Unreliable narrator (Was: Snape's stalling)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 116991


> Carol responds:
> <snip> So the narrator, who is *not*
> Harry, *is* frequently unreliable. If he weren't, we would have known
> from the outset that Crouch!Moody was a villain in GoF and that Sirius
> was not really a captive in the MoM in OoP. JKR *needs* an unreliable
> narrator.
> 
> Our view of the other characters, and Snape in particular, *is*
> limited, and to some degree shaped and conditioned, by Harry's POV. We
> need to tread carefully, to watch actions as well as listen to words,
>  to distrust what Harry *knows* if it involves another character's
> feelings or motivations. 
> <snip>
> Given all this, as well as the complexity of the time sequence (and if
> I dare says so, JKR's lack of attention to details that her careful
> readers notice), we really don't have sufficient information to judge
> Snape's actions in OoP. I believe, based on the details that DD has
> chosen to give Harry and, more important, DD's continuing trust in
> Snape, that Snape did go into the forest and that he did communicate
> instantly with DD using whatever means the Order members use to
> communicate with each other. <snip>

Neri:

My problem with the Snape fans is that the "subversive reading" (is
this the term?) always seems to be in ONE direction. Somehow it is
always to make Snape look better than what the way he comes out in the
text, never worse. For example, in this post you first write that
Harry's negative estimation of Snape is because of his limited and
biased POV, and we need to distrust it. This is OK by me, but then you
go on to disregard a huge time hole in the plot (which Harry doesn't
notice!) as "JKR's lack of attention to details". Why? Because it
casts the suspicion on Snape? 

The time hole in the plot is indeed huge. Even "JKR's lack of
attention to details" can hardly hide it. According to quite detailed
descriptions, Harry, Hermione and Umbridge go out to the forest at
8:00 PM the latest (canon: dinner time, well before sunset), and this
is when Snape contacts the Order the first time. The breaking of the
Order members into the DoM was at 1:00AM the earliest, probably later
(depending on how much time you allocate to the battle before the
first light of dawn, which Harry sees from DD's office at 3:00AM).
This means that at least 5 hrs (but more likely 6) had passed between
Snape contacting the Order the first time and the Order members
entering the DoM. What happened during these hours? If everybody were
so quick to act as DD implies, why did it take them 5 hrs? I would
think that all the conspiracy theorists should pounce on this
suspicious hole and analyze it to death, but for some reason there are
no takers ;-). Is it just me, or is "subversive reading" really a code
name for "get Snape to be the hero any way possible"?

For detailed timeline and reasoning see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108037


Neri