[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape Survey, Snapeity, Dumbledore's sacrifice

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 149104

Lupinlore:
> 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."

Magpie:
I think she understands a lot of these things a lot more than she pretends. 
If she thinks Voldemort is so central why does she make Snape more central 
to the story?  If she doesn't get why Snape and Draco are popular why does 
she, too, seem to give them more important stories than the other 
characters?  I can see her not being down with Ron being maligned, but it's 
not like she's diving in to write compelling stories about Ron.  He's just a 
nice guy.  Meanwhile for all her claims that she doesn't get why people want 
to see stuff about Snape and Draco she seems to be writing the same type 
stories herself. Snape's got the most mysterious, juicy past--he is a gift 
of a character.  And Draco, when he finally gets a story, gets one that 
resembles not the kind favored by the people who for years had been telling 
us they were reading the character the way the author wanted, but something 
straight out of H/D's greatest hits.  Not that she was writing Draco as the 
hero or writing H/D, but it turned out all those cliches that were supposed 
to be the mark of a deluded fangirl were a lot closer to where the author 
was going than the ones previously considered canon.  Ron and Hermione are 
given things to keep them busy, but it's Snape and then Draco's storylines 
that are plugged into the main plot and Harry's fight.

In interviews I think JKR plays a role.  "Who would want Snape to love 
them?" and "You're all getting entirely too fond of Draco, the darkness is 
coming!"  But I think underneath she's perfectly gleeful knowing what's 
coming.  I mean, think about Book VI here.  Now that we know what the story 
in that book was, do you really think Rowling saw people interested in Draco 
and thought, "Oh no, this is a bad thing.  They're going to hate what's 
coming."  No, I think she was thrilled knowing that their boy was going to 
get put through the wringer for his sins and knowing they were going to love 
every minute of it.  Her warnings about seeing Draco as too nice after HBP, 
imo, show that while she doesn't want people to simplify his story and make 
him just a victim (the bad fanfic version) she does, imo, understand the 
hurt/comfort factor--as if we didn't know that already.

And then with Snape, well, there's her goldmine of a character.  Voldemort's 
whole story can be just told flat out in a couple of Pensieve trips--and the 
Pensieve, I think, was used to make the story more interesting, because on 
its own it really just isn't. The Merope/Tom Sr. union might have had the 
interesting twist of the love potion, but Tom was born bad (even as a baby), 
and then just continued to be bad.  There's no conflict for him in his 
story, he just grew worse and worse.

Snape's story on the other hand--whoa.  He's far more central than 
Voldemort.  And every book he becomes more so.  First he's Harry's hated 
teacher--then he's also his protector!  And he's his father's nemesis--wait, 
he's Harry's father's victim!  Then he's an actual Death Eater--but he's a 
reformed Death Eater!  Under mysterious circumstances!  Then there's the 
scene in the Pensieve where Harry's actually siding with him. And he's a 
child in an unhappy household.  Then he's Harry's new best friend possibly 
leading him down the primrose path to evil.  Oh, and it turns out he's the 
very one personally responsible for Harry's being an orphan and being the 
Boy Who Lived.  Then he kills Dumbledore, who trusts him completely.

It's Voldemort (the monster--thanks, Sydney!) who hovers around the edge of 
the story.  It's Snape who's right there in the center.

-m