James and Snape. Was. Re: Snape and Harry again.

[Alex Boyd]

No: HPFGUIDX 113814

 
> Valky:
> Well in a way I am not actually saying that it applies to virtues in 
> general. Oh oh now I am gonna confuse you.... sorry. I am saying 
> that in the culture that I was raised into by my british family, the 
> fact that someone does whine complain and run to teacher is like a 
> cardinal sign of lacking several virtues. Such as valor, justice, 
> charity, honesty. Like I said it would be difficult to understand if 
> you weren't subject to the standard first hand. And very difficult 
> to explain. 

I see where you're coming from here--I've read enough boarding school
stories to have heard of the schoolboy code of honor, where you're
supposed to handle your own problems and not go telling on people for
matters that are supposed to be between you and another boy (or girl,
though snivelling in any sense is far more stigmatized for boys than
for girls).  So maybe Snape doesn't cry, maybe he goes to his teachers
and tries to get them to stop the other kids picking on him.  Which,
yeah, is an annoying trait in a kid.  Teachers don't like it any more
than the other kids do.  

Except I keep going back to the part of the Worst Memory scene where
it says that Snape reacts "as though he had been expecting an attack."
 There is *definitely* some real-life contamination in my reading of
this scene, but I read Snape in this scene as *afraid*.  In his mind,
James et al. have gone beyond the sort of hassling he should take in
good fun, and he's in *actual danger*.  (This reading makes more sense
if you buy the theory that Snape comes from a violent home.)  If he
thinks they're *really going to hurt him* (which, if he thinks that,
he's right, isn't he?), *shouldn't* he go to the teachers and try to
get them to protect him?  

Su maybe I buy that *James and Sirius* think that Snape is lacking in
cardinal virtues--but I don't think that *we* should necessarilly
agree with them.  

> Valky:
>  Sirius has a better sense of humour, in spite of his 
> crudeness towards Snape, most people found his antics quite good 
> fun. Whereas Draco has *nothing* beyond the crudeness.

Except the other Slytherins think that what Draco does is funny. 
Hilariously so.  And, really, the Weasley song *is funny*.  It's mean,
but funny.  And a much more sophisticated form of humor than pantsing
someone.  (Not a fan of physical comedy, here.)  

Alex