Eeevil!Snape was Snape in Shrieking Shack

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 142379

> > Pippin:
> > That's the best argument I've heard against Eeevil!Snape. It takes 
> > all the mystery JKR has built up around this 'gift of a character' 
> > and  collapses it like a house of cards. 
> 
> You don't think the mystery isn't going to collapse as a mystery at 
> the end of the series anyways? :)

Pippin;
I expect it to be resolved. When we get to the heart of the labyrinth,
(or Harry is dragged there kicking and screaming) we will no doubt find 
that we could have followed a much more direct route if we'd paid
attention to the cunningly hidden clues that will reveal themselves once
we know what we are looking for.

That is not the same as reaching the heart of the maze and finding
out that the most direct route was also the most obvious one and
we didn't need clues at all.

Nora:
> No, I must object to the characterization of evil in 'these kinds of 
> stories'.  Firstly, because I'm not so confident about the generic 
> classification we're ultimately going to settle on, and how much or 
> little JKR is straying from an abstracted paradigm. 

Pippin:
I mean the kind of stories in which there's an explict conflict between
good and evil, and evil is represented by  a Dark Lord who dresses
his followers in identical fashion and hides their faces as a metaphor
for the way in which evil suppresses individuality. Maybe JKR means
to turn this  convention on its head somehow, but I don't see any
sign of that so far.

Voldemort offers all kinds of blandishments to his followers, but
the only thing he can really give them is the power to do evil and
the encouragement to shut down their compassion and remorse.
We're told that Harry is rare and unusual in not
wanting that so it wouldn't  be a huge revelation to learn
that  Snape  did want it. Hardly worth hiding for five books, IMO.

We are presented with any number of reasons for people to turn against 
Dumbledore, or to have a change of heart and return to the good side, but 
they aren't made into a mystery. Meanwhile, the  Snape mystery that
was occupying us for five books and was explicitly raised in the first
one-- how can Snape be on Dumbledore's side if he hates Harry so much
 -- becomes irrelevant if Snape was never on Dumbledore's side at all,
or is there no longer. Phoenixgod, who was on the opposite side of
this debate from me, now finds it irrelevant also, and as far as I
understood, you weren't disagreeing with this, but suggesting out that
Rowling might want us to become interested in Snape for other reasons.

Eevil!Snape could become interesting and thematically relevant, but so 
far Rowling hasn't given us any hints about how that could happen, IMO,
whereas there are a number of hints that Harry's conclusions about
Eevil!Snape are in error.  


Pippin