Disappointment with the Last Book (was The Needs of Snape's Redemption)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 145362

Susanbones2003  wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> >
> You warm my heart. I feared you only sought vigilante justice for 
Snape 
> and would pooh-pooh my reminder that lots of people have sinned 
against 
> Harry and many owe him something. Doubtless Snape enjoys a special 
> place of honor or ignominy, depending on how you read him. And I 
will 
> be looking for your proclamation of abomination with glee!
> 


ROTFL!!  You will doubtless get it, if JKR indeed lets Snape go 
unpunished.  In that case, she will have made a hero out of a child 
abuser, and the books will be worth nothing whatsoever but expensive 
mulch.  Snape MUST be made to do penance for the pain he has inflicted 
on Harry.  Otherwise, IMO, JKR has indeed committed a reprehensible 
abomination, as well as engaging in spectacularly bad writing.  The 
same is equally true for Umbridge and the Dursleys, but for whatever 
reason they have not been the focus of attention, lately.

Having said that, I doubt either of us will be very disappointed with 
the last book, or particularly satisfied.  JKR has managed to get 
herself into a quite a bind, in the sense of having an enormous amount 
to deal with in the last book, and relatively little time or space in 
which to deal with it.  I don't think, to be honest, that very much of 
anything is going to get the space it probably needs.  In fact, 
however the final situation with Snape comes out, I think we will see 
pretty much all sides going "You mean that's IT?"

Let's see, she has to deal with the Snape situation, deal with the 
horcruxes, deal with Voldemort, finish off the Dursley arc, deal with 
Voldemort, have an appearance from Umbridge, have an appearance from 
Krum, and let us know what's going on with Voldemort.  She has to get 
Ron/Hermione off the ground, and I would be stunned (and I think 
almost everyone else would, too) if we don't have at least a couple of 
nods at Harry/Ginny.  We are going to learn more about Dumbledore and 
meet another member of the Order.  Wormtail, we have been told, has 
some role to play and the events in the Shrieking Shack will be 
important.  We have the Draco arc to finish.  We also have been told 
that the final chapter is basically a "whatever happened to..." piece.

That's all at a bare MINIMUM.  In addition, she has the whole Percy 
arc, the situation with House unity, the situation with the Ministry, 
the House Elves, the relations with other magical creatures, the final 
fate of Remus Lupin (who rumor has long said has a major role to play 
in Book VII) and many other things she could finish.  Oh, and I think 
most people would be shocked and disappointed not to see Harry's 
protection in action, or to get some coverage of Bill and Fleur's 
wedding.

Let's face it, over the last couple of books JKR has spun her wheels 
for 1300 out of 1700 pages.  Everything that moved things along in a 
significant way in OOTP and GOF could easily fit into one book the 
size of POA or slightly longer.  Now she's against the wall with a lot 
of time wasted and and a lot of pressing issues to address.

Therefore I suspect that in Book VII we will see a lot of the same 
technique we saw in some parts of GOF: i.e. a "by-the-numbers 
approach" that finds the book going from issue to issue at a hurried 
pace while JKR checks off various boxes and ties up various loose 
ends.  Much will be done by things being "denoted" -- a term from 
liturgics, which means you don't do the whole ritual you just speak 
the key lines and move along briskly (e.g. there are points in certain 
Greek Orthodox rituals where the first lines of long prayers and 
creeds are said and you move on, pretty much on the principle that 
everybody knows the rest, anyway, so we'll just act like we said it).  

We saw some perfect examples of this in GOF.  Dumbledore's 
confrontation with the Dursleys was a shorthand way of dealing with 
the whole "Dumbledore approves of child abuse" controversy.  Hagrid's 
one paragraph about the dangers of Hogwarts and parental worries dealt 
with THAT issue.  Harry and Dumbledore's conversation in the Weasleys' 
shed denoted dealing with the issues of Sirius' death.  The 
Harry/Ginny romance was one giant denotion squeezing into a few pages 
what probably should have been spread over parts of three books.

I think much of what happens in Book VII will follow this pattern.  A 
few lines about Hogwarts here, a couple of lines about Percy there.  
With Snape, I think we will see something very similar.  As Alla has 
pointed out, an apology from Snape would likely take the 
form, "Potter, I'm very sorry for everything since that night in 
Godric's Hollow -- everything," followed by a large wet sound as Snape 
expires.  

Now, the problem with denotion is that it often makes little sense.  
Dumbledore's confrontation with the Dursleys really makes very little 
sense once you start thinking about all the issues and implications.  
Harry/Ginny springs from nowhere.  Hagrid's talk about the dangers of 
Hogwarts nods to all sorts of issues and leaves them unexplored.  But 
JKR ain't the world's best when it comes to thoroughness and 
consistency, and isn't even averse to taking people OOC when she needs 
to deal with something quickly and tie it off.  So I think we may well 
find much in Book VII to be hurried and OOC.  JKR just doesn't have 
time to deal with everything without cutting a lot of corners.  I 
suspect Peter is a strong candidate for OOCness, as is Draco, and also 
Snape.  Harry may be the best candidate, and I wouldn't be surprised 
if Remus' character shifts if he does indeed have a big part.  Their 
arcs are just too involved and complicated for JKR to bring them to an 
end without cutting corners, i.e. without using the type of denotion 
that amounts to "something happened here, but I don't have time to go 
into it."

So, does the type of apology Alla theorizes make sense, strictly 
speaking?  Not really, but I'll lay 4-1 odds that something like that 
is exactly what we'll see (it would have been 5-4, but after the 
Remus/Tonks revelation in in GoF that probability of such techniques 
being employed expanded greatly).  Does Peter suddenly coming out of 
nowhere to play a role in Harry's victory really make sense?  No, but 
I'll lay 7-1 that we'll see that.

In fact, I'll lay the following odds on things (and since gambling 
debts are not legally enforcable in the USA, good luck getting any 
money out of me).  I know the odds aren't mathematically correct, but 
I don't do complex calculations when I'm on vacation:

Snape living: 1-50
Snape being ESE: 1-10
Snape being OFH/Grey: 1-1
Snape being DDM/Grey: 1-1
Snape facing karmic punishment: 5-1
Snape giving an "Alla-style" apology: 4-1
A third party involvement in the Harry/Snape relationship: 1-1
Peter playing a role in Harry's victory: 7-1
Draco playing a role in Harry's victory: 1-1
Karmic punishment/revelation from Petunia: 3-1
Karmic punishment for Umbridge: 4-1
Snape finding/disabling horcruxes "Steve-style": 1-10
Snape giving a "Potter you dunderhead" speech instead of apology: 1-5
Remus seeming OOC in final book: 3-1
Snape seeming OOC in final book: 5-1
Harry dieing: 1-3
Ron/Hermione dieing: 1-9


Lupinlore