What's wrong with Mean!Snape ?

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 115281


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:

> Some of us might find it  entertaining to see Snape accepted for 
> what he is. Perhaps he doesn't deserve it, but tolerance seems 
> to be the theme here, not retribution. 
> 
> There's a useful analogy with Buckbeak. Like Snape, Buckbeak 
> makes no allowances for childhood and will savagely attack 
> anyone who offends him, regardless of the seriousness of the 
> offense. Not only that, to treat him courteously  violates a 
> common notion of propriety; he's a brute beast and surely 
> humans should not bow to beasts. But those who are willing to 
> accede to the demands of Buckbeak's nature will gain a useful 
> and powerful companion, while those who refuse are likely 
> to get their arms ripped half off.
> 
> Readers understand that because Buckbeak  couldn't behave 
> otherwise without becoming something other than a hippogriff, 
> punishment  would be useless and unjust.

It's an interesting analogy, Pippin, but it does has a major 
weakness, as I'm sure you know--mainly the difference between human 
and hippogriff.

One famous old definition (Harry Frankfurt's) of 'personhood' is the 
ability to have second-order desires; to have a desire about the 
desires that one has.  Easier to give an example: to have the wish to 
*want* to do good things for other people.  I don't think Buckbeak is 
capable of that, while I do think Snape is.

I think tolerance is an important issue, and I think there *are* 
lessons to be learned about allowing Snape to be himself.  On the 
other hand, I think there is a reciprocal issue--Snape learning that 
he shouldn't always treat people as he does.  I keep coming back to 
problems of liberalism, but 'you gotta get along to go along' is one 
of them.

I'm unresolved on the issue of whether Snape is capable of change.  
Feeling somewhat optimistic, I would like to hope that he is.  But 
I'm almost tempted to sit down and try to construct out an IF/THEN 
flowchart of all the possibilities of motivations and outcomes that 
we've all argued about over the years, because some of them are 
mutually contradictory--and if we try to accept all of them, we get 
PreposterouslyCompetent!Snape.  That is to say, Snape who is very 
deeply damaged and cannot help his behavior towards the kids, BUT 
he's also really just doing it out of frustration and also trying to 
help them along as he's completely aware of the importance of Harry 
AND he always has their best interests in mind; he's emotionally 
damaged from abuse BUT is still perfectly in control of his emotions 
to succeed as a spy...

I bet there's one piece of missing information that would trigger a 
cascade of 'Oh, that's it?'

-Nora hopes that the new book comes out at a good time, not exams, 
please not during exams...