Hagrid and Snape/ Was Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 152727

Lupinlore:
> Niceness, on the other hand, does get its reward in the great 
> balance wheel of things.  And getting passes is part of it.  So 
yes, 
> Hagrid gets a pass for his poor teaching.  And Lupin gets a pass 
for 
> his problems.  Snape, on the other hand, most certainly does NOT 
get 
> a pass for his abusive methods, no matter how effective they might 
> be.  That's just the way the world is.  And, in the great scheme 
of 
> things, it is perfectly fair and appropriate that it be so.

Magpie:
But clearly he does get a pass by many people, because different 
people have different priorities.  It depends on what an individual 
person finds the most annoying or the most important.  If it were as 
clearcut as nice people getting a pass and mean people not getting a 
pass, Snape wouldn't have so many fans, and everyone would agree on 
the character.  Hagrid really doesn't get much of a pass on his 
teaching--less than Snape does in many ways, imo.

What's interesting about the Snape discussion is in some ways he 
goes straight to this, that, to quote Sondheim, "nice" is different 
than "good," and even a good nice person may be the one to make the 
immoral choice under pressure, while the not nice person may be the 
one to do the right thing.  Snape has, in his way, always seemed to 
symbolize this to people.  Like in the recent comparisons to a 
doctor, it's not that one is choosing between a doctor who cures 
people for money and a doctor who cures people because he loves his 
calling.  It's more looking at the grey area where a doctor is faced 
with curing someone he does not like, a person he would really 
rather be dead.  Does he do his duty when it isn't personally 
pleasing to him?

Leah:
I find this answer quite depressing, because it makes me feel that
JKR's view of Snape is most closer to Alla's, than it is to mine or
Carol's.   I wonder if she is being deliberately obtuse here,
because the questioner makes quite clear why she (I assume it's a
she from the answer), loves Snape: it is because he is such a
complex and interesting character.  There may be a bit of bad boy
syndrome in there, (Sexy!Snape), but that's not enough. I have very
little interest in discussing Draco or his father at length, however
attractive Jason Isaacs may be (I'm far too old for Tom Felton). I
just get the feeling that Snape is a character that's run away from
his creator- but then, what's with the healing; why make him more
complex than ever?

Magpie:
I know just how you feel--but if it helps, I've come to really 
believe that this kind of thing is nothing but a distraction.  
Talking about whether people find Jason Isaacs or Tom Felton or Alan 
Rickman cute (mostly Tom or Alan) is a safe topic.  Whenever JKR 
does this she's not talking about canon or the story or the 
characters.  Her interviews maybe always sound like she sees the 
characters more like readers who couldn't care less if Slytherin 
characters fell off a cliff, but they're still the characters she 
herself gets her main story from.  All roads in canon seem to lead 
to Snape especially. For years people quoted interviews at me to 
tell me I was all wrong in ways where I was actually right, so I 
read the interviews a bit different now.  

-m