Why does Snape wants DADA job if it cursed? LONG

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 148831

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ceridwen" <ceridwennight at ...> 
wrote:
>
<SNIP> 
> 
> Ceridwen:
> Let's put these two together.  Snape thought he could break the 
> curse.  He assumed that either a) LV would lift it, or b) LV would 
> give him the formula to break it, both suggestions because if there's 
> a curse, it seems LV placed it, and Snape is, to LV, LV's man in 
> Hogwarts.  Why would he want his man ousted?  If Snape really prefers 
> this job, then he might want this to be true.
> 


I think this is very plausible, if only because it is the type of thing 
you see in the real world all the time.  And everybody's going "What 
are you talking about?"  Let me explain:

Perhaps the question of Snape wanting the DADA job is a "Sometimes a 
cigar..." moment.  Sometimes things really don't go any deeper than 
they appear.  We've already had some of those.  In the wake of OOTP, 
there was a thriving industry of threads having to do with DD's "real" 
intent in Harry living with the Dursleys.  That is he was "training" 
Harry, he did not want Harry to grow up spoiled, yada, yada, yada.  
But, it would appear from HBP that, no, there was never any reason 
other than the obvious one -- he really thought it was the only way to 
keep Harry alive.  Similarly, there was a major, in fact overwhelming, 
group of threads having to do with the "real" shipping patterns under 
the surface of the Potterverse.  But no, sometimes -- in fact very 
often -- the obvious answer is the correct one.

With regard to Snape, the answer may be that his apparent irrational 
obsession is... well... an irrational obsession.  We've all known such 
cases -- i.e. someone who has a deep seated and fundamental desire for 
something that we can clearly see will not only NOT bring them the 
happiness they think it will but will, in fact, be actively harmful.  
Ever tried to talk somebody out of one of those obsessions?  Good 
luck.  It's both horrible and fascinating in a twisted way, like 
watching a train wreck proceed in slow motion.

In a very real sense, people possessed by such obsessions are addicts --
 it's just that they are addicted to certain dreams and goals as 
opposed to drugs or alcohol or abusive relationships.  And addicts are 
accomplished liars, both to themselves and others.  It's the way they 
protect and preserve their addiction.

If you buy into the DADA curse, it would nevertheless be very 
realistic, from a human standpoint, for Snape to constantly be making 
up reasons to himself and others why he should get the job, anyway.  
For a long time he probably opined loudly that all this curse talk was 
so much rot.  After Voldy's returned, he probably convinced himself 
just as firmly that the curse would not apply to HIM.  He could break 
it if he wanted to, or else Voldemort would remove it once Snape, who 
is at least playing at getting Voldemort's man, gets the job.  In fact, 
he probably believed all three things at once.  That is, he didn't 
believe there was a curse and Voldemort would remove it and he could 
break it, anyway.

Of course those are three partially contradictory things.  If there 
isn't a curse Voldemort can't remove it.  If Voldemort did put a curse 
on the position then he wouldn't take kindly to Snape, Voldy's man or 
not, tampering with it.  But that isn't psychologically unrealistic.  
Only computers and Vulcans can't hold multiple contradictory ideas 
simultaneously, humans do it all the time.  In fact, I'll go so far as 
to say that a human who couldn't do that, at least in benign 
situations, would strike us as so very odd that we would strongly 
suspect them of mental illness.

The objection to this, which Sydney has laid out, is that this isn't 
very bangy and doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know.  
It is an obvious answer, and being an obvious answer can't serve as a 
revelation that moves the plot forward to any profound degree.  I 
acknowledge all of that.  But I guess I'm going to have to agree with 
some of the things Nora has been saying in the "Is Snape evil?" 
thread.  Not every answer needs to be some kind of profound revelation 
that moves the plot in new directions.  In fact, if every answer WERE 
some kind of profound revelation it would get really annoying, really 
fast.  Basically, that would consist of JKR playing a perpetual game of 
gotcha! in which she constantly taunted her readers with "Aha!  Thought 
you had it figured out, didn't you!  Gotcha!"  In point of fact, I 
think JKR plays that game far too often, already, and we really don't 
need an increase in the gotcha! rate.

But back to the point, like Nora I think answers that show 
psychological and factual plausibility, even at the expense of not 
being very bangy, often deepen characters much more than profound 
revelations and suprising twists.  It's true that Snape just being 
irrationally obsessed with the DADA job to the point that he is self-
destructive about it doesn't tell us much that we didn't already know, 
and doesn't tell Harry much that Harry didn't already know.  So what?  
Life is full of situations where answers don't run past the obvious and 
where people's motivations are very clear, even if they are 
irrational.  In a lot of cases the outcome is even more powerful 
because it could be so very clearly foreseen, and still could not be 
avoided.


Lupinlore