Re: Snape and Harry’s Sadism (was: Lack of re-examination)

[jkoney65]

No: HPFGUIDX 186643

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Zara" <zgirnius at ...> wrote:
>
> > Steve replies:
> > "she has her opinion on the matter and we are free to have our own? She's the author for goodness sake.  She has a lot more than just an opinion on the matter, as she created the character of Snape and wrote thousands of words and several dozen scenes him in them. 
> 
> Zara:
> All of which, I have read 10+ times. How, then, does it matter which of us created him?


jkoney
It matters because she is the one who created him and has his story in her head/notes. She wrote him with specific thoughts and a certain point of view. At the worst the author can be unable to make you see that point. For me it's Harry naming his son after Snape. That I don't understand, but since she tells me it's true then I will go along with it.


snip
> > Steve:
>  But do you have an equal right with the author to interpret the nature of a character created by that author?  
> 
> Zara:
> Absolutely!

jkoney:
You may be able to interpret the characters as you see fit, but that doesn't mean you are interpreting the way they were intended to be interpreted.

Some people liked Draco in the early books. There was nothing good about him at all in those scenes. He was arrogant, petty, insulting, etc. He would then hide behind Crabbe, Goyle, Snape or his father. How does one see him as a good character at that point?


> 
> > Steve:
> I don't think so, and most authors I've talked to sure don't think so. Authors love their readers to have all kinds of reactions to their work, to be sure.  But when a reader equates their opinions of what a character is like as equal to or superior to the literary intention and perception of the author, then I have to side w/ the author. 
> 
> Zara:
> Actually, the fact that the author created the character, yadda yadda, in my opinion makes it more difficult for them to have accurate opinions on the matter.
> 
> For example, perhaps sitting somewhere in Rowling's copious piles of notes, or dredged out of her imagination at our request, we would find scenes of Snape behaving in an unambiguously sadistic manner. Cutting up fuzzy bunnies with Sectumsempra as a teen. Plotting gleefully in his office how to make Harry more miserable. Or what have you.
> 
> *Those scenes, if they exist, did not make it into the books*. Thus, while they may inform Rowling's opinions and statements, they are not *about* the character of Snape that I, and others here, are discussing. He is not a real person Rowling has met and we have not; he exists only in the pages of the HP books, to which we all have equal access.
>

jkoney:
Again I see it as a either a failure of the author or a failure of the reader. If there isn't enough information it is the authors fault. If the reader is misinterpreting the information that is presented that is due to their own prejudices and there isn't much the author can do except write a five thousand page story with chapters of back history. Very few people would read something like that.