Snape- Universal Teacher - Universal Story

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 128470

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Troels Forchhammer 
<t.forch at e...> wrote:

<snip>

> I have often said that I consider Severus Snape to be probably
> the greatest single literary achievement of Jo Rowling.
> 
> Harry is nice, and, for a magical hero, rather complex of character
> (stealing cars go beyond sneaking out of school), but he is still
> a painting in light pastel shades only, against the hint of both
> light and shadow and full colours that is Snape.

My question is; is he going to *stay* that way?

Harry is a complex character in part because we actually ride along 
with Harry; we know what he thinks and feels, and how we works 
through things.  He gets more page time than anyone else, he is the 
most detailed character in the series.

Next to Harry, Snape is pale *when you go back and read what is 
really there on the page*.  There is considerably less time devoted 
to him, less information given, and most importantly we have 
absolutely no access to his thought processes.  Full colors?  Drawn 
in very broad strokes, to be honest.  The complexity is largely (but 
not completely) the result of readers filling in the blanks in 
different ways to explain things left out.

However, HP has always been a series that asks questions that it 
absolutely 100% knows the answers to.  And I humbly submit that a lot 
of what makes Snape 'complex' is in that category.  Does Snape become 
less complex if we have a sealed-in-stone reason for his joining the 
DEs and defecting?  Yes.  If we get an explanation for behavior that 
resolves out seeming contradictions?  Yes.

Her narrative technique in setting us up to ask the questions is 
masterful, but they are due to be answered this book and the next, 
and she certainly seems inclined to begin really tossing out the 
answers.

She's going to utterly destroy a lot of ideas about the characters, 
and this one in particular, in doing so.  And when a character's 
complexity is built far more on withheld information than on time 
working through his thoughts, actions, and development...

Snape, really complex in the long run?  I doubt it.

-Nora gets back to writing about music that is genuinely complex, if 
deceptively simple