[HPforGrownups] Canon, please

[ewe2]

No: HPFGUIDX 134372

On Sat, Jul 23, 2005 at 11:55:26AM -0000, quigonginger wrote:
> Dashing through the posts at breakneck speed, whilst trying to keep 
> with 2 other lists and JKR interviews, I must take time out to 
> question an assumption that has been around since OoP and has never 
> been fully explained to me.
> 
> Where in canon does it say that Snape was abused as a child? 
> 
> The only memory we have of his family is that of a hook-nosed man 
> yelling at a cowering woman as a child looks on crying.

This is another candidate for Christie cheating IMHO. It certainly plays with
our assumptions, does it not? Particularly when we have so _little_ data on
Snape at all, that we grasp hungrily at any scrap and turn it into full-blown
narrative. Typically, we hear no more about Harry's thoughts on that scene, or
that he's even interested enough to ask such questions. He's going to want to,
I hope.

> In short, there are so many unanswered questions that it seems to me 
> that an analysis of abused!Snape is way over what we see in canon.
> 
> I won't say that it is beyond reason.  If JKR wants to use it as 
> foreshadowing, she is well on her way, but by itself, it's not 
> there.  If people believe it as a gut feeling, I can certainly buy 
> that.  I have gut feelings about many things ;o)  
> 
> So, if anyone is convinced that Snape was abused, and would like to 
> share their reasoning, I'm all ears.  I would just be interested to 
> know if I am just not sharing a gut feeling, or if I am missing canon.

To slightly detour from abused!Snape, one could ask the same thing about
loved!Snape, about which we have less data, even if JKR is throwing ochre
fish at us (but they taste nice anyway!). The gut feeling here is Lily, but it
could just as well be Mum or Auntie or Gran. It makes Snape "culpable" which
is an interesting term to use: he knows better. So even if he _was_ abused, he
has known love and knows better on _both_ counts. Looks worse for the
Good!Snape camp.

> Ginger, wondering how many horns can a Slughorn slug if a Slughorn 
> can slug horns?

Ooooh you were waiting to do that here, I bet :)


ewe2, polishing off the last of 4 sushi rolls for dins. Get not between the
penguin and his sushi.

-- 
"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" - Adam Savage