DD letting Snape abuse students (Re: Harry learning from Snape)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 114556


phoenixgod2000 wrote:

> Sometimes I do not understand the lengths that people go to in 
> order to forgive Snape for his actions.  

Dungrollin:
It's because he's fictional.  We'd be far more circumspect about it 
if he might *really* hurt someone.  We're reading about him, not 
having to meet him - and as a reader one can be a bit more daring in 
one's reactions and sympathies towards characters than one can in 
real life.  We also recognise that we're only human, and damn - 
wouldn't these books be boring if all the characters were
perfect?  We try to forgive others' mistakes that we can imagine 
ourselves making.

So you're reading these books and you say 'Oh, that Sirius is 
*great*, I *like* him!' Then a couple of things about his 
recklessness come out, so you say 'well - I'm sure it comes from 
noble intentions'.  Or there are those attracted to the idea of a 
kind and wise old mentor, and so when *his* actions don't seem to be 
perfect they come up with reasons why he's in a difficult
position, and can't be expected to be flawless.  

Then, of course, there are a number of us that occasionally get 
exasperated with life.  With other people.  With politics, with 
television, with absurd fashions, with unworkable technology, with 
inane advertisments, with stroppy teenagers, with people who don't 
understand simple ideas conveyed in simple words...  

Occasionally we have bad days, you see.  And we become grumpy and 
sarcastic, and annoying.  But on *really* bad days we start to 
*revel* in it.  We wish that we didn't even bother having a good 
time when we weren't having a bad day.  We wish we could greet 
everything in life with sarcasm or indifference - good mood or bad 
mood is fine, it's all the jumping about between them that's a 
pain.  It'd be much easier just to become a sarcastic... cynical... 
bastards.  So we've kind of got some respect for Snape for having 
the guts to do what we would love to do - the difficulty for us is 
that we're capable of cheering up.  Snape isn't.

None of us would like Snape if we met him, we'd be treated with 
scorn and sarcasm from the second he opened his mouth. I'd hate to
meet Snape - because he wouldn't like me; he doesn't like anyone.

Dungrollin
By *we* I don't mean *all* Snape apologists, just some of us.