Cultural standards, nasty teachers, abused children/ JKR quote new for me

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 144814

 "lupinlore" :

>I think, given JKR's preference for
> comeuppance (or whatever you want to call it -- karma, poetic justice,
> or what have you) it would be a fairly safe bet that will be included
...it is VERY
> important that his abuse of his students be specifically punished.

But hasn't this already happened?  Snape's 'commupance' for his
treatment of Neville I thought was the Boggart scene in PoA, where the
whole school was sniggering at him (and there was the little
reinforcement of the vulture hat D-dore gave him at Christmas).  I
thought that was just right-- appropriate (a humiliation for a
humiliation) and to proper scale.  It even involved your prefered
authority figure, Lupin (I confess that I think putting Lupin in a
direct confrontation with Snape would be more painful to Remus than to
Severus-- Remus after all hates conflict).  Snape's commupance so far
for his treatment of Harry is, as someone else pointed out, his
alientation from Harry at precisely the most important part of his
mission.  


>(which means the involvement of a third party 
> much as was the case with the Dursleys abuse of Harry)

I must have missed the part where the Dursley's were punished-- I
thought they were just confused and annoyed by Dumbledore.

As for JKR's love of commupance, it's undeniable-- but so, I think, is
her love of torturing her characters generally.  I think she sees pain
as a human universal that connects people, not as an indication of
righteous punishment.  After all, who HASN'T suffered horribly in this
series?  Ginny was possessed and forced to kill roosters with her bare
hands.  Sirius was psychologically tortured for 12 years, then put
back under house arrest where he got more and more depressed and then
died.  Lupin has a hideous disease that puts him through agonzing pain
every month.  Harry, well, what hasn't JKR put HIM through?  That
Snape is going to suffer is certain, as it is certain that many people
will suffer in the next book.  I disagree, though, that his suffering
will be presented as cause for rejoicing.

--Sydney, currently suffering the totally universal pain of computer
crashes