Kant and Snape and Ethics and Everything

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 150204

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> 
wrote:

<snip>

> That this is comic is shown by the lack of serious consequences:
> Harry's psyche is not squashed to jelly, Sirius gets away,
> Neville's hopes of being an Auror would have failed anyway, 
> Harry's attempts at occlumency would have failed anyway, Lupin 
> would have been outed anyway, and so on.

Where I'd disagree with your general summations here is that it's 
always and entirely comic.  These Snape-centered situations were more 
comic than not in the beginning of the series, but many things which 
were more comical have become increasingly serious.  For one, it's 
funny to laugh at Snape's open rage at the end of PoA until you 
realize how that may have rebounded with Fudge's opinions and 
willingness to act at the end of GoF.  (I'm not going to take the 
Wanderer's position of 'alles ist nach seiner Art' here, because I 
prefer the perspective that events actually have effects and thus 
matter.)  Snape and Harry's hostility is somewhat comic until it has 
profound effects, contributing to the tragic denoument of OotP.  
Neville may never have been Auror material, but it's taken him long 
enough to realize who and what he could be instead.

No, I think the Ordinary Vices, the little everyday evils which 
characters do to each other, these things begin to add up, and they 
certainly do matter.  Wouldn't that be your general argument 
regarding the Twins, as well?  Actions read as generally comic in one 
book taking on different ramifications and with definite consequences 
in the next?

-Nora raises the bar of expectations for characters in positions of 
authority, probably wrongly