Snape's iPod (was: Staff's Activities (was:Re: Snape's Speech patterns)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 142526

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Since I'm liking the idea of the Prince family not being very   
> > high-brow themselves, I imagine Snape being introduced to       
> > classical music by Lucius

> >>Sydney: 
> *sniffs*  Lucius is the sort of person who goes to the opera and  
> then talks through the whole thing.  He might have put music on in 
> the background to get the air of elegance, but I don't think he'd 
> shut up long enough for Snape to get the taste of it.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Hee!  So maybe Slughorn, with his gramophone (thank you CMC), played 
a part in Snape's early musical education.  (And I *still* think 
students have their own way of playing music.)  Heh, maybe Lucius 
was all, "Here's who you should have in your album shelf, but dear 
God, Snape, don't *obsess* over it so".  ('Cause Snape never does 
anything by halves, and Lucius would be so *bored* if Snape was 
suddenly hanging in the music room intently listening to the "right" 
music.)  

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > But I will say the idea of Hogwarts being totally without music 
> > is rather horrifying, personally. Especially when JKR appears to 
> > want to paint the WW as home to all that is creative and        
> > individual, while Muggles are more bland and generic.           
> > (Dumbledore vs. Dursley)

> >>Nora:
> 'All that is creative and individual' is a bit of an exaggeration,
> methinks.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Yeah, I flip back and forth on this myself.  Because PS/SS was 
certainly about the full color of the WW versus the blandness of the 
Muggle (the Dursleys and frankly, the Grangers).  But as the books 
have progressed Hogwarts really does seem backwords when it comes to 
creativity.  (e.g. Dean's non-existent art class, no literature 
courses, no music courses, etc.)  And the MoM seems *even more* anti-
creativity.  Especially as exampled by Umbridge.

But I'm not sure if JKR means for us to see Muggles as *better* than 
wizards or not.  Because the only Muggles we know are very much not 
imaginative.  At all. 

> >>Nora:
> There's no evidence given for music education whatsoever. Now
> absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it's not
> encouraging to my perspective upon their musical culture, or any
> standard of musical literacy. (Which is very low at present anyways
> in the real world.)

Betsy Hp:
There's not, I agree.  (The glee club was actually a Charms club. 
*sigh*)  However, lack of musical education doesn't mean lack of 
music.  There *is* evidence that wizards listen to and enjoy music.  
Again, it'd be pretty hard for the Weird Sisters to get a following 
amongst the youth if they were never heard at Hogwarts.  Plus, not 
only does Slughorn listen to music, he must play the piano himself.  
Otherwise, why haul it around from house to house to house?

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > So he kicks around the old stomping grounds (literally, 
> > one wonders?), and ooh, hey!  What's that compelling music,     
> > like all of his rage crystallized into sound?

> >>Nora:
> Snape hanging out in Muggle bars? Particularly at the time, without
> music quite as portable as it is in the present...I keep harping on
> this, but you absolutely have to have a point of dissemination for
> this stuff. That's where the problem lies.

> >>Sydney:
> As Betsy points out as well, Snape spent his summers in a muggle
> neighbourhood (probably: of course he could have been raised by the
> Pinces or something, but it's the working theory).  He couldn't   
> have avoided the boom boxes.

Betsy Hp:
Exactly.  I was exposed to Porta Rican music as a kid just by 
walking outside on Porta Rico day in NYC.  Music was most definitely 
portable in the late 70's early 80's.  You just had to have a 
stronger arm. <g>  (Actually, with boom boxes you'd be *more* likely 
to be exposed to different music.  Whereas portable music today is 
heard only by the guy with the earphones.)  Plus, I'd imagine there 
were one or two bands formed in Snape's old neighborhood, and I'm 
betting they weren't stealthy about their practices. 

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > So Dumbledore will only listen to live music?
> > That seems awfully limiting for someone so musically enclined,   
> > IMO. (JKR talks about him humming to himself all the time.)

> >>Nora:
> Some people think of it as limiting, and some very influential
> theorists have thought of recording as profoundly damaging to
> classical Western musical culture. It's, ummm, complex. It's also
> so wildly OT that I'll just leave it at that. I doubt anyone wants 
> a lecture on the sociology of music. :)

Betsy Hp:
I actually read an article about that (and sort of understood it 
<g>).  But while I think Dumbledore certainly *enjoys* music, and 
probably has fond memories of the live music he heard in his youth, 
I don't think he'd decide to limit himself to *only* live music if 
other options were available.  I doubt he gets into the deeper 
theory behind musical recordings and it's affect on musical culture, 
IOW.

> >>Nora:
> Chamber music has particular connotations (especially at the      
> present) which I suspect JKR is alluding to. It's the music of the
> connoiseur, music for the person who can play it (as this is how
> people would hear chamber music, you know? 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Hmmm, I think you're giving JKR too much credit.  I think she picked 
a form of classical music that didn't sound quite as stuffy as opera 
(for example) and threw it in there because she pictures Dumbledore 
humming all the time and he's of a certain age.  The very fact that 
she *doesn't* have the students listening to music or learning music 
suggests, to me anyway, that JKR herself is not a huge musical 
person herself.  Not that she doesn't enjoy it, but that she 
wouldn't give it this level of thought.

> >>Betsy Hp
> > Surely the WW can figure out how to record and distribute music.
> > They distribute photographs and posters easily enough. Heck, they
> > record and distribute *memories* easily enough. (Wait -- pensieve
> > music recordings? hmmm.)

> >>Nora:
> Recording is not a simple thing. It changes the ontological status
> of a work of music, for one thing, but it also entails distribution
> methods and technology. It's far, far more complex than printing.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Yeah, but wizards are able to create a space leaping bus that 
manipulates solid non-magical objects around it.  They can make a 
car and a motorcycle fly.  I don't think they'd have to reinvent the 
wheel to play a record.  Or to create a record for that matter.  
Again, they record memories.  Recording music really wouldn't be 
that hard for them, I'd imagine.

> >>Nora is most skeptical of the cultural cross-pollination claims
> light-heartedly made in the original...

Betsy Hp:
Well, I honestly doubt Snape has an iPod.  And while I like the idea 
of Punk!Snape, there's really no hard evidence for it, so it is a 
bit of a imaginative leap on my part.  But I also doubt he has no 
idea about the Muggle world and its culture.  In this case I think 
Arthur Weasley is the exception, not the rule.  Especially when it 
comes to a half-blood.  

Betsy Hp, who thinks the WW has parasitical relationship with the 
Muggle world