Occlumency and aiki-waza (LONG!)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 126977


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

> Pippin:
> But you are choosing a very narrow example -- Hebrew trope for 
> Torah reading is completely obscure if you've never heard Torah 
> chanted, but there are books that tell how to translate Hebrew 
> trope symbols into conventional musical notation. 

On the other hand, musical notation is not the complete transmission 
of everything that you need to know how to do in order to sing Hebrew 
cantilation in proper style--correct?  I could go through and 
transcribe it into notation and sing it from that, but while I might 
get some of it right, it would probably be a far cry from the proper 
thing.  Even with a musical score for something like a Bach prelude, 
any performer is bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge that 
was *not* acquired solely through text.
 
> At the very least, Harry could have learned that he was not being 
> taught according to the accepted method, which would have been 
> incredibly useful for him to know, or conversely, that he *was* 
> being taught according to the accepted method and Snape wasn't 
> deliberately making things difficult. 

This does all depend upon there being written description of the 
techniques of teaching this, which are generally different from 
descriptions of how something works.  For instance, it's one thing to 
know music theory as laid out in the Pink Book, but the Pink Book 
itself will not explain to you how to get these things into the heads 
of first-year theory students.  Again, I'm rather struck by 
Hermione's lack of engagement in this subject.  There is no solid 
proof pro or contra, but given Tonks' comments I do wonder about the 
possibility of an esoteric, orally transmitted Occlumency tradition.

> Of course Snape was making things difficult, but the root cause of 
> that is the one Dumbledore pointed towards, IMO  -- Snape's grudge 
> against James makes it gratifying for Snape when Harry fails, 
> because it gives Snape an excuse for righteous anger. That makes 
> Harry's passive aggressive behavior particularly counterproductive. 
> I hope the conclusion of OOP means it is really coming to an 
> end, and is not merely a foreshadowing. 

Well, you could always start playing with ESE!Snape for variety, 
Pippin. :)

What I find troubling, perhaps, is the casual "Oh, of course Snape 
was making things difficult, but...".  Is it wrong then to be worried 
when Snape lets his long-standing grudge (and his enjoyment 
of 'righteous' anger) get in the way of doing something important 
that he was charged with by the Headmaster?   For me, this is a 
significant factor in why I'm actually a lot more wary of Snape post-
OotP than pre-, and what further weakened the DISHWASHER reading of 
the PoA SS scene.

>From collating past comments, I really don't understand your Snape at 
all.  He's more damaged than Black and thus really can't help a lot 
of his behavior, but he tries very hard so that his results are 
generally good and he should be trusted; his grudges admittedly get 
the better of him, but he's so important and necessary that Harry 
should adapt himself to deal with Snape and learn the very important 
things that Snape is really not terribly conscientious about teaching 
him...

Well, a few months and this all might be cleared up.  Or at least 
some of it.  (I admit it will be gratifying to see at least some of a 
large mass of mutually exclusive theories go, but that's just me.  
I'm not sure the end of OotP foreshadows the end of it in the way 
that you would like, either...but I guess that the revealing of 
backstory is in order.)

> Pippin:
> Hmmm....I wonder, would a boggart-Snape be capable of legilimency? 

Only if a boggart-Dementor is capable of Kissing someone, and we 
don't know about that.  Legilimency I doubt because that seems to 
require an act of intent on the part of the caster, but...curious.  I 
wonder if she's thought it out.

-Nora notes that the only way older neumes are readable is through 
the grace of a few manuscripts and the fact that 'Puer natus est 
nobis' didn't really change over 400+ years