Snape Wars vs Ship Wars was re: Cultural standards for Snape abusiveness/

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 144620

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

> IMO, if Snape is a murderer, the boggart lesson in PoA loses both 
> its humor and its point. Murderers are not funny, even if they are 
> wearing silly clothes, and if a murderer is threatening you, 
> imagining that he has silly clothes on is not going to help. On the 
> other hand, if you are afraid of someone because they always make 
> you look stupid, then imagining that they look stupid too is 
> golden. 

That seems strangely reductionist, Pippin.  You seem to be arguing 
that learning bad things about Snape after the scene would ruin the 
point and humor of it.  Well, we've already gotten one--we didn't 
know, during the events of PoA, that Snape was a card-carrying 
branded member of Voldemort's terrorist organization.  We just 
thought he was a cranky teacher, not someone who'd had it in him to 
sign up for the black hats.  Re-reading with that surprise in mind 
hasn't ruined things, has it?  (But that's because he's all better 
now, right?)

> I can't see it as funny if Snape is supposed to be a murderer, and
> I really can't see JKR stepping on her own joke like that if she 
> knows what she is doing.  

Is it all better because he may not have personally been a murderer 
during his DE days, but just a member of a group?  I think this is 
why JKR gets a little flustered in interviews, asking people if 
they've forgotten Snape's DE past.  He may turn out to have avoided a 
lot of the hands-on nastier work, but it does darken his character 
significantly.  Not to mention the apparent murder of Dumbledore, 
which I suspect will stand as a killing even if there are some 
mitigating circumstances (plan, request, etc.).  One could argue that 
it leads to a darker read back on material we took more comically, 
like how a re-read of the ferret scene in GoF is very different when 
you know it's Crouch!Moody and you know his personal agenda.

> OTOH, if you can't make major bits of business like the boggart 
> lesson work in the context of villain!Snape, then villain!Snape is 
> weak, IMO.

I don't understand the need to make Snape all of a piece, here.  You 
seem to be arguing that DDM!Snape makes sense out of the boggart, but 
OFH/ESE!Snape doesn't.  I'm wondering if we have to connect 
everything together in a way that points absolutely to one agenda or 
the other, with perfect ideological consistency.  Seems a little 
strict for the story as it's gone.  YMMV.

-Nora watches all the snow fade into slush