Re: Dumbledore's "“peaceful expression”? (was: Dumbledore's pleading)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 141793

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
>
>  
> > > Potioncat:
> > > Ah, yes, HPfGU contamination. Much more insidious than movie 
> > > contamination. Even if "peaceful" did start with Carol, it took
on a 
> > > life of its own.
> > > 
> > 
> > Neri:
> > All I'll say is - you didn't not go back nearly far enough <g>. This
> > one goes considerably deeper, and Carol *isn't* the earlier source
> > that I came across. And as far as I could see it didn't started from
> > the portrait.
> > 
> Pippin:
> Neri is possibly referring to my post 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/133034
> 
> I quoted the canon, and said that Dumbledore wouldn't have had time to
> close his eyes or assume a peaceful expression. It's true the canon
doesn't
> literally say that he had a peaceful expression, but that's
generally what we mean in 
> English when we say that a corpse looks like it was sleeping. (Open
casket viewings are not 
> uncommon in the US or I think in Britain.) I'd be astounded if
someone said that about a 
> body and it turned out to have an expression of horror or  blank
surprise -- or pleading.
> 

Neri:
I wasn't accusing anybody. I just thought that the process of a tiny,
completely innocent phrase gradually acquiring the status of canon is
interesting and even, might I say, educational. This was the usual
process that I encountered (throughout many posts by many posters):

A) Dumbledore's eyes were closed; but for the angle of his arms and
legs he might have been sleeping.

B) Dumbledore had a peaceful expression when he died.

C) Dumbledore was not betrayed. He died satisfied that whatever he
asked of Snape will be done.

A is canon. B is a subtle interpretation of canon. The meaning of A
could well be that Dumbledore's expression was neutral, or that it's
simply not very important for the story. However, B isn't important by
itself, but as a stepping stone to C. Once A is all but forgotten and
B is established as the undisputed canon (and by September it was, by
all the posters I've seen) C seems almost unavoidable. With the
general direction of the process it would have probably acquired a
near-canon status next. You need to read A next to C to realize that
there's some distance between the original and the interpretation.
Again, I don't have any problem with interpretation. I just think that
treating interpretation as canon might lead you to some weird places.

Neri