A BIAS in the Pensieve: A Batty Idea About Snape

[nkafkafi]

> Charme:
> 
> Neri! How ya doin'?  How's the cure coming? ;)  You made me curious,
so I 
> had to check.  

Neri: 
In the last day there wasn't much of an improvement, I fear.

> Charme:
> And please note, with the proper technology (and geeky 
> Potterheads who can't wait for JKR to get off her duff and make
eBooks of 
> the series), this takes about 5 minutes.
> 


Neri:
I've been using this technology for at least two years now. As I've
found out in HPfGU, however, we'd better keep it off-list.


> Charme:
> Hags mentioned:  (keyword "hag" or "hags")
> PS/SS - 1
> CoS - 2
> PoA - 1
> GoF -2
> OoP - 6 (a majority in describing or referring to Umbridge, and used 
> especially by Hermoine)
> Total  12
> 
> Vampires mentioned: (keyword "vampire" or "vampires")
> PS/SS - 4
> CoS - 6  (5 in reference to Gilderoy Lockhart's book title, in
different 
> sentences by or involving multiple major characters reading the book)
> PoA - 6 (3 in different sentences referencing Snape's assignment in
DADA)
> GoF - 2
> OoP - 2
> Total  18
>


Neri:
If you want to be geeky and quantitative, that's fine by me. I've just
ran a t-test on your numbers (takes about 5 minutes in Excel) and
guess what: the difference is not statistically significant. To be
specific, the p-value is 0.38. This means (for the non-quantitative
types here) that there is a 38% chance to get the difference above
just by pure coincidence. Scientists usually don't trust a difference
as meaningful unless this chance is 5% at most, but of course,
scientists are notoriously boring and overly-suspicious bunch. 
 

> Charme:
> I think he's vampish, or somehow he's "associated" (notice, I did
not say 
> he's a vampire) with them. I also liked what you said about it being a 
> metaphor for him, which I interpreted to be what Lyn posted. I'm
still stuck 
> on what threat vampires themselves were supposed to be towards wizards, 
> because in my search, I also ran across this in OoP when Harry is
taking his 
> History of Magic OWL:
> "(How was the Statute of Secrecy breached in I 749 and what measures
were 
> introduced to prevent a recurrence?) but had a nagging suspicion
that he had 
> missed several important points; he had a feeling vampires had come
into the 
> story somewhere."
> 
> What measures indeed? And where do vampires come into the story? If
they are 
> such a threat and there are such people in the WW  as vampire
hunters who 
> *kill* them...it's all very baffling....
> 


Neri:
All possible, of course, but like Magda I'm still wondering: what
would be the point? How would it play in the plot? The advantage of
thinking about Snape as vampish ONLY in a metaphorical sense (with no
connection at all to "real" Potterverse vampires) is that it has
obvious plot implications, and you don't have to ask yourself what he
had for lunch or why JKR lied to us.


Neri