Unsentimental JKR (was re: Snape Culpable and the Three-part Interview)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 135192

> Betsy Hp:
<SNIP>
> 
> And I agree with Magda's over all point.  Why on earth would JKR 
> give away the answer to her books?  That's another reason I'm 
> dismissive of her interviews (especially with regards to characters 
> like Snape and Draco) as theory foundations.  Because the final 
> destiny for Draco and especially Snape is far too important for JKR 
> to tells us about in an interview.
> 

And yet what has JKR ever told us that's been shown to be wrong or even 
deliberately misleading?  Draco IS an evil little traitor.  That he 
might have a failure of nerve isn't sympathetic or worthy of warm 
feelings.  He is guilty of two attempted murders and betrayal of 
Hogwarts.  Quite frankly, from a purely practical point of view, 
everyone would have been better off if he had died from the 
Sectumsempra curse (assuming that Snape isn't ESE and wouldn't have 
killed Dumbledore anyway, which I don't think he is).

Why would she reveal secrets in her interviews?  That's a very good 
question.  I think the answer is that a lot of times she doesn't think 
they're secrets.  To wit the "anvil sized hints" she was dropping over 
the shipping issue.  Now, I'll grant you that her anvils sometimes seem 
to be different sizes than a lot of other people's, and I think 
sometimes she is understandably naive about how her story reads to 
someone who, unlike her, doesn't already know all the backstory and the 
ultimate outcome.  Still, I don't know of any quote that can be taken 
as false or deliberately misleading.  It's true that many of them have 
been misinterpreted by all of us, but that's just life.  If anyone 
complains at the end of the day, "JKR fooled us," she can in all truth 
reply "You fooled yourself."

Lupinlore