Is Snape good or evil? (longer)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 148839

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

> Magpie:
> I lean towards wanting people to think for themselves too, but I 
> don't see Harry's troubles in OotP as coming from trusting 
> Dumbledore. 

I see them as resulting from the decisions of others to trust in 
Dumbledore on the whole silence and lack of information front.  Let 
me state that I take it as important here that people don't control 
their emotions and feelings with an iron fist, and that these things 
are desperately important, maybe even more than the rational side of 
things in this fictional universe.  Dumbledore's actions cause a 
great deal of upset on this front, enough that it can't be neglected 
and enough that it eventually trumps the "I should sit down and shut 
up and obey because I've been told to" line.

If someone had challenged Dumbledore on this front (irony of ironies 
that it's Sirius, the casualty, who wanted to?), this central tension 
of the book could have been worked out.  Of course, then the book 
wouldn't have had a driving conflict, but it could have had another 
one, hypothetically.

While on some fronts it is the lack of trust which is important, I 
tend to view the "sit down and shut up and obey" order as a primary 
generator for said lack of trust.  Trust is not a shiny coin which 
one can generate out of nowhere and hand along from person to person, 
having it or not; it's a subtle and complicated thing with layers 
which takes time to develop.

> I don't see much coming from the idea that Dumbledore just fell for 
> an act.

I see a lot of potential in the idea that Dumbledore fell for seeing 
some of what he wanted to see, precisely because he's not capable of 
putting himself into someone else's shoes and really understanding 
the irrational/emotional sides of others.  He knows what he thinks is 
Good, but I'm not sure at all that he's cognizant of what it takes 
for each individual to reach the state that he would want them to.

> That we got this first makes me assume it's the second possibility 
> that's the more interesting and the truth.  

Sadly, 'interesting' and 'true' have nothing to do with each other, 
in my experience. :)

-Nora finds her current work to prove that point very, very solidly