Snobby Snape?

[Judy]

Mike said, in regards to my fondness for Snape:

> Oh, bring it on. Since I was blessed with a Y chromosome, I have 
> avoided being afflicted by Snape's sultry, brooding allure that 
> seemed to attract those without my genetic make-up.
> I'll buy Severus 
> was a "gift of a character" for JKR, and that he is interesting to 
> read, but I'm afraid you'll never get me to like him.
> 
> I have met a fair few Snapes. Those folks that were predisposed to 
> disdain for the "jock" types, like me. Whether lacking the aptitude 
> or the competitive urge mattered not, they were sure that "sports" 
> were for the feeble of mind. They also can't be bothered with the 
> mundane act of socializing and are sure that their superiority of 
> intelligence over all things worth knowing excuses them from being 
> civil to the lesser beings of this world....
> So, have I misread our dear Severus? 

Oh, my!  I have never read Snape as being especially anti-jock.  
Rather, I see him as anti-JAMES. He intensely resented the attention 
that Quidditch brought to James. If someone other than James had been 
the Quidditch star, I don't think he would have cared about 
Quidditch, either way. 

As Rita (Catlady) notes, Snape is hostile to Gryffindors who aren't 
jocks (Neville, Hermione), and positive to Draco, a Slytherin who is 
a Quidditch player. In fact, I would point out that Hermione isn't 
even remotely a jock; she's a *brain*. I'm not even certain to what 
extent Snape is hostile to Gryffindors (the "jock house") in general, 
since we don't see him pick on Dean, Seamus, Lavender, or Parvati. 

Mike continued:
> he seems to use every oppurtunity to disparage the Gryffindor
> jocks, at least one in particular. How about "brain versus brawn"
> or "Quidditch star" said with that irrascible Snape sneer. He must
> have let out his feelings on jocks, enough so that Lupin speculates
> on James jockocracy being one of the thorns in Sev's side.

As far as I recall, we see him only disparage sports in relationship 
to James. So, as I said above, I think Snape's comments about 
Quidditch are really specific to James, and not about athletes in 
general. (I discuss the "brain versus brawn" comment in my next 
paragraph.) 

Lupin clearly is clueless about why Snape hated James. Lupin entirely 
misses the fact that Snape and James were rivals for Lily's 
affections. In book 6, Harry tells Lupin (and a bunch of other 
people) that Snape thought Lily was worthless, because she was 
muggleborn, and Lupin seems to accept this without question.

Mike again:
> And like the
> exchange between James and Sev on the train, I may have announced my
> desire for a particular House over all others, but Severus would 
> have thrown out the first sneer and insult.

Severus does *not* throw out the first insult. JAMES does. Severus 
says he hopes Lily will be in Slytherin, and James (who wasn't 
even part of the conversation) responds by saying, "Who wants to be
in Slytherin?  I'd think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" to Sirius. This
is *exactly* what Draco says about Hufflepuff when Harry first meets 
him. At the end of Book 1, Dumbledore tells Harry that the 
relationship between Snape and James was similar to that between 
Harry and Draco. Harry takes this to mean that Snape was a bully,
like Draco. Only later does he realize -- to his horror -- that 
it was James who bullied Snape, not the other way around. 

I find it amazing that anyone can read the interaction between Snape 
and James/Sirius on the Hogwarts' train, and believe that it was 
Snape who started the animosity. 

I also think, Mike, that you are overlooking the fact that Snape 
wasn't the one getting academic honors as a student. JAMES was. James 
becomes headboy and all the indications are that the teachers 
considered him very smart. Snape apparently wasn't even a prefect, 
let alone headboy. One thing (maybe the only thing?) that you and I 
seem to agree on is that Snape comes across as quite intelligent as 
an adult, but Snape doesn't seem to have gotten much (if any) 
recognition for his intelligence when he was young. I imagine this 
was one of the things that irked him about James, too, and it has 
nothing to do with James being a jock.  Quite the contrary, it's 
because James was getting recognition for *scholastic* achievement 
while Snape wasn't. 

As for why Snape didn't receive any academic recognition (I wonder 
just how many Headmasters never even made prefect when they were 
students?), I see this lack of recognition as resulting from the 
faculty's perceiving Snape as a budding little Dark Wizard. I read 
Snape as having his life ruined by being Sorted into Slytherin. Of 
course, he would have preferred to be in Gryffindor with Lily, but I 
really see him as most suited for Ravenclaw. Had he been in 
Ravenclaw, I think his intense interest in the Dark Arts would have 
been seen in much less negative terms (he wasn't just obsessed with 
the Dark Arts; he was also obsessed with potions) and he might not 
have been ostracized, as he apparently was by most students, and 
perhaps even by some of the faculty. 

I just don't see the whole Snape/Marauder interaction as Snobby Snape 
looking down his nose at those jocky Gryffindors. I see it as a group 
of four popular kids bullying a kid who was "just this little 
oddball" (Sirius's description of young Severus) who was "clearly 
unpopular" (as Harry observes in the Snape's Worst Memory pensieve 
scene.) I don't think the Marauders bullied Snape because he was anti-
jock. I think they bullied Snape simply because they *could*. 

-- Judy, a nerd who is no good at chess, and who thinks adult Snape 
was sarcastic because there weren't many other hobbies open to double 
agents