Snape Loved or In-Love with Lily?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 148451

Sydney 
> *rubs hands together*   Ah, the Snape/Lily bandwagon is piling up
> with mournful-looking souls playing reluctant dirges on their
> teeny-tiny violins.   Well, folks, I was a one-woman Snape/Lily
> band before we even HAD a wagon-- from Book 1 as a matter of fact--
> so whine all you like, I'll be standing up front drowning youse
> all out with a jolly trombone. Let's get a little enthusiasm here!

Jen looks up reluctantly from her teeny-tiny violin and whine with 
cheese and smugly says to herself: "Look, Sydney with her 
cheerleading uniform on. Hah! Like JKR is going to hang her series 
on *that* one." Jen sniggers behind her hand, wondering how Syndey 
will take the bad news and whether she should share her weensy 
violin when the time comes? 

Sydney: 
> The black-swathed ambiguous guy tortured but ennobled by his
> unspoken passion for the lily-white heroine-- what's not to love?
>  So it's a romantic, corny cliche that went out with the horse-and-
> buggy.  <snip> Dagnab it, the whole POINT of Harry Potter is that
> it rummages around everything from fairy tales to Dickens, pulls
> out all the stuff that no-one's dared to use in a million years
> because it's not ironic or 'realistic' or postmodern or
> progressive, and dares to bring it back alive and without
> apology.  <snip> JKR is can be sneaky, but she's certainly not
> into deconstructing the genre.  

Jen: Hey, what happened to the Time magazine article 
about 'subverting the genre' and all that? Someone needs to tell JKR 
the whole point of her story is that she uses cliche's really well 
and then step back and wait for her response. I'm not sure that's 
*her* take on her work. But about the tortured guy and unspoken 
passion, I take it even you agree that the love could be no more 
than unrequited in this instance? That JKR isn't going for the 
ultimate cliche of the bad boy being changed by the love of a good 
woman since even she, the cliche queen, has rejected that one? :-)

Sydney:
> -- What keeps being hinted as the theme of the whole series?  Oh,
> yeah,love.  Haven't seen a whole lot of that around yet.  Might be 
> a good idea to have it, like, drive one of the central characters
> or something.

Jen: Like Lily's sacrifice? Or Dumbledore's terminal quest to 
destroy as many horcruxes as possible so Harry wouldn't have to? Or 
Sirius' life ruined because of one mistake he made that caused the 
deaths of the people he loved more dearly than anyone else?  There's 
Love everywhere, who needs love? We already saw one version of 
unrequited love and it wasn't a pretty picture. Maybe JKR doesn't 
hold as noble a view of this particular cliche. 

Sydney:
> -- Sydney, who can't WAIT for S/L stuff in book 7.  Cheer UP,
> people, it'll be FUN, I promise.

Jen: Maybe? I'll hold out hope if she does go there I won't cringe 
like the rest of the romance sections make me do. Mystery, 
characterization, convoluted plotting? Love 'em. Romance? Wade 
through it to the good stuff. 

Alla:
> Oh, but since I think the love was mainly from Snape' side, do
> they have to be equals?

Jen: Oops, misunderstood that. No, that seems like her pattern only 
with actual couples.

Alla: 
> And Tom Riddle Sr. and Merope seem like such a nice foreshadowing 
> for Snape possibly wanting to drug Lily with Love Potion and 
> (maybe?) abandoning such idea at some point. Heeee! You know my
> not very flattering opinion of his moral character. :)

Jen: LOL! Now I haven't read *that* theory yet.;) I may be the only 
one who thinks Slughorn's talk of obsessive love and the Tom 
Riddle/Merope deal had nothing to do with Snape and Lily and 
everything to do with Voldemort. But oh well, we can't get 
everything we want, right?


Alla:
> And yes, it exactly what it feels like to me - that JKR is doing
> it on purpose - dropping hints, but nothing certain and I don't
> even think that she is being too sneaky or devious, because trust
> me I so was NOT fan of LOLLYPOPS, but with every book I get a
> feeling that that is exactly what is going to happen. It is like 
> JKR manages to say it without actually saying it. 

Jen, with hands over her eyes: I know, I know! It's hard to even 
argue anymore. I'm still disappointed in the idea Snape's mystery 
will boil down to unrequited love for a girl 20 years 
ago...sigh...there are so many other things JKR writes so *well*. 
Look at Draco and his father, that dynamic makes it so believable to 
me that Draco turned out like he did. Draco stays right on the 
razor's edge all the time between his fear (and maybe hints of 
doubt?) keeping him from straying too far and the need to live up to 
the Malfoy name egging him own. Just the thought of Snape collapsing 
down, as Nora also puts it, into a heap of blubbering lost love is 
just...painful, yep, that's the word.

Anyway, just read Tonks post before posting this one and think maybe 
she has a good idea: It's the hatred of the Marauders, the life debt 
and feelings for Lily rolled up in one. Now that sounds like some 
drama and angst, doesn't it? All those competing factors 
contributing in the end.

Jen R., knowing she is a Scrooge about this one but thinking if 
Sydney plays her jolly trombone she might just have to stuff a sock 
in it. <g>