JKR Interview on Mugglenet; Snape = Evil?

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 133735

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pookasmorning"
<margotcragg at h...> wrote:

> So is that it? Snape wasn't faking it? Was this whole book just 
> hitting us over the head with "Dumbledore is totally gullible, OMG"? 

I wouldn't say that Dumbledore is totally gullible, I would say that
Dumbledore has his faults and that the readership has overlooked these
faults for a long, long, long time. From PS/SS, Dumbledore has made
mistakes and has handled some things rather poorly due to his trust in
people to do the right thing: trusting that the Dursley's would treat
Harry like their own son, trusting Quirrell, trusting Lockhart, and
the list goes on and on.

Rowling managed to get the readership to believe what the other
characters in the book believed--that Dumbledore is infallable. But if
you objectively re-read the previous books, concentrating on
Dumbledore's decisions and their outcomes---you'll see that Dumbledore
is as fallable as the next character. The readership "trusts" Snape.
Why? Because Dumbledore trusts Snape--forget that he was a Death
Eater. Forget that he was the one who told Voldemort the prophecy.
Forget that he has an intense dislike for Harry. Forget all of
that---Dumbledore trusts him, so Snape "has" to be trustworthy.
Ingenious of Rowling--absolutely ingenious!

> Has JRK been playing with the readers' expectations regarding 
> narrative conventions (i.e. the guy who seems bad must in fact be 
> good) this whole time? Someone smart needs to weigh in; I need a 
> cookie.
> 
> pookasmorning

I think the readership has been playing with their own expectations.
The best example is the Harry-Hermione shipper thing. Read Rowlings
comments about "dropping heavy anvils" about the Ron-Hermione
relationship in the previous books (she points to PoA specifically).
Then read the H-HR shippers arguments. I pointed out in a previous
thread that these shippers tend to heavily identify with either Harry
or Hermione or both. This identification is to the point where they
don't acknowledge the "heavy anvils" crashing on their heads when they
read them. So I think they build their own expectations up and
reinforce these expectations by constant rumination on their beliefs.
When Rowling is unequivocal, they head for denial and make up even
more theories why they are still right to cling to their hopes and
desires. The Draco and Snape apologists have the same problem (see
Rowling's idea on that subject---it's very true and I share her
concern as well). 

I try not to read between the letters because I've learned that these
books are best enjoyed when taken at face value. 

Milz