Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 186479

Montavilla47:

Well, yeah. But that's normal human behavior. If, for
example, you had a sweetheart in high school, who married
the quarterback of the football team and then one day, he
had too much to drink and drove their car into a tree, you
might have some resentments towards him, too.

Even if you served him the drinks.

Nobody would get over that kind of thing easily.
But I'll bet you'd be angrier over him driving drunk and
killing your old sweetheart than you would because he
used to give you wedgies.

Alla:

Well, that is if the other reasons for that grudge are dismissed of course, but to me this sounds more like as if your friend, who you would love to be your sweetheart married the quarterback of the football team and you told the gang leader that they did something to try and stop his activities and that gang leader (whose gang you were a member of) decided he is going to come and kill them one day. You warned them that they should go to witness protection program, but the guy refused.

Yeah, I could be angry, but that does not mean that I would not know that I should be angry with myself first and foremost.

Montavilla47:
<SNIP>
It's a pretty difficult thing to pull off the the transformation
of the reader's interpretation of Snape. It's not quite we weren't
debating the topic hotly for the two years between HBP and DH.

In order to be surprised by the memories, you would have had
to have not read any articles or discussed the books--because
it was the biggest question coming out HBP. And kudos to
Papa Rushdie for asking it publically.

And even I'm not going to force anyone to re-examine the books
in light of Snape's memories. After all, do people need to
go back and re-think Croody bouncing Draco off the stone floor
in GoF once they realize that he's someone different than they
thought he was the first time they read that chapter? No, of
course not.

I consider it more fun to go back and consider different
motivations and perspectives. But you're not *obligated*
to do it, just because I like it.

Alla:

It sounds as if this is some sort of complicated task to do. Everybody who rereads the series after DH reads it with new information in mind, no?. The question is whether this information indeed changes the character significantly or at least somewhat. It is not like we  will ever forget that Snape loved Lily and worked for Dumbledore. I mean as you said we debated the topic whether he works for Dumbledore for two years and it is not like even I who really really really wanted him to work for Vodlemort was surprised by this storyline. We figured it out, right? And it was always in my mind as possibility which I hoped will not come true. So it did. But the thing is, it depends on what to you is the core of Snape's character. If you think that he is good because he works for Dumbledore,  then of course his character changed after Prince tale. Or did he? Because for those who thought he was good, they already thought so, right?

But to me, even if I wanted that plot development badly, him working for Voldemort  would have been the icing on the cake.  Before book 7 I saw Snape as nasty man who was capable of hating innocent child on sight because of the history he had with his parents. Said nasty man may have been DE or working for Dumbledore. Nothing in book 7 changed my view of Snape,  as nasty man who was capable of hating innocent child on sight because of the history he had with his parents. Text to me did not disprove it, in fact text provided additional clues to strengthen that interpretation (his indifference to Harry's fate, his indignation – For him?). I learned that he worked for Dumbledore, but to me the core of his character remained mostly the same.

Do you see why Prince tale cannot change  much my interpretation of his character despite new information that it provided?

Another new (but suspected) information that I learned is that Snape loved Lily. I also learned that he tried to atone for her death in which he was complicit.  But again that makes me hate him more, knowing that he loved Lily and dared to treat her son that way. And every time I read the part where Snape takes from Harry's home part of Lily's letter that makes me very angry. He loved Lily so much that he was quite fine with damaging one of the very few pieces of memories that her son may have of her. And no, I do not think that this letter meant little to Harry, I think it is described in great detail of how much he got from this letter, considering that he had nothing.

One change that Snape's character endured through the books what I can see is learning to value life more of course, from his indifference to James' fate to saving Lupin.

But really, again, to me this is all encompassed in "hated but did not want you dead" line.

So, no, no radical changes in interpretation for me. But you said yourself that you also did not change your opinion much, yours was already high and just went down a little bit. Are you saying that Prince tale indeed was supposed to change Snape's character drastically or just give us more information for what we already saw?

I do agree though that predicting and analyzing storylines will play a part in being surprised, we indeed probably played out every possible scenario. I wonder whether readers who did not do all that were surprised and changed their opinion of Snape.


JMO,

Alla