Re: This shall be Salman Rushdie´s words (Spoiler????)!?

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 156546

Ken 
> I don't know about Latin either. I do know that in the branch of
> mathematics called logic the following definitions are used:
> 
> statement:         if A then B
> inverse:              if not A then not B
> converse:           if B then A
> contrapositive:   if not B then not A
> 
> In logic IF you can establish the truth of a statement its 
> contrapositive will also ALWAYS be true. Likewise IF a statement
> AND its inverse OR its converse can be shown to be true then
> all four varients are true and A and B are in fact identical. 
> 
> The trouble with trying to apply logic to Rushdie's statement is
> that the statement itself is false in general so no logical conclusions 
> can be drawn from it. An evil Snape might have gone along with 
> a DD plan to fake his death for some reason to be revealed in
> book 7. The proposition that if Snape is a villian then DD is dead
> is simply not true. Rowling has confirmed that DD is dead so 
> thus endeth many fine theories but by itself this tells us nothing
> about Snape's loyalties.
> 
> Rowling did say that Rushdie's opinion was correct. We can't know 
> which part of Rushdie's rambling opinion she might have been 
> referring to when she said this. She confirmed *something* that 
> he said, but which something? I don't think that you can make too
> much of the difference between an opinion and a theory because
> it is too likely that in the heat of a real time discussion that Rowling
> was not choosing her words that carefully. You might consider a 
> theory to be just an informed opinion anyway.
> 
> Two things at the end of HBP seemed like possible tricks on the reader:
> DD's "death" and Snape's "betrayal". If either one was a trick it seems
> unlikely she would give them away at this point. Maybe she tripped up
> but she is by now an experienced trickster and not easily tripped. By
> telling us that the straightforward interpretation of DD's "death" is 
> correct she is not giving away one of her tricks, she is telling us
that 
> we only imagined a trick where there was none. If she meant to say that
> Snape is good and the straightforward interpretation of the ending of 
> HBP is wrong then she *is* giving away one of her tricks and one that
> she has played very close to her chest for 6 books. This seems very
> unlikely, so I'm guessing that she was confirming the opinion that 
> everything hinges on whether Snape is good or evil and  *not* the 
> opinion that Snape is good.
> 
> Now that I've said that, just watch: She'll come out in the papers today
> and say how flustered and embarrassed she is at having stumbled when
> she revealed Snape's true character at the book reading!

wynnleaf
Despite the fact that I said in my last post the if Snape was evil
Dumbledore must be dead, you are correct that such a statement is not
necessarily true.  It is conceivable (barely) that Snape could be evil
and DD fake his death -- although we know now that didn't happen.

Basically, I agree with you that it is highly unlikely that JKR would
have given away this mystery the other night.  However, we *did* see
her almost certainly inadvertently give away information about Harry
Ron and Hermione living through Book 7.  So it is possible that she
was particularly flustered that night and gave Snape away, too.  But I
don't think she meant to say "your opinion is correct," to Rushdie's
opinion that Snape is good.  I just don't think she'd be that
flustered, even with the surprise of a famous author asking her such a
detailed question.  My guess is that she was commenting on Rushdie's
last opinion, that the true meaning of the events on the tower hinge
on Snape's loyalty or lack of loyalty.  But I think that she was also
trying to move away from commenting directly on Snape and that was one
reason why she focused her more direct comments on the death of
Dumbledore.

wynnleaf
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