Is Snape good or evil? (longer)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 148920

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

> Which is as good a point as any to ask you the question, Nora: Why 
> do you always try to take the BANG out of everything? 

Short answer: because as I've detailed elsewhere, I thought that the 
end of HBP *was* BANGy, and I'm interested in how much of the fandom 
wants to deny this BANG and shunt off the actual BANGiness to the 
next book, when we get 'Another BANG, But One I Like The 
Ramifications Of Better' in a perpetual delaying strategy.  It 
reminds me of the heyday of the MDDT, where we kept being told that 
next book, next book! would come the manifest proof of the theory.  
(Still waiting, I think...)

I can specifically see something BANGy coming from un-Snape related 
areas, such as the ultimate method of disposal of Voldemort.  I just 
like the ending of the book to be as genuinely shocking as it seems 
to be, although I'm the first to admit all kinds of mitigators are 
possible without massive retcons.

> Or are you being more disingenuous – you don't like Snape's 
> popularity among the fans and you're hoping for a finale that pulls 
> the rug out from under them, that reveals his story as *boring*?

I think that no matter what happens Snape's story will not be as 
detailed and important as at least some of the fandom would like it 
to be.  I've come gradually to the bitter understanding that the kids 
matter a lot more to the author than the adults do, and that a lot of 
the fun with said adults is precisely that we get less on them--
that's how she's constructed them, and it's one of the major reasons 
for their fan popularity.  I think that especially obtains with 
Snape: go out into the world of fanfic, and pick the one that you 
like best.  We all do it, but a limited number of options survive 
each book.

I am totally open to being wrong on this, but I get the feeling that 
all the mystery around Snape is a house of cards built up to be very 
interesting in the process of reading the series in order, but 
ultimately to be collapsed in the service of closing the story.  I 
don't claim to know what kind of story ending she's looking for, but 
that's one option, something designed to snip off loose ends.  Or at 
least to try, for fandom has an infinite loose end generator.

> The fact that JKR is so reluctant to tell us anything about Snape 
> in interviews to my mind paints a big neon sign saying "BANGs 
> imminent!" 

She clearly doesn't want to spoil anything, for which I salute her.  
Of course, that spoilage could also be that yes, the BANG was what it 
seemed to be, no comforting mitigation here.  I give that option half 
odds.

> P.S. Questions for the anti-DDM!Snapers: Why do you think that we 
> the readers are privy to clause 3 of the Unbreakable Vow, but that 
> Harry is not? Do you think that Harry *will* find out about it? If 
> so, why would it be necessary for the plot, and why did we find out 
> about it before Harry? I can think of some answers, but I'm 
> interested to know what you all think.

I'll take a stab, although it's like what I've said before: it makes 
the process of reading the book more complicated than if we were only 
from the Harry!perspective.  (And I think these books are very much 
about the process of reading them, where we have to go and rethink 
what we thought earlier as we go along and learn more.)

It means that we know (or at least we think we know) more than Harry, 
so we may be inclined to say "Oh, look, he's wrong again--we've 
already brought up this possibility, but since Dumbledore knows as 
much or more than we do, we're going to go with him."  Real kick in 
the pants at the end, if you read the book in this way.  It's 
subjective, but I think we *are* encouraged to take Dumbledore as our 
most trusted character, and that's what sets up the end of the book 
BANG.

-Nora admires the ability to hide things in plain sight...my keys are 
where?