Teachers WAS:Re: SPOILERS: School Books

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184236

Alla:
> 
> Does it matter though for that reason he did not know?  What I am 
trying to say is that you think that he did not know because he was 
being too full of himself, right? I think he did not know, just
because he did not know. The point we agree on is that he was wrong,
right? So any interpetation can be valid - yours or mine and none can
be disproved.

Carol responds:

I'm not Potioncat, of course, but my understanding is that Potioncat
*doesn't* think that Snape was wrong. Her earlier post indicated that
she thinks (as I do) that the mistake was JKR's (she didn't realize
when she wrote that bit of dialogue that Kappas are a Japanese magical
creature, not a Mongolian one) and she covered up her own blunder by
making it Snape's--pointlessly, because the mistake is never revealed
in the actual series. 

Here's what Potioncat actually wrote, in case my paraphrase doesn't
reflect her views:

" I think she found out there was a mistake, and decided to have it be
Snape's error. She has Ron and Harry catch the mistake and make note
of it in the text. It's one of those moments we can all identify
with---the teacher who does know it all, and who is mean, making a
mistake."

IOW, if I'm reading it correctly, Potioncat thinks that *JKR* made the
error when she wrote Snape's little speech in PoA and repaired it by
having Ron and Harry catch "Snape's" mistake in FB.

I think that JKR (who rarely admits her own mistakes and always finds
an explanation, plausible or otherwise, invented this particular
coverup mischievously (not viciously!), with a twinkle in her eye,
getting the same kind of enjoyment out of it that you're getting and
at the same time getting herself off the hook. Readers like me,
however, don't get the same enjoyment. All we get is a moment of
annoyance as JKR cleverly retrieves her own credibility at the expense
of Snape's.

Surely, if JKR had intended for Snape to be wrong in the first place,
she would have had the characters find out about it in PoA. Instead,
his supposed blunder only shows up as graffiti in FB, calling
attention to the inconsistency between Snape's statement and the
information in FB, but passing off JKR's error (perhaps pointed out to
her by people who actually know about mythological creatures) as
Snape's. (If it had been Lupin who made the statement, she might have
found some other way to deal with it.)

At any rate, the FB note has no bearing on PoA or the HP books except
that it damages Snape's otherwise impeccable DADA credentials--an
unfortunate move since he *has* to be an expert for the Snape subplot
in HBP and DH to work. "His" mistake is completely pointless except
that it provides Harry, Ron, and like-minded readers who happen to
read FB (not at all necessary for HP fans) with a bit of humor at
Snape's expense. True, they do the same with Hagrid, but with more
cause--and not as a coverup.

Essentially, I think that the chief difference between Potioncat's
position and mine is that she finds JKR's cover-up tactic amusing and
I find it annoying. Clever, though. I'll give her that.

Carol, hoping that she's presented Potioncat's position correctly and
apologizing if she hasn't