Snape! Snape! Snape! Snape! Loverly Snape! Wonderful Snape!

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 148202

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

> Second, it's not borne out in the books.  If Snape is so 
*obviously* 
> supposed to be a sadist that JKR feels free to comment that of 
> course he is, than why is doesn't she make it clear in the books?  
> Why not clearly show the most casual reader that this man enjoys 
> seeing others in pain?  She does so with Umbridge.  She fails to do 
> so with Snape.

Maybe JKR honestly thinks that she's shown it well enough?  After 
all, she seems to have been genuinely poleaxed by the shipping wars, 
past a certain point--she thought she made *that* one absolutely 
crystal clear, and yet a significant number of people chose to invest 
in a different reading.  Being absolutely direct tends to end up 
looking like preaching to the audience, and there's a classic 
hallmark of what's generally considered 'bad writing' in the modern 
novel.  There are any number of other things which she's generally 
counted on us-the-readers 'getting', and gets more than a 
little 'wot?' about some of the questions that she gets.

So if she were to speak directly, she may well go "You guys read that 
scene like that?  I thought it was clear that..."

-Nora wonders what the reaction would be if JKR were to outright deep 
six some of the explanations for actions/alternative readings that 
listies have posited on this subject