Snape as infidel was Re: Kant and Snape and Ethics and Everything

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 150345

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:

> Betsy Hp:
> So, you're okay with a popular childrens series classifying any 
> religion that isn't Christianity as less moral?  Because *that's* 
> what I was talking about in the above statement.  I'm uncomfortable 
> with Gryffindor specifically standing for Christianity while the 
> other Houses take on the role of infidels.  It starts down an ugly 
> path, to my mind.

Honestly--no, I don't care, I'm fine with it.  I have nothing 
invested in that interpretation, and it's not anywhere as obnoxious 
and overt as either Lewis's Christianity or Pullmann's anti-
Christianity.

> Betsy Hp:
> Okay, I think I see where you're coming from here.  With regards to 
> magic, I've found this series in particular to be incredibly weak 
> in differentiating between good magic and bad.  I mean, sure, 
> desecrating a grave is bad, but how is a sword cutting curse dark 
> but a face branding curse not dark? 

Possibly it's a distinction between necessary and sufficient, but 
YMMV.

> Hee!  And see, I think the "good guys" display bad sportsmanship 
> all the time.  The twins *always* fight with the odds on their side.

On the other hand, their aim is not malicious--it's not the same kind 
of benefiting from the misfortunes of others.  And that's why JKR is 
totally okay with the Gryffindors and their actions which seem 'the 
same' as the Slytherins, who take the textual knocks for it.  That's 
why she loves Ginny for her feistiness and makes Draco the punching 
bag.  See above about the worldview of the series.

> I don't think Dumbledore has been gently waiting for Snape to 
> develop a moral sense.  For one, how do you trust 
> someone "completely" who has no moral sense? 

You know their nature, which makes them at least somewhat 
predictable, even if it's not a good moral sense which is guiding 
them.

> However, by entangling Snape in the Tower killing, Dumbledore is 
> hardly being benign.  

That is, of course, dependent on an interpretation that thinks 
Dumbledore has somehow entangled Snape in this killing.  Try out 
another perspective which doesn't assume that and see where it gets 
you.  It's interesting.

-Nora spends an evening with le petit Nicolas