JKR Interview on Mugglenet; Snape = Evil?

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 133808

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richard" <darkmatter30 at y...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "huntergreen_3" 
> <patientx3 at a...> wrote:
> > pookasmorning wrote:
> > > 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.
> > 
> > Milz replied:
> > >>I think the readership has been playing with their own 
> expectations.
> > The best example is the Harry-Hermione shipper thing.<<
> > 
> > HunterGreen:
> > Though this wasn't your exact point, I think the Harry/Hermione 
> > shipping is a wonderful example of the traditional conventions. 
> The 
> > main character should be the one to "get the girl", not 
> > the "sidekick". 
> 

The main character DID get the girl----though she's not the girl the 
H/Hr shippers wanted him to get. She is still the girl the author has 
been setting up for him to get. While it's a departure for the 
sidekick---he got the girl too. And she's the girl the author has 
been dropping "anvil" sized clues about since CoS.


> Richard:
> I still wouldn't count the H/Hr ship as fully sunk.  JKR is 
> consistently surprising.  As I've said elsewhere, I think the only 
> two logical ships for Harry were H/Hr and H/G.  These are the only 
> two relationships thus far where the four classical requirements 
for 
> love (knowledge, concern, respect and pro-active responsibility) 
can 
> be demonstrated.  We also have no guarantee that ANY of the main 
> characters will be alive at the end of the tale.  There is some 
> canonical support for Ron not surviving.  Who's to say that Ginny 
> must survive?  Only JKR really knows at this point.  It is also 
> possible (though I think unlikely) that JKR could leave Harry 
bereft 
> REGARDLESS of who survives, or that there might be some other match 
> that she would introduce in the course of book 7, OR EVEN that The 
> Good Ship Harry/? will be built, christened, launched and sail off 
> into the radiant sunset in the "after the dust settled" chapter JKR 
> has repeatedly discussed.
> 

True, the series is still in progress so there's no telling who will 
end up with whom and who will end up dead. If we are to believe that 
Trelawney is accurate sometimes, then Ron and Harry have a good 
chance of dying. In that case, no one will get the girl and live 
happily ever after----and that's a possibility too.

Personally, I don't want Harry to survive. In classic 'hero' myths, 
the hero sacrifices all--at times his life-- to defeat evil thereby 
making the world a better place. And that's what makes him a "hero" 
in the classic sense: his willingness to sacrifice himself in order 
to save the whole from Evil (which must be destroyed).

Harry has already sacrificed in HBP---he choose to break up with 
Ginny in order to keep her "safe" but in doing so he choose to forego 
his own happiness. It will be interesting to see what other personal 
sacrifices Harry makes as he moves towards the Final Battle.

> Part of what I've enjoyed about this series is that JKR usually 
gets 
> things pretty dead on, and still manages to surprise us.  (I fear 
> that there will be a serious flaw in a R/H ship, if these two do 
not 
> change significantly 'ere this ship (probably) sails (I think many 
> under-rate the importance of respect in love), but war, and 
> particularly combat, are among the generally accepted and quite 
> limited things that can significantly change personality.)  Thus, 
> part of what I have tried to do in a prior post is get people to 
> keep an open mind and let the story JKR is telling play out as she 
> chooses.  Once the tale is done, then the WHOLE story can be picked 
> over like a carcass on the Serengeti (sp?).  Until we have only 
> clues for speculation, but cannot count on such speculation 
> yielding "truth."
> 
> > Milz continued:
> > [snip] >>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.<<
> > 
> > HunterGreen:
> > I think so too. While she is tricky, she's not THAT tricky. 
Though 
> I 
> > have been guilty of looking too hard for secret sub-plots (ahem, 
> ESE!
> > Fudge), its better taken with a grain of salt, knowing that the 
> > elaborate wild explainations are not likely to be true. It 
reminds 
> me 
> > of all the theories that Snape wasn't really a spy for the death-
> > eaters (and that he wasn't the one Voldemort referenced in the 
> > graveyard), or that the mauraders weren't in Gryffindor, or the 
> > James/Lupin switching spell (I won't mention the Vampire!Snape 
> > theory, because that one had a lot of seeming clues in the text). 
> > 
> > Sure, perhaps it is true that Snape and Dumbledore put together 
> his 
> > death and Snape was acting on Dumbledore's orders and all that, 
> but I 
> > just cannot see how that would play out in the text, especially 
> with 
> > Dumbledore being dead. I would really like it if Snape went back 
> to 
> > being a jerk who is fighting hard for the side of good, I liked 
> him a 
> > lot better that way, but I have a sinking feeling that it isn't 
> true.
> > 
> 
> I think the ESE!Snape debate is still wonderfully open.  Personally 
> I think he is ESE, but the fact is that we won't know until the end.
> 
> We may find (perhaps through DD's portrait) that the reason DD 
> trusted Snape was that he knew Snape would not betray DD in any way 
> that could be traced back to Snape, so long as DD lived, precisely 
> so as to maintain his position as a spy for LV, AND that the fly in 
> that ointment was Narcissa's visit to Snape and the resulting 
> unbreakable vow ... which DD did not know about.  DD's first 
> realization of disaster impending would thus be Snapes appearance 
at 
> Draco's side when he knows that Draco is there to kill him.

I've been guilty of looking too hard for subplots too. That's why I 
stopped participating in this discussion group. I saw too many people 
get caught into their own theories that they couldn't see (or didn't 
want to see) how Rowling was directing the show. It got to the point 
here where people were saying that Jo Rowling's version of Harry 
Potter wasn't the definitive version. I don't think that's very 
healthy. Jo Rowling has the directions to our destination and is 
driving this bus---we're merely enjoying the ride.

Rowling has said in various interviews that she was shocked when she 
(incognito) was in a chat and was telling the chatters what was the 
real score and they told her that she was wrong and didn't know what 
she was talking about. But I wasn't shocked at all. I could clearly 
see that happening, even here in this discussion group, because I've 
seen it happen in non-Harry forums. 
 
AFter reading Rowling's interview on Mugglenet, I'm more convinced 
that Snape and Draco will not be redeemed in Book 7:

JKR: It amuses me. It honestly amuses me. People have been waxing 
lyrical [in letters] about Draco Malfoy, and I think that's the only 
time when it stopped amusing me and started almost worrying me. I'm 
trying to clearly distinguish between Tom Felton, who is a good 
looking young boy, and Draco, who, whatever he looks like, is not a 
nice man. It's a romantic, but unhealthy, and unfortunately all too 
common delusion of — delusion, there you go — of girls, and you [nods 
to Melissa] will know this, that they are going to change someone. 
And that persists through many women's lives, till their death bed, 
and it is uncomfortable and unhealthy and it actually worried me a 
little bit, to see young girls swearing undying devotion to this 
really imperfect character, because there must be an element in 
there, that "I'd be the one who [changes him]." I mean, I understand 
the psychology of it, but it is pretty unhealthy. So, a couple of 
times I have written back, possibly quite sharply, saying 
[Laughter], "You want to rethink your priorities here." 

I think Rowling described the underlying psychology of the Draco-
Snape apologists perfectly. For her to redeem either would be a 
contradiction to her statement above. I do think, that if Rowling 
didn't get letters of this nature, she might have been more inclined 
to redeem the "baddies". Frankly, I think it's admirable that Rowling 
takes such a social concern in her young readership. 

Milz