Snape, Snape, Loverly Snape...and authorial intent

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 148259

Irene Mikhlin wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> 
> That's very possible, but if that's the truth, I don't
> understand Rowling's game at all. If she wanted Snape
> to be ambigous, and his treason in book 6 to be
> surprising, then she didn't do such a great job, did
> she?
> Certainly Harry (together with the majority of the
> readers) had never expected from Snape any better.
> Surely she didn't wrote the whatever ambiguity is
> there just to surprise the small number of
> Snapeophiles among us? :-)
> 
		
The mysteries about Snape have to come to an end sooner or later.  
Given the divided nature of the fandom, however the mysteries end, 
there are going to be people saying, "But that's not a surprise!"  If 
Snape turns out to be ESE many people will shrug and say they knew it 
all along.  If he is OFH some of us will say, "Sure, isn't it 
obvious?"  And if he's DDM lots of people will say "I knew THAT all 
along, where's the surprise?"  However the mysteries end, people who 
enjoy spinning explanations for Snape and his behavior will probably 
never be able to read the books in the same way again.  In fact even 
people who don't care much about Snape will have that reaction.  
They'll read a particular passage and say "Well, now I know what that 
means," and move on, rather than mulling and chewing and spinning.  
It's like reading an Agatha Christie novel for the second time.  Now 
that you know who dunnit, the novel's "feel" is irrevocably 
different.  And, once again, I think that's going to happen regardless 
of how JKR parts the veil on Snape.  It's just the nature of a mystery 
solved and a secret revealed.

Lupinlore