the sevvy question (was: Dragonicity)

[Sean Dwyer]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Kneasy spake thus:

> We've all got our pet theories about the Potions Master and it's rare
> for the boards I've seen to list more than a handful of posts before
> his name crops up - somehow.

> But -  a general question here - it my be that my grey matter is failing
> me, but I have the impression that over the past couple of years there's been
> a gradual reconsideration and reassessment of his character.  Views that were
> held by a smallish (though vocal) minority seem to be more the mainstream
> opinion now. 

> Am I wrong?
> And if I'm not - what caused the change?

My question would be: how could you tell? In the time I've been on the HP
lists I've never seen the argument go much beyond the "he's irredeemable" vs.
"he's nice underneath, society is to blame" level. Only in OotP is it made
plainer just how far this rabbit hole goes, and I don't really think the
answer is with Snape himself. The one I want to grill is Dumbledore, who is
really unmasked as a master manipulator. Snape and Harry are soldiers in
Dumbledore's Army.

If there's any qualitative change, it would come from the realization that the
central argument in HPdom is a very old one. Obviously older than Harry, and
much older than Snape. Now there's a lot to like about Possession Theory, but
it may not pan out. But a lot of the circumstantial evidence stands.
Dumbledore is not the first to stand against the forces of wizardly evil, of
course, he's just the current general. Wherever Snape's "redemption" lies, it
is with Dumbledore, until that relationship and its origins are made plain,
little about Snape makes sense. We can't obviously take Harry's POV for
granted anyway, but Blind!Harry is not a catch-all for our Snape-blindness.

One of the more insightful arguments pro-Snape was made on the Australian list
quite a while ago, and also uses the Soldier!Snape angle: Snape is much more
visibly worried about the risks of DD's strategy and is constantly trying to
"harden up" Harry for the trials ahead. Harry naturally misinterprets this as
victimization, and doesn't realize, for instance, what a danger his knowing
of a bad Snape day could pose for Snape's safety. It's quite a plausible
angle, but unfortunately doesn't cover all the ground.

My personal view is, whatever the real DD-Snape axis proves to be, that Snape
is still a bitter misanthrope, regardless of hidden motives. You don't have to
be "nice" to be on the right side, or even to have been there all along. As DD
loves to repeat, we are our choices, and don't he love to present them...

-- 
Mac OS X. Because re-branding NeXTStep was easier than fixing Mac OS.