Twist JKR? (was:Re: Dumbledore's pleading...)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 141677

> Betsy Hp:
> I don't like OFH because it requires so much twisting and turning 
to 
> work.  (I'm rather surprised *you* like it Nora. <g>)  

Lupinlore:
What twisting and turning?  OFH! is the only view that allows Snape 
to be Snape and NOT try to twist and turn either the viewpoint or the 
plot to fit some kind of interpretation of his actions.  When Snape 
is shown being good, he is being good.  When shown being evil, he is 
being evil.

Betsy Hp:
> And I do think OFH fails to account for Snape saving Dumbledore in 
> one instance and then killing him in another. 

Lupinlore:
Certainly it accounts for it.  Snape before the vow believes saving 
DD is in his own best interests, and so he does so.  Snape after the 
vow finds that it's either him or DD, so DD goes.

Betsy Hp:
Which would be weird, considering she used an entire book 
> to make the point that Snape is a half-blood.  

Lupinlore:
Did she?  That was a piece of information that we learned in the 
sixth book.  However, it seems that the fact of Snape being a half-
blood was scarcely the main point of the plot.  Indeed, it was almost 
a throwaway bit of info there at the end.


Betsy Hp:
<SNIP>
> 
> I know you'll point out that it's not *Snape* developing here, 
> rather Harry's (and therefore our) view of him.  Which is exactly 
> why JKR has been ambiguious with him.  Snape doesn't really change, 
> but as Harry learns more and more about him, the view of him does.  


Lupinlore:
Exactly.  And that is where DDM and ESE both fall down, in that they 
allow no change in Snape.  He has remained essentially the same over 
the last sixteen years.


> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Hee! So that's why Snape provokes so many passionate posts from 
> you?  Because he's so very, very dull?  Oh yes, scenes with Snape 
> are so much wasted paper in which no plot moves forward, Harry has 
> no reaction, and the readership hides their collective yawns.  

Yep.  Snape is a Johnny-one-note of a character, and DDM or ESE make 
him even duller, not to mention making him so cheesy that I'm 
surprised Wormtail doesn't devour him whole.  But fan positions that 
attempt to justify his teaching methods, or to make him rather than 
Harry the true hero of the story, are not.  Those require extremely 
sharp responses.



Betsy Hp: 
<SNIP>

> I'm not seeing any great leaps here.  The Potterverse is not made 
up 
> of saints, so you have to be careful when you define an 
unforgivable 
> sin.  

Why?  Every character being not-a-saint does not make all not-saints 
equal.  Some are clearly guilty of sins of which others are not.  And 
it may be that some of those sins are unforgiveable.


Lupinlore