Why did we SEE the UV? (was re: The Possibilities of Grey Snape)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 143020

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> We get to see Snape doing something outside Harry's POV and the 
> action appears to be untrustworthy. In my mind, the through-line 
of 
> the relationship got messed with a bit. Snape should not be seen 
> actually *doing* something untrustworthy to maintain the simple 
> trust storyline throughout. 
> 


That's a very good point, Jen.  Why did JKR find it necessary for us 
to SEE the UV?  As you say, if this was a simple continuation of the 
trust angle, there were other ways to do it that didn't violate 
Harry's POV and that would have been much more in keeping with what 
went on in the earlier books.  When an author, or anyone else for 
that matter, violates a well-established and successful practice, 
they generally have a good reason.  What was JKR's reason?

One answer is that this is all just a gigantic red herring.  JKR 
showed the UV so that the readers, as well as Harry, would be 
suckered in against Snape and then be shocked by some sort of 
reversal.  That is the UV isn't really binding, or was set up by DD 
in some unexplicable way for some unfathomable reason, or .... 
whatever.

Frankly, I don't buy it, at least not completely.  Yes, there have 
been reversals before, but this time we have a scene that was set 
off against HP tradition in a way that made it obvious the author 
was saying "Look at this!  It's important!"  It wasn't something in 
Harry's POV, or that we found out from an overheard conversation or 
a found letter.  It was something that we actually saw with no 
excuse that anyone's POV was acting as a filter, and as Jen says 
that is a very different kettle o' fish than Harry overhearing Snape 
and Quirrel or the PS Quidditch match or ....  It could be a red 
herring, but that just doesn't seem right.  That smacks of a games-
playing JKR who is sitting on the sidelines, rubbing her hands 
gleefully and just waiting to jump up and down and say "Fooled you! 
Nyah! Nyah!"  That not only would be obnoxious, but it also strikes 
me as not being much in keeping with the persona that comes across 
in her public appearances.  JKR in her appearances comes across as 
someone who, yes, might show ambiguous and misleading scenes, but 
who doesn't go wildly and extravagantly out of her way just to 
sucker fans into dodging one way so she can left hook them with a 
reversal.  And going wildly and extravagantly out of her way to hit 
readers with a reversal is exactly what the UV scene would be if it 
is a complete red herring.

So, unless I've misread JKR and she is much more of a juvenile games 
player than I imagine, there must be some significance to the UV 
scene.  It must be there because it serves a purpose that just 
inserting it into the plot in the normal way, through Harry's POV, 
would not accomplish.  As Jen says, it tends to make fans question 
the easy assumption that Harry is always wrong in mistrusting Snape, 
and it makes any simple trust/faith through line extremely 
problematic.  Frankly, given all this evidence I wouldn't trust 
Snape just because some elderly schoolmaster said so, even if I did, 
under normal circumstances, have the greatest respect for said 
elderly schoolmaster's wisdom.  And if JKR's message in the end is 
going to be ... well, don't trust yourself, you should trust someone 
against all evidence just because someone else says so (the singsong 
of every corrupt and profoundly oppresive social system in history), 
I'd say she needs to profoundly rethink the basis of her philosophy.

Lupinlore