Rowling and Snape: was: Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 152787

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.   

Leslie41:
 
> It may be, on the surface.  But I am of the mind 
> that deep down, whether she has planned it or not, 
> Rowling is extremely drawn to Snape, and probably 
> spends more time thinking about him than any other 
> character.  HBP only reinforced this for me.

houyhnhnm:

It has to be remembered that a lot Rowling's answers that make some of
us queasy (Well me, any way--shaking her finger at girls who like bad
boys, then turning around, winking, and smirking, and saying you don't
understand women if you think Lily was really mad at James.  Calling
herself evil and laughing, and so forth) have been given in interviews
with young fans who get into the books on a much more elemental level.
Or she has been promoting book sales or dodging questions that would
give away plot.

This is what Rowling said in an interview with a little more gravitas,
at Amazon.com.uk
*************************
Amazon.co.uk: Are your characters based on people you know?

Rowling: Some of them are, but I have to be extremely careful what I
say about this. Mostly, real people inspire a character, but once they
are inside your head they start turning into something quite
different. Professor Snape and Gilderoy Lockhart both started as
exaggerated versions of people I've met, but became rather different
once I got them on the page.
*************************
I like Snape because he never does or says anything trite.  The other
characters degenerate into caricatures for me at times, but Snape
never does.

I find it hard to believe that an author could create such a
fascinating, three-dimensional character without putting a great deal
of herself into him.  So I guess it all comes down to how
intellectually honest she is.  She could make him into a scapegoat,
her own sin-eater, if she is not honest. But, really, how could any
author create a character who lives in a house filled with books, only
to turn him into a two-dimensional baddie with no redeeming qualities
at the end.  It's monstrous.  Isn't going to happen.