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

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 156549

> Pippin:
> If Faith believes all that, I'm afraid she's been subverted and no
> longer adequately represents her position <g>
> 

Neri:
Ah, yes. People sometimes try to subvert Faith. But since her very
essence is anti-subversion, their attempts are usually short lived.

> Pippin:
> The straightforward interpretation of canon is that we don't have
> enough information to determine whether Snape is good or bad, since
> all of Book Seven is needed to establish this.

Neri:
Faith asks where in canon do you find the sentence "we don't have
enough information to determine whether Snape is good or bad" or
something similar. 

> Pippin:
> If everything hinges
> on what happened on the Tower, Faith ought to be agnostic since
> there is contradictory evidence.

Neri:
Hmm. I notice some change in your position. First you wrote that Faith
has to believe that Snape is good, and now you write that she only has
to be agnostic.

Of course, Faith is very good at being agnostic. She was actually
being agnostic about Snape for nearly six books, a feat that not many
other readers had managed to achieve. However, Faith is also rather
simple minded. Not actually to the point of being Naïve or Gullible,
but she *is* their first cousin. So when Faith sees someone points his
wand at an old defenseless man, shouts "Aveda Kedavra", a green jet of
light comes out of the tip of his wand and hits the defenseless old
man, and that man ends up dead, well then, Faith tends to believe that
this someone isn't a good man. Not very sophisticated, I know. 


> Pippin:
It certainly looked to Harry as if 
> Snape had killed Dumbledore with an unforgivable curse.
> OTOH, a trickle of blood is straightforward evidence that Dumbledore
> had been dead for far less than half an hour when Harry found him.
> 

Neri:
No. It took even the great Pippin, the queen of subversive theorists,
several months to notice the trickle of blood and conclude that it
proves Dumbledore wasn't dead for half an hour. That's not
straightforward, that's at best a very sneaky clue (and what's more,
in order to build any watertight theory it requires a multitude of
additional assumptions and sneaky clues). Faith isn't nearly as
inquisitive a reader as that. She believes what canon *places in front
of her*, not what it hides in the tiny details. You need a different
personification for that.

BTW, the trickle of blood by itself would also support a theory that
Dumbledore is still alive. So if Faith was swayed by such sneaky clues
 she should have also been agnostic about Dumbledore being dead. But
Faith believed what canon placed before her, so she was always sure
about Dumbledore being dead and, as usual, proved correct.


> Pippin:
> The straightforward interpretation of canon is that  Snape thought 
> that Sirius and Lupin were guilty when he threatened them. 
> 

Neri:
That's why Faith was agnostic at the time. However, it was also
straightforward that Snape refused to listen to any proof that they
weren't guilty, and was rather enjoying himself threatening them with
sucking their souls. That's something a good man wouldn't do even if
he believes they are guilty. 

Saying all that, Faith would still be agnostic about Snape even after
the tower if she couldn't see a way to reconcile the good things he
did with the bad things he did. But such a way exists, and what's more
it is highly supported in canon. Not sneaky clues canon, but things
that Dumbledore says in his remember-that-my-son end-of-the-year
lectures. Faith must at least acknowledge that this looks like the
most reasonable solution at the moment. And besides, she always longed
for a badge of her own <g>.


> Pippin:
> It is equally straightforward that  Dumbledore knows how Snape 
> behaves towards Harry and Neville

Neri:
Canon, please.

> Pippin:
and has some epitome of
> goodness reason for allowing it, though naturally Faith would
> not presume to speculate about what it is.<g>
> 

Neri:
She wouldn't. Not if it requires some subversive theory about Snape
acting and it's all a part of some Dumbledore's master plan. You need
a different personification to do that.


Neri