Accio 2005 press release: new Guest Speaker and Trial of Snape

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 128254

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...> 
wrote:
<SNIP> 
> Potioncat:
> 
> Potioncat who wonders if any other minor character has ever 
generated 
> so much discussion and emotion?

Oh, yeah, at various times and in various genres.  The elevation of 
secondary characters is an old tradition.  Arguments about Hamlet's 
relatives, for instance, have gone on for centuries and in the early 
twentieth century there was an entire cottage industry analyzing 
Renfield (from Dracula).  In the 1950s, William Frawley's character 
of Fred Mertz was widely viewed as the second star of "I Love Lucy," 
with a popularity barely behind that of Lucy Ricardo, herself.  
Hucklebery Finn was a far more popular character than Tom Sawyer, 
which is why he got his own book.  In the serializations of Dickens' 
novels characters like Fagin and the Artful Dodger often eclipsed 
the putative hero in popularity among readers.

What makes these characters different from our perspective is that 
we "know" their stories.  In some cases they were in genres quite 
different from that of HP, so the suspense about them was different -
 if there was any suspense at all.  In other cases, like the Dickens 
serials, time has revealed the secrets of the characters.  We "know" 
now what became of Fagin and the Artful Dodger, so they don't hold 
the interest for us that they did for readers of the early serials.  

I tend to agree that ACCIO will gather in a very different climate 
than that of the present.  Some of the questions may look very 
different than they do now.  I don't think we will know ALL there is 
to know, even if Snape doesn't survive the sixth book (which I think 
is a real possibility, although not a probability).  JKR will 
reserve some tension for Book VII.

What will be VERY interesting is how future readers view Snape.  
Even those who come to the books for the first time will not have 
the experience of seeing the characters' stories unfold over years.  
Like with Dickens, they will be able to read the entire story over a 
brief period.  And their view of the characters, unshaped by delay 
and years of argument/discussion/brooding, will be very different 
from ours.  Most likely, whatever happens to Snape, they will 
say "Okay, he's an interesting guy, but come on now!  What was the 
big deal, anyway?"

Lupinlore