Power vs. Trust (was:The Possibilities of Grey Snape...)

nrenka nrenka at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 15 05:38:01 UTC 2005


No: HPFGUIDX 143043

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" <belviso at a...> 
wrote:

> Magpie:

<snip>

> (And as Sydney correctly pointed out, the scene in the Tower is 
> designed so that we don't see a moment where Dumbledore realizes 
> he's been wrong.)  

Actually, that is precisely what I find the whole pleading scene to 
be.

"The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all 
evening. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading."

There's your tragic anagnorisis right there (also argued for in post 
142981), just in the terse style which JKR likes.  [It's also 
interesting that this happens right as Snape enters the scene, which 
means some switch--positive or negative--goes off immediately.]  
Mercifully, she forgoes the fanfiction option of laying everything 
out on the table and telling us what everyone in the room thinks.  
Results in far more arguments about what actually happened, but is 
far better literature. :)

> Magpie:
> 
> Harry's right a lot. 

Except about Snape, of course.  The plot is often driven by him being 
mistaken or lacking in knowledge about something, with revelations 
coming at the end of the novel (often rendering our hero fairly 
passive as the one being enlightened).  One could argue that this is 
now the standard for the books and will continue; but it's just as 
viable to note that the structure of the novels has been fraying in 
terms of its regularity, exceptional events have happened, etc.  I'd 
almost argue that it's *more* unrealistic to expect the pattern to 
keep going, especially given an author who I'd class as sentimental 
as opposed to naive.  She's aware of the genre conventions and thus 
may choose to follow or tweak them at will.

<snip>

> In chapter two of the sixth book of a seven book series we're just 
> told okay, here's the real deal with Snape, so think of him this 
> way from now on.  It won't be a surprise for you when he kills 
> Dumbledore, because here he is swearing to do so. 

Except that it's done in a way that provides maximal opportunities 
for fans to pull out the 'spy' and 'pretending' excuses--which is a 
lot of what generates the interesting frission in reading the novel.  
We get an eagle's eye view, except even then we're unsure.

> It seems to come down to whether the tension about trusting Snape 
> was an important part of the story or just a distraction to keep 
> Harry busy until he got out of school.  

I find the tension to be integral to the experience of reading the 
books, even if it's ultimately more peripheral to the plot than most 
of us might have predicted.

> Perhaps an editor should have made sure in the end we all knew what 
> everyone knew when.

That would take most of the fun out of it, though.  It rockets us 
into fanfictionland, where authors are happy to write out detailed 
accounts of events and then have endless scenes (usually in the 
Headmaster's Office and involving drinks, as a way to get the entire 
cast of characters as audience in there) then explaining to us what 
everyone has been doing and why they've been doing it.

-Nora feels for everyone reading the series first after book 7 who 
will most likely have it all totally spoiled for them before they 
start







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