James' essence/ a bit of Snape/Lily speculation WAS: Re: Choice and Essentialism

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 154008

> a_svirn:
> Precisely. Also for me at least Sirius's statement rings hollow 
> because he tries to find excuse for something inexcusable. It 
> doesn't matter whether or not James hated the Dark Arts. His 
> aversion to every thing Dark did not give him the licence to act as 
> he did. The fact that Sirius brought James's hatred to the Dark Arts 
> in such a context makes his claim less believable.
>

Alla:

I think I finally found a decent enough analogy to illustrate the way 
I think about it a bit better.

I am not sure I remember where you stand on Snape/Lily from the past 
discussions. My position that it has a high possibility to make me 
very ill, but I am more and more convinced that in some shape or form 
it is going to come true.

So, imagine for the sake of argument that somebody who likes Snape ( 
not that many people on the list, maybe DD's portrait) or Snape 
himself tells Harry that the reason he treated Harry in such way 
during all those years is because that he loved Lily and blamed Harry 
for Lily's death.

This would be offered as justification for what Snape did to Harry. Do 
I BUY it as justification? Of course not, I will not be any less 
disgusted by Snape's treatment of Harry if it turns out that he was 
not mature enough to grasp that one year old child is NOT to blame for 
the fact that his mother loved him enough to die for him.

BUT I would see no reason to doubt that the FACT that "Snape loved 
Lily" is true ( if it would be offered in the book as true).

I will not buy it as justification, but I will buy it for the truth of 
the matter asserted. I will buy it for the reasons of literary 
ecomonomy too.

Same here - I don't see propensity to lie as Sirius character trait. I 
do NOT buy it as justification, but I sure buy it as a factual 
assertion.

JMO,

Alla, who loves James character SO much more after pensieve scene than 
before it.