Knowing it was Snape (was: What has Snape seen)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 119159


~Eloise:
> It just seems to me that JKR treats memories a bit oddly. 
> If she does it for the Pensieve, then I think it's quite possible 
> that she does so for the memories accessed in Occlumency. 
> 
> Although it's an attractive idea to compare those memories of 
> Snape's which Harry accesses with those of his which Snape 
> accesses, unfortunately I don't think we are in a position to 
> compare like with like. Remember that when we hear about the 
> memories that Snape accesses, we are hearing it from Harry's 
> perspective, they are memories welling up in his mind and we are 
> seeing them from his POV: they are narrated in the first person, as 
> it were. We don't know *how* Snape sees them, just that he does. 
> 
> Again, when we see Snape's memories, we are seeing them from 
> Harry's perspective and they *seem* to be told in the third person. 
> We don't know if that is Snape's experience of them; perhaps he 
> is "experiencing" sitting in his bedroom shooting flies, rather 
> than watching a figure doing it.
> 
> We are told that Legilimency is an imprecise art, that it is *not* 
> mind reading. Perhaps this third person viewpoint is one of its 
> limitations.


SSSusan:
These are excellent points, Eloise.  


Eloise:
> It could also be simply a literary device consequential to the fact 
> that the book being about Harry, we are familiar with Harry's 
> memories, but not with Snape's. JKR is dropping in the first really 
> concrete hints about Snape's early background and it would have 
> been awkward and taken a great more description than she probably 
> wanted to put in to describe the events from Snape's childhood in 
> such a way that we recognised them for what they were without 
> letting us see him in the action. If Harry had experienced the 
> adults fighting without seeing the small dark haired boy crying in 
> the corner, it could easily have been mistaken for one of his own 
> memories. Letting us see Snape in the memories allows the 
> information to be conveyed far more economically and therefore, I 
> think, more effectively. 


SSSusan:
Again, this makes sense.  It *is* an efficient way to tell a quick 
story & convey information to the reader.  The *only* red flag that's 
still going up for me is that uncomfortable sense that JKR likes to 
toy with us concerning what we think we *know*.  It'll probably all 
come out to be that these are flat-out memories of Snape's childhood 
and that the yelling man is his father.  But I still won't be 
surprised if she pulls a fast one on us, regarding at least one of 
them having a twist.

Siriusly Snapey Susan