this 
hero—Harry, obviously—and there he is on the screen, the
perfect 
Harry, because Dan is very much as I imagine Harry, but who does 
every girl under the age of 15 fall in love with? Tom Felton as 
Draco Malfoy. Girls, stop going for the bad guy. Go for a nice man 
in the first place. It took me 35 years to learn that, but I am 
giving you that nugget free, right now, at the beginning of your 
love lives.


Apart from Harry, Snape is my favourite character because he is so 
complex and I just love him. Can he see the Thestrals, and if so, 
why? Also, is he a pure blood wizard?
Snape's ancestry is hinted at. He was a Death Eater, so clearly
he 
is no Muggle born, because Muggle borns are not allowed to be Death 
Eaters, except in rare circumstances. You have some information 
about his ancestry there. He can see Thestrals, but in my 
imagination most of the older people at Hogwarts would be able to 
see them because, obviously, as you go through life you do lose 
people and understand what death is. But you must not forget that 
Snape was a Death Eater. He will have seen things that
 Why do
you 
love him? Why do people love Snape? I do not understand this. Again, 
it's bad boy syndrome, isn't it? It's very depressing.
[Laughter]. 
One of my best friends watched the film and she said, "You know 
who's really attractive?" I said, "Who?" She said,
"Lucius Malfoy!"

End of Quote


I suppose I should have snipped a little, but for the first post I 
thought I'd better leave everything in.

Where are all the Snape foes?  Where are all the Snape fans?  Twice 
in one interview JKR made a comment about not loving Snape.  If she 
keeps this up I might start to believe her!  What do the rest of you 
think?  Are we to take it that he's really a horrible man who is 
useful in the fight against LV...and nothing more?  

And she's answered fairly closely a question that came up a while 
ago, "How involved was he with the Death Eater activities?" 
Of 
course it could be argued that she says, "he'll have seen
things 
that
"

But what I found interesting was the clue about his being a pure 
blood.  I took her answer to mean that he isn't Muggle-born, but 
that one of his parents might be. (I'd vote for his mother.) Did 
anyone else read it that way?  It could just as easily mean that 
yes, he is pure blood.  But why not just say that?

BTW, didn't someone from this group attend this interview
(Laura?)  
Do I recall correctly that she asked the second question I've 
quoted?  

I also saw a report on Mugglenet from someone who attended the 
session.  That writer says she asked JKR a question about Ginny and 
was given an answer.  The answer, if this were genuine, would be 
significant to our devious minds.  But I hesitate to take one 
person's word.  Opinions?

Potioncat who thinks JKR lost a lot of credibility when she 
answered "You always see a lot of Snape
"   ;-)