Malice and Ulterior Motives - Snape is Sexy? Nice? No Way!

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 139578

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/138754

I wrote:
In my opinion Severus Snape is a bad man. Many say that now
he is not bad, but is a double agent. The interesting thing about
double agents is that you never really know whose side they are truly
on; or even more importantly if they are on any one side at all,
preferring to use what they can from both sides until ultimately both
sides cancel each other out leaving the double-double-crosser as the
true victor.
Throughout the novel Snape is repeatedly described as having
bat-like and spider-like qualities. Bats are bloodsuckers, and
arachnids spin webs to entrap their prey, once caught they are sucked
dry of their innards until only a husk remains. These are the
perfect descriptions for a man who has laid out webs of deceit all
around him and uses those that he ensnares to achieve his goals.

colebiancardi responded:
Bats are NOT bloodsuckers - only the vampire bat is. Most bats are
insect eating creatures and they help cut down on the *bad* insects,
such as flies & mosquitoes. Spiders are also in the same vein as bats
- they catch their prey(insects) and help cut down on the increasing
population of said insects. Matter of fact, there is folklore that
states it is bad luck to kill a spider. I never kill a spider in my
home - I just gently pick it up with paper and put it outside where it
belongs.

Yes, those descriptions are used to describe Snape - but if you look
at it away from the incorrect misconceptions of bats & spiders, well,
you could say he isn't evil, but helping out by ridding the WW of
insects (DE's).

(who thinks that bats are very cute & will not kill a spider)

vmonte responds:
He's helping to cut down on the "bad" insects? Do you really believe 
that a writer would compare Snape to a spider and a bat because 
she/he wanted people to see that the character was a good person? 
Aren't there better descriptors available for that?


The rest of this is not a comment on your post, but just my general 
thoughts about Snape.     

Here is the problem I have with the idea that Snape is not a person 
that's full of malice. If JKR had described Snape as being a big 
teddy bear I would assume that JKR meant that he was cute and 
snuggly, and not that he was literally a stuffed animal.

When a writer (correct me if I'm wrong) writes that a person is 
spider-like and bat-like, the images I should get are of someone that 
has similar characteristics, not of someone that's an actual spider 
or a bat/vampire.

JKR didn't make Snape a vampire because she wants him to be culpable 
for his lousy, improper, and injurious behavior. Lupin is not 
culpable for his actions when he is a werewolf because what he has, 
in effect, is an illness. (Fenrir is different because he 
intentionally positions himself near his victims to assure that they 
get attacked. JKR even adds that Fenrir's taste for blood has crossed 
over into his regular human life as well. She wants to make it 
perfectly clear to her readers what Fenrir's motives are.)

JKR then inserts into the HBP a real vampire (was his name Sanguini?).
Anyway, she goes on to show this "real" vampire as almost cartoon-
like.  If Sanguini were to have lost control at Slughorn's party and 
attacked some kid you could say: "Well, you know, the poor guy was 
just doing what a Vampire does. He couldn't help it, it's in a 
vampire's nature." 

JKR does not want her fans to see Snape this way. She wants to make 
it very clear that this person is culpable for his actions and that 
he is choosing to behave the way that he does because he has made a 
conscience decision.

Vivian