Sadistic vs. Unpleasant (Snape's canon opposite/ Proving loyalty)

[Sherry]

No: HPFGUIDX 140285

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "houyhnhnm102" <celizwh at i...> wrote:
> > vmonte quoting Rowlings:
> >
> > JKR: Snape is a very sadistic teacher, loosely based on a teacher I 
> > myself had, I have to say. I think children are very aware and we are 
> > kidding ourselves if we don't think that they are, that teachers do 
> > sometimes abuse their power and this particular teacher does abuse 
> > his power. He's not a particularly pleasant person at all. 
> 
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> Then she *is* using the word carelessly.  There is a huge difference 
> between being "not a particularly pleasant person" and being
sadistic.  [Equating them] is an immature and self-
> centered point of view, common in teenagers and in those whose 
> emotional development has been arrested in adolescence. 

Amontillada:

I don't read JKR as using "sadistic" carelessly, but as referring to
different DEGREES of cruelty vs. unpleasant or inappropriate manner of
teaching. I notice two things about her description:

* She says "this particular teacher does abuse his power. He's not a
particularly pleasant person at all" in the PRESENT tense. She HAD
that teacher as a girl herself--PAST tense. So when she says "does
abuse his power" and "He's not a particular pleasant..." is she
talking about her former teacher or about Snape?

* She says that Snape is LOOSELY based on her former teacher, not that
he was a direct portrait. Recalling that bad teacher may have given
her an idea; then she thought something like "All right, what if I
take him to the extreme--make him outright cruel or sadistic?"  That
may have been how she got the initial idea for Snape, but not the
fully fleshed-out character.

Doesn't JKR say on her website that Gilderoy Lockhart is the only
character she based directly on someone she knew? That also suggests
that Snape isn't a portrait of her teacher, so she isn't using
"sadistic" and "unpleasant" as synonyms.

Amontillada