[the_old_crowd] Re: A BIAS in the Pensieve: A Batty Idea About Snape

[Charme]

From: "melclaros"
>
> I read the post--the best I could without becoming dizzy. That's not a
> dig at the poster, I've seen formatting problems on lots of posts on
> lots of yahoo groups and there doesn't ever seem to be a specific
> reason for any of them.

Charme:

Sorry to go all professional on you, but there are reasons for why 
formatting posts works from some systems and not from others. Most of them 
involve the browser or the email client on the desktop the user uses when 
performing the function. The reason I can read it fine is I receive posts 
via my email at Yahoo using my Outlook Express email client - my client 
converts his post properly. Yahoo's message posting application can't. The 
application on Yahoo's message groups are coded to work with a specific set 
of protocols and configurations invoked by the client when posting, and 
developed to include a specific allowable set of tested and compatible 
clients, both email and browsers.  I've already sent a note to Lyn to assess 
this and slay that scurvy beast, as his email headers actually say he's 
posting from a different client than he specified in his reply back to the 
group.  This can be a setting on the desktop which is denoting the client 
he's using isn't his default email or browser client; if it's not set 
properly, it takes what the default is and applies it to the message posted 
or sent which may not be compatible with Yahoo. All very facinating and 
probably extremely boring to you, but hey, I do what I can to spread 
information technology joy everywhere. :) .

> Why would it drive me away? Because it's been Done To Death. As the
> post just above posits, there is no reason for Snape to be anything
> other than what he is now, a thoroughly unpleasant human who may or
> may not be a "good guy". The Vampire!Snape crowd has thrown every
> possible wrench into the works over the past several YEARS (the latest
> one is mirrors, go look) and every single one of them has been
> logically and canonically disputed. The Pro-Vamp crowd takes every
> dispute and says "well we don't know what ROWLING'S vampires are
> like!" which admittedly is a better excuse than the sunscreen theory
> or the beaten to death "half-vampire" mess. No, we don't know what
> JKR's idea of a vampire is, but we do know they can't carry wands and
> we do know that Professor Snape has been seen quite frequently using
> his wand with some finesse.

Charme:

A good point about Snape and his wand, however where did canon say vampires 
couldn't carry wands?  I wish I knew the remainder of this sentence from 
GoF:

"That woman's got it in for the Ministry of Magic!"  said Percy furiously. 
"Last week she was saying we're wasting our time quibbling about cauldron 
thickness, when we should be stamping out vampires!  As if it wasn't 
specifically stated in paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment 
of Non-Wizard Part-Humans-"


Non Wizard Part-Humans? So, vampires are considered non wizard but half 
human? And werewolves are allowed wands? Compare that with this from GoF:

"Here, look." Mr. Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr. Weasley. "Had 
it in her hand. So that's clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken, for a 
start. No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand."

Nope, I don't think this is quite the same statement, is it? Let me know if 
there's more that I missed, because I've done a search on all the books and 
I can't seem to find it using the keywords I used.  And I wonder why it's so 
important to "stamp out vampires" as Rita Skeeter wrote, even kill them when 
Honeydukes thinks enough of their market to sell a blood-flavored lollipop. 
Curiouser and curiouser.....


> In this "new" post alone we have a discussion of The Pensieve Incident
> in which Snape is a teenager. If he was a vampire then, as is posited
> by the "it's just that he exists" comment theory, then he'd still
> "today" as Potionsmaster of Hogwarts all these many years on, be
> floating around in the body of that gangly teenager as vampires, once
> they become vampires, cease to age.
>
> It's a dead issue, no pun intended, and one that sets most old-timers'
> teeth on edge right along with The Thestral Question.



Charme,

Maybe so WRT your comment regarding vampires ceasing to age, but I'm not yet 
convinced how they fit into the world JKR's created. But when I devise 
that....I'll...I'll do *something.* :)  The other thing I'd like to ask is 
what exactly do you not consider a "dead issue?" I mean, what would you like 
to see that would be different and intriguing for you?