[the_old_crowd] The trouble with Harry and how Snape saves the day.

[ewe2]

On Thu, Sep 22, 2005 at 06:03:19PM -0000, mooseming wrote:

Yay a thematic post that also screams comparative literature!

I agree with much that you have said, and I'll wade (waddle?) in quickly to be
the first to say Gollum. I know, "Always with the Gollum and that dratted
Hobbit," you say, but I remain unrepentant because if the moral compass is
true to this line, you can't escape the comparison. Many intensely dislike the
very idea of Gollum being the moral pivot of LOTR yet he is. Likewise Snape
who (though far less evil in my opinion), so clearly illustrates by example a
choice for Harry.

> In the first 5 books of the series Harry (and the reader) is never 
> presented with a dilemma to which the answer is not clear to him. 

The dead-horse efforts of Hermione to be Harry's conscience when he has
already decided what he will do has become wearying by HBP. 

> At the end of HBP we are left with our first true dilemma - is Snape 
> good or bad? We are also aware that for the first time Harry is in 
> peril because his hatred for Snape is the one failing that might, 
> just might, corrupt his moral compass. 

Dilemma for the reader, perhaps; Harry rarely changes his mind about anyone. I
never got any sense he'd come to see Sirius the way Hermione did (one of the
instances where I think she was correct). How does Harry change the habit of a
lifetime? I'm not suggesting he start treasuring Dudders for instance - but he
might think about DD's comment that Dudley has been ruined by his parents.
Snape is far more difficult, and without the benefit of a shared burden like a
Ring. Or could there be?

> If Voldy declares that his final HRX is in an innocent (unconscious) 
> third party, say, oh I don't know, um, Stunned Neville, what`s to be 
> done?

Oh I can think of a *much* better candidate - Draco. And Snape his real
father.

> Snape and Harry would have a different view of this question and 
> polarised conclusions I suspect.

In entirely the opposite direction to a Neville Horcrux. Now we ask, is Harry
capable of appreciating what parents will do for their child? But he should
already know the answer to that. Snape retains the moral focus, because he
certainly is going to force Harry to make a choice. Whatever the specifics,
Harry will have to decide whether or not to kill someone.

What's interesting about all these ideas is that Voldemort becomes almost as
abstract as Sauron, he becomes the background of the morality play between
Snape and Harry.

> Still the advantage of a story is you *can* have it both ways.

They could find a way to transfer the Horcrux to someone else, which I think
is a wonderful opportunity for Wormtail to have his shining moment before
being shoved through the Veil (Precious!) :) 

> If Voldy is deliberately misleading Snape and Harry, Snape's rational
> approach would enable him to perceive the deceit and the solution more
> readily than short sighted Harry. This way JKR can qualify her absolutist
> moral position by indicating that rational thought is still important.

If we can accept that Snape and Harry will work together in any way at all.
It's going to take some brilliant writing to convince many readers of that, I
fear. I like the idea of Snape becoming a parent to Harry (a Saturnine parent
nonetheless), but in a sense he already is. And to summon a final Tolkienesque
parallel, so was Gollum to Frodo in a similar sense. It wasn't merely the Ring
in common, it was the lesson that personhood does not depend on artifacts, and
the peril of an ultimate tool is ultimate slavery.

-- 
"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" - Adam Savage