Snape Survey, Snapeity, Dumbledore's sacrifice

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 149101

Sydney wrote:
>
<SNIP>

  Because pretty 
> much
> > all your other points would require a booming authorial voice to 
> come
> > from On High like a badly adjusted Pensive, declaring that "Snape
> > hates Harry and it's as simple as that.  Yes you're right, Snape 
> was a
> > Bad Teacher.  This is exactly how you're supposed to feel about
> > everything."  Whether Snape is a good or a bad teacher or even a 
> good
> > or a bad person is never, ever, ever, never going to be a settled
> > question, because it simply isn't a settleable question, it's a 
> matter
> > of opinion of what you value in teachers or people.  Vive la
> > difference, says I.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Erm... I am completely with LL on this one. But it is an 
interesting 
> thought about accepting different outcomes in Snape and Harry 
> confrontations.
> 
> You know, Sydney, I really AM open to many different outcomes, well 
> except one of them of course, but I think if well written almost 
> anything could satisfy me at the end ( not as much as I would want 
> to, but still).
> 
<SNIPPETY-SNIP>
> But I happen to think that one way or another JKR WILL show it, no 
> matter what outcome will be.
> 


You know, I think JKR's authorial voice IS pretty strong sometimes.  
Not always, of course, but sometimes -- and most especially when she 
drops in long speeches by her three avatars: Lupin, DD, and 
Hermione.  No, I don't mean that EVERY speech by those three 
characters is a message from the author (e.g. Hermione's jealous 
rants about Potions in HBP is, I think, just the author poking some 
fun at the character).  But she isn't above using them that way.  For 
all JKR's proclaimed horror of preaching, I think she gets quite a 
bit of satisfaction from the practice.  She is not, indeed, above 
doing exactly what Sydney talks about:  i.e. saying "Now this is 
this, that is that, here's what you're supposed to think and let's 
move on."

This practice pretty much blossoms in HBP, particularly with 
Dumbledore's speeches.  Dumbledore's confrontation with the Dursleys 
amounted to "Okay folks, here's the deal with this situation and 
here's what you're supposed to think about it so let's put this one 
to bed and move along."  Dumbledore's long, almost lyrical, "Ode to 
Harry" in Chapter 23 was another (it almost got Biblical at points -- 
I was expecting clouds to part and a phoenix to come down while a 
booming voice said "Behold my beloved Harry, with whom I am well 
pleased.")

JKR has said that she regards her job in the final go-round to be 
giving answers -- and I, for one, tend to take her at her word.  
Despite the love of greyness and ambiguity you find in some readers, 
I suspect in the end things will be more clear and well-defined than 
not -- if only because JKR has made it abundantly clear that she 
wants to end the HP series for good, and one very efficient way of 
doing that is to make herself pretty clear on all the major points of 
theme and character.

In fact, I think the problem arises not so much from JKR intending to 
be grey or ambiguous, but from the fact that she is often rather 
naive about the messages people read into her books.  For instance, I 
think she was honestly flabbergasted by the shipping wars -- she 
thought she had made it very clear for several books where all that 
was headed.  Thus the situation in the infamous Leaky Cauldron 
interview, where she tacitly agreed that some of her readers were 
just plain deluded. Similarly, I think she tends to be very honest 
when she says she just doesn't understand fan reaction to certain 
characters -- that is she just doesn't understand why Snape and Draco 
are so popular.  She doesn't understand why Ron is so maligned and 
denigrated in some quarters.  She doesn't understand why Hermione and 
Ginny get paired up with the most obviously unsuitable people.   And 
she really doesn't understand why the characters she regards as most 
interesting and absolutely central, Voldemort and Harry, get pushed 
aside in favor of supporting cast, even if one of said supporting 
cast IS a "gift of a character." 

So, I wouldn't be surprised if there are many howls of dismay, as 
Sydney says, for one thing or another -- actually over many things 
from many people on many sides.  And I wouldn't be surprised if JKR's 
response was is a rather plaintive, "But WHEN did I ever say THAT?"

Lupinlore