Heroes and Not (WAS: Who killed Dumbledore?)

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 145143


> >Lupinlore:
> >As with most DDM! speculation, it
> >falls afoul of the fact that this is NOT SNAPE'S STORY.... Harry
becomes a passive victim in the whole process, not a
> >hero whose decisions and actions are the focus of the tale.
> 
> Orna:
> You may be right in principle – but facts are that Snape is getting 
> IMO more cyber-attention than Harry, as it is. 

I still don't understand how DDM!Snape makes him THE hero of the
story.  I don't know what Hermionie, or Ron, or Lupin, or Hagrid(or
possibly even Regulus Black!) will do to help Harry in the end, but
how is Snape helping Harry uniquely damaging to Harry's heroism? 
Snape is indeed a VERY strong presence in the story, as Orna says, and
by the end of HBP, good or bad, Snape and Harry's relationship is
established as the central conflict of the series-- the 'personal'
one, as JKR put it.  But Snape is not the sort of character you make a
protagonist.  He's like, I dunno, a truffle, or cardamon-- a little
goes a very long way!  Harry's the MEAT of the story, Snape is the
spice.  I certainly don't think Snape will Save the Day in Book 7,
Harry will.  


> It doesn't make Harry less hero, since the ability to see people as 
> they really are, and not the way they appear to be, or the way he 
> wants them to be, and relate to them from this POV, is the focus of 
> the tale.
> And Harry (with us behind him) being able to decipher Snape in a 
> convincing and believable way, is crucial to this point. 

Amen!  The themes of the story don't lead to Harry's triumph from
being the biggest but-kicking Conan on the block, in which case
Lupinlore would be quite right to fear competition from Snape! ;)   I
think the defeat of Voldemort will center around the Room of Love, not
the room full of huge guns.  In which case Snape will obviously not be
as helpful as Ron and Hermionie.   


> >-- Sydney
> >To my mind guilt and letting go of guilt is the whole point of 
> >Snape's role thematically
> 
> Orna:
> Agree.... 
> I think, that perhaps their mutual hate has to do with it, if you 
> feel burdened by guilt, you are bound to feel some hatred towards 
> the person signifying your guilt, which in turn arouses more guilt, 
> etc – a truly vicious cycle.

This is totally what's going on, IMO, in Snape's attitude to Harry. 
Harry's just this big heaping plate of guilt sitting there looking at
him with the eyes of the woman who's death he was responsible for.  I
certain regonize myself in Snape's behaviour-- at least the only thing
that can make me as rageful and unreasonable is when I'm feeling
guilty about something!  Every aspect of Snape's role in the books--
the rule-setting step-parent, the finder-out of rule-breaking, the
double-agent, the guy with the dark past that can't be spoken about,
the humiliated schoolboy-- is tied into guilt, and it's primal cousin
shame.  Snape is all about feeling a lack of respect, for himself and
from other people. His worst memory is of being humiliated; I think
feelings of powerlessness and worthlessness drove him to the DE's, and
overwhelming guilt over endagering Lily drove him out, and drives him
to the present to try to destroy Voldemort, the source of his guilt.
Shame is an extremely potent motivator-- for someone like Snape, far
more potent than any kind of worldly gain.  

The end of HBP was really so awful for Snape-- but JKR just does that,
she keeps people, especially the older generation, trapped in this
holding pattern of unreconciled wrongs.  The way she trapped Sirius in
his parent's house and Lupin in with the werewolves next to the guy
who infected him.  It's this pattern that Harry's there to break.  

This is also why I think Snape's role in the end will be something
other than simply helping Harry destroy V-mort-- because in the end,
Snape's shame-repression-and-rage way of dealing with negative
impulses -- the 'Dark Magic' way of destroying Voldemort-- is
drastically misguided. Harry has to BOTH come to an understanding with
Snape, AND find a spiritually healthy way of winning the battle. 

I'm so sold now on the alchemical reading of HP, that I think Hagrid
will play a big part in this: Hagrid and his embrace of 'interestin'
creatures', and his total comfort with the dark side of nature.

-- Sydney, feeling a little guilty for writing this at work...