Terminal Stupidity of Snapey-Poo (was Re: Nice vs. Good - Compassion)b

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 153209

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "leslie41" <leslie41 at ...> 
wrote:
<SNIP>



> And, Lupinlore, a word to the wise: Better take a different tack, 
> than calling Snape "terminally stupid."  That's never going to get 
> you *anywhere*.
>

Depends on where you're trying to get, I suppose.  If you mean it 
won't change anyone's mind, that is definitely true, but this just 
isn't a place where anyone ever changes their mind, particularly 
about the three main characters (Snapey-poo, Dumbledore, or Harry).  
Or, to be more exact, people VERY rarely change their minds on those 
characters, so rarely that it amounts to a fluctuation somewhere on 
the order of the initial creation of the universe.

Now, if you mean we aren't getting anywhere with regard to 
statements about Snapey-poo, I don't think that's true.  No one on 
this list is going to compromise with anyone else when it comes to 
fundamental viewpoints, but there are ways in which fundamental 
viewpoints become clearer.  IMO, for instance, anyone who acts the 
way Snapey-poo does throughout the books (i.e. anyone who acts that 
way to those people in those situations) pretty much needs to have 
their picture put in a phrasebook somewhere beside the 
words "terminally stupid."  Indeed, we are dealing with multiple 
layers of meaning, here, including, I think, not only "too stupid to 
live" but "guaranteeing one's own demise through the creative 
application of stupidity."  Both, I think, fit Snapey-poo nicely.

It is interesting the degree to which all other threads wither.  
Even I, radical that I am, have tried a half-dozen times to start 
non-Snape/non-DD threads over the last few months.  All of them were 
stillborn or died within a couple of rounds.  Meanwhile, Snape 
and/or DD threads flourish - despite the fact that anyone who has 
been around for a while knows exactly where they are going to go.  
There is a dissertation in social psychology in that for some 
graduate student who is interested in such things.


Lupinlore