Son of Insecure!Snape (Was: prof-student etiquitte + Potions master stuff)

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 111888

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tonks_op" <tonks_op at y...> 

<snippity>

We had a discussion about this a few ages ago, but I really don't 
remember where it is in the archives...pity, because it was a fun 
argument...

> Now as to Snape: Snape is a Potions Master because he is very good 
> at what he does. (He is the Master, not the student. Master/Student 
> is a very normal concept.) He is very intelligent and he knows 
> this. HE IS NOT INSECURE, he is arrogant. If you have met any 
> really intelligent people who knew that they were more intelligent 
> than the people around them...well some of them are ok and nice, 
> but many are very arrogant and impatient with others.  And Snape is 
> like this. He is very self assured, there in nothing at all 
> insecure about him!! 

Personal preface:  I'm a graduate student, I intend to go into 
academia, and as such, I'm a quasi-professional observer of academic 
mores and follies and all that.  Sure, different context than 
Hogwarts, but some things seem rather similar.  I did my 
undergraduate work at a place where it was normal and practically 
expected to refer to professors by their first names, with only a few 
exceptions.  I'm doing graduate work at a place that you would never, 
ever do that.

But my general experience is that those who *insist* on the titles 
and honors, with a continual reference to them, are those who really 
aren't quite comfortable or assured in their position.  There's a 
point when it's an insistence upon common courtesy, but there's also 
a point where it's an attempt to solidify one's power and control 
over the students.  Everyone I've talked to in academia knows at 
least one of those--their tendency to snap back comes out of an 
intense defensiveness.  Attacking their ideas is like attacking the 
person themself.

Snape strikes me as one of those, and after OotP revelations, I'm not 
surprised.  He's gone from being the victim (so far as we know, after 
one instance--I'm not going to establish a complete life history of 
him and the Marauders without more information) to being in a 
position of power that he can be the bully (and yes, yes he is, per 
interview and any reading that doesn't explicitly try to minimize 
that aspect of his personality.)  There are a few 'issues' left over 
there, methinks.

There's also situations such as his treatment of Lupin's DADA class, 
and behavior in PoA during and after the Shrieking Shack.  Why, oh 
why, does he try to shut down Hermione in the Hospital Wing with such 
vengeance?  And a creepy echo of Voldemort's words to Lily? Feeling a 
little...threatened?

No, I think dear Severus is somewhat insecure in addition to being 
arrogant, as the two are definitely not mutually exclusive.  It's 
part of what makes him both so endearingly human and so incredibly 
frustrating.

-Nora does the dance of having passed translation exams