The Possibilities of Grey Snape (was Re: What would a successful AK mean?)

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 142982

> I remember back to the group 
> before the release of OotP, and almost no one guessed the 
direction 
> of the series correctly then: no one expected the kind of tense, 
> claustrophobic book without the reconciliation plot (so common in 
> fanfiction).  

Well, it's nearly impossible to make guesses about the MIDDLE of a 
story, it's pretty much open territory, so long as it converges back 
to a resolution of the tensions set up in the first part.  I will 
say that the rage and cut-offness and no-one-understands-me angle 
could have been predicted by simply asking oneself what was typical 
of a 15-year-old boy.  That's how I assumed the love stuff would set 
the tone for 6, and why many people predicted love potions: it's 
what you expect 16-year-olds to be obsessed about.  Likewise I 
suppose book 7 will somehow fit in a theme of coming into freedom 
and power, and having to make adult choices about things, because 
it's the finale of a series about developing from childhood to 
adulthood.


> Regarding Grey!Snape, if you read with an emphasis upon his more 
> positive qualities, you end up with one idea of "what the story 
that 
> has been set up is".  If you read with an eye towards his more 
> negative ones, you get a distinctly different situation.

Argh, cleary I'm not expressing myself very well!  This has ALMOST 
NOTHING to do with Snape's specific qualities as a personality-- 
it's why I brought up Pettigrew, whom nearly everybody loathes.  
It's about the RELATIONSHIP between Harry and Snape.  As the central 
relationship, it's bound to undergo a reversal in the finale, just 
as it was bound to reach it's lowest point at the end of the 2nd 
act.  Now it could be a simple revenge narrative (with or without 
forgiveness from Harry, this is actually more of a character choice 
than a structural choice).  We're all used to seing the 'reversal' 
in a revenge story, where Our Hero has been the underdog in a 
relationship, and then the tables turn, and the hero has power over 
the antagonist.  No doubt this is where the 'Snape as villain' 
expectation comes from and no doubt JKR has used it to enhance the 
red-herring role of Snape.  However, in my opinion, the 'power' 
aspect has been played as far secondary to the trust and 
misunderstanding aspect, which is where the primary tensions have 
been left open.  It's also where the 'key' has been established 
before, by having Harry misunderstood Snape's actions waaay back in 
Book 1, and has misunderstood them in every subsequent book. Harry 
being thwarted in 'defeating' or revenging himself on Snape has, 
IMO, simply not been established as the through-line which is to be 
resolved.


> So consider this a plea for marking discussions of structure with 
the 
> plural marker.  

Naturally this is all 'IMO'.  

Sydney, who thought the Ladbroke's odds on 'good Snape' would be a 
bit disappointing, but is now hopeful of making a packet if enough 
people really ARE buying evil!Snape.