Is Snape good or evil?

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 148925

> >>Dungrollin: 
> > 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? 

> >>Nora: 
> 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.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
But doesn't that deny a basic rule of story telling?  The climax 
happens at the *end* of the story, therefore the biggest BANG *will* 
be in the last book.

I'm curious though, who's out there denying the BANG of HBP?  I, an 
unapologetic, Snape-fangirl extraodinaire, found HBP *very* BANG-y.  
I actually exclaimed out loud.  Sure, I think there's another shoe 
waiting to drop (with a much bigger bang), but that's based a great 
deal on the basic rules of story-telling.  It ain't over til the 
final chapter of the final book in the series, and I imagine JKR is 
hoping to bring us screaming over the finish line.

> >>Dungrollin:
> > 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*?

> >>Nora: 
> 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.

Betsy Hp:
Well, sure!  I'd have loved to have witnessed every single DADA 
class Snape taught.  I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall at every 
single meeting between Snape and Dumbledore.  And yet I still manage 
to realize that Harry is the star.  But that doesn't mean that Snape 
has exited stage left to never be heard from again.  This isn't that 
type of story.

> >>Nora:
> <snip>
> 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.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
In that questions will be answered, yes I agree with you.  But I 
will be surprised if the answers aren't *satisfying*.  Aren't 
*worthy* of all the effort JKR has gone through to make Snape such a 
mystery.  We know a bit more about the man, a half-breed, wrong side 
of the tracks, dweeby little, anti-social prodigy.  That's 
*fasinating* to me, and statisfying.  There's more to learn, I'm 
sure.  But I doubt it'll be boring. :-)

> >>Dungrollin:
> > 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!" 

> >>Nora: 
> 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.

Betsy Hp:
But JKR doesn't mind giving negative spoilage.  Snape is *not* a 
vampire.  Dumbledore is *not* a time-traveled Ron.  Luna and Neville 
will *not* hook-up.  Luna is *not* Snape's (or was it Voldemort's?) 
daughter.  (Frankly, I think she does this a bit more than she 
should, but I imagine she's trying to prevent the little ones 
building castles in the sky and hating the non-conforming canon.)

If Snape was nothing at all to the tale, or if the tower scene was 
exactly what it seemed, she'd flat out tell us I think.  Instead of 
doing her version of the mysterious twinkle.  

Betsy Hp, back from non-computer land, filled to the brim on Mary 
Renault's novels and *aching* to drop an analogy to fifth century 
b.c. Athens, or Alexander the Great on y'all. <g>