JKR's own UV (was Re: Which characters are dynamic?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 141908


> Pippin:
> This list is the wrong place to look for people who quit reading 
the series after PoA, but 
> judging  by the sales figures, the reading public did not abandon 
the series in disgust after 
> the incredibly convoluted unbelievable way she completely turned 
the situation around so 
> that Harry was wrong (once again) about Sirius and Sirius was 
completely in the clear
> In fact many people consider it their favorite book, and admire 
the way in which JKR got 
> Sirius off the hook, despite the fact that it depends on a 
character we'd known for two 
> books turning out to be something completely other than what we'd 
imagined, not to 
> mention time-travel.
> 
>

Lupinlore:

Ah, but Scabbers had never been a main player until the third book.  
Much more importantly, the convolutions concern something that 
happened off screen and concern characters we don't know.

To get Snape completely in the clear, however, involves asking us to 
believe that a pivotal scene what we saw with our own eyes (i.e. 
with Harry's eyes) is in fact something else entirely.  THAT is an 
entirely different kettle of fish, particularly when dealing with a 
scene that is much more important and crucial than Harry on his 
broom in PS/SS or any other examples that come to mind.  It also 
asks us to believe that characters whom we have known for a long 
time would act in ways that a great many of us find to be blatantly 
OOC according to the way they have been presented to us.  And, you 
are quite right that it might be in the service of a set of moral 
message that some of us would find objectionable if not downright 
insipid.  But then maybe not, as DDM!Snape could be at the service 
of any number of messages, as could ESE! and OFH! Snape.  

In any case, getting Snape into the clear is possible to do, of 
course, but whereas on the cheesy scale PoA had a mild whiff of 
cheddar, this would smell of several pounds of limburger.  As I said 
before, to many of us unbelievable, thematically and emotionally a 
betrayal, and aesthetically repugnant.

But, of course, exactly the same objections can and have been raised 
about a guilty Snape.  It requires characters that we have seen and 
known for a long time to be OOC according to how they have been 
presented.  It undermines important moral messages and implies a 
morality that is objectionable. It would be cheesy for Harry to be 
right after all and DD to be wrong.  It would be unbelievable, 
thematically and emotionally a betrayal, and aesthetically repugnant.

Which, as I say, amounts to JKR being in a corner, or up a tree, or 
whatever metaphor you want to use.  Whichever way she moves to come 
out, the response will probably make the controversies that attended 
OOTP and HBP look mild by comparison.  Of course, that can be 
amusing in its own right.

Oddly, in many ways I think JKR resembles Snape in the Spinners End 
chapter.  By taking the UV he narrowed his options drastically with 
no good way out.  The tower scene was JKR's UV.  She has narrowed 
her options drastically with no good way out.

But the outcome for her will be much better. :-)


Lupinlore