delumbtri

Like a Rope, Like a Fiery Snake: On Snape

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:54:17 GMT

The Eternal Question
I was prompted to write this entry by my instant response to Susan's excellent analysis of Snape's character and ambitions. Susan began her essay by noting that Snape's ambiguity was highlighted in HBP and would return again in VII. My knee jerked up quite painfully as I commented that, rather, questions about Snape have surfaced in all six books so far and have featured in PS/SS, GOF, OOTP, and HBP. This is somewhat in the way of gloating, as I feel many people underestimated the power of our uncertainty regarding him, but:

PS/SS: Snape is trying to get to the Stone, as far as the Trio knows.
COS: Snape gives Harry a weird look after he speaks Parseltongue; other small incidents.
POA: Snape's history with the Marauders is prominent; Harry thinks he's trying to kill Lupin.
GOF: Snape's trial in the Pensieve; Harry asks Dumbledore why he trusts Snape; Snape gives Harry a look when he says Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater; Snape begins spying; weird moment at the end of the book.
OOTP: Snape begins to crop up again in Harry and Ron's theories; Occlumency lessons; Snape and Sirius.

The development of Snape's character in the first five books, for me, indicated that the man was probably on Voldemort's side. However, this entry is not about the first five books. It's about HBP, which suggests to me that Snape is probably on Dumbledore's side.

Third of Three
It's in COS, often considered to be HBP's "mirror book," that we begin considering what Harry has in common with Tom Riddle, and indeed this theme resurfaces here. Let's examine exactly what those commonalities are:

1. Both orphans.
2. Look a bit alike.
3. Half-bloods.

Of these, Snape shares the second and the third, along with a bit of the first (taking into account the memories from OOTP of what is generally assumed to be a violent domestic life). HBP, like a good mirror, reverses the trend of Voldemort seeing himself in Harry: Harry begins to see pieces of himself in Voldemort.

1. Special relationship with Dumbledore.
2. Manipulative.
3. Inhuman or beastlike.

The accuracy of the first, along with Snape's sharing it, is more or less plainly canonical. For the second we need only look to Harry's reactions to the memory of Riddle asking Slughorn to tell him about the Horcruxes, which, of course, directly follows Harry's own manipulation in acquiring the memory. Again, I take a description of Snape as "manipulative" to be clearly canonical. The third occurs in different ways for all three characters: Riddle when he's told he's a wizard or sees the Hogwarts founders' items; Snape when Harry calls him a coward; and Harry with Ginny.

Draco Serviens
It's hard to determine exactly how much the events of HBP centered around Draco Malfoy. We know to begin with that Dumbledore spent a good deal of time watching him; we know that Dumbledore knew what his mission was. We also know of Dumbledore that he's the sort of person who would choose another person's life (and certainly, after the Unbreakable Vow, two people's lives) over his own.

A few things need to be mentioned here; they've cropped up elsewhere, of course, but I'll reiterate.
1. Dumbledore's argument with Snape. Snape said, we hear from Hagrid, that he "didn't want to do it anymore," or some such. Could easily mean that he didn't want to do his part in the plan to save Draco and that he was more willing to give into the Unbreakable Vow.
2. "Severus, please." Does Dumbledore plead for his life? Not when Draco or the other three Death Eaters came to threaten him. This could quite easily be "Severus, please [kill me]," rather than do what it seems like he may have wanted to in #1, and die himself. Some have suggested that Dumbledore and Snape were doing Legilimency-type stuff at the time as well.
3. Dumbledore was unsurprised by every instance of interaction between Snape and Malfoy.

So it's not a stretch to assume that Dumbledore and Snape were planning to save Malfoy, if necessary through Dumbledore's death, throughout HBP.

Defense Against the Dark Arts
If we are to posit a situation in which Dumbledore more or less instructed Snape to kill him if necessary, the motivation behind his choice of Snape as the DADA teacher in HBP becomes quite clear. As Dumbledore himself stresses, there hasn't been a consistent Defense teacher since Tom Riddle sought the job. It seems at least somewhat natural to assume that Dumbledore expected Snape to vacate the position, and like any good theory, ours succeeds in explaining this divergent bit of information.

However, Snape's adoption of this position is stressed in other ways as well; Susan's essay is stronger on this point than anything I can put together. Like other aspects of his persona, his ambition towards the job is mentioned in, I believe, all five books.

We're all familiar, I'm sure, with what someone with my view would call Snape's last-ditch attempt to teach Harry something: "Keep your mind closed and your mouth shut." So he thinks the two most important parts of successful dueling are the two that he was given the opportunity to teach Harry. My preliminary suggestion is that, in some ways, Snape has been shown to be Harry's true teacher in a way that Dumbledore isn't: Ron and Hermione were wrong, Dumbledore didn't teach Harry defensive spells in HBP. The one who tried to teach Harry how to fight was Snape.

I may add more to this later.

A Quick Observation about Houses... and then one other thing

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 10:53:32 GMT

Houses houses houses - omg soo uneven. But I actually had a bit of an insight regarding the way the Houses have evolved and I thought I'd post this as a sort of reply to some criticisms people have had of the House system, notably Peela's "The PWNing of Zacharias Smith." (Incidentally, I think another reason Smith is such a stupid is because he's the Heir of Hufflepuff.)

We have a few Sorting Hat songs which explain the divisions. Gryffindors are notably brave, Ravenclaws bright, Slytherins ambitious, and Hufflepuffs - supportive, perhaps? I'm not quite certain of the word. This is the way the Houses have been described in most of the Sorting Hat songs. However, some are confused because of the song from OOTP which explained that Gryffindor wanted to teach the bravest, Ravenclaw the smartest, Slytherin those of purest blood, and Hufflepuff said she'd teach the lot and treat them all the same.

Two points should be made.
1. Hufflepuff won the argument: all wizard children in Britain are allowed admission to Hogwarts.

2. The process of a House decision has nothing to do with the founder of the House: it is made by the Sorting Hat and the person being Sorted. By the time Harry enters Hogwarts, for example, pure blood is not very common at all. To make up for this, the Sorting Hat puts "the lot" not in Hufflepuff, but in Slytherin: students with almost no qualities to recommend them, such as Crabbe and Goyle, end up there. By contrast the Sorting Hat decides to select for niceness etc. in Hufflepuff.

The one other thing: Who will accompany Harry in VII? Ron and Hermione say they will at the end of the book but I'm sure you've all noticed that Harry never accepts this. He also notes that Neville and Luna heeded the call of the DA. And of course many people have speculated on Ginny. Not to mention I'm sure other Weasleys and many Aurors and Order members would be more than willing to come along and help to destroy Voldemort. Your thoughts?

The Ideals of the HMS Harmony Radicals

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:15:17 GMT

Being, I have been told, at once a characteristically overgenerous individual and a characteristically hot-tempered one, I have enjoyed throughout my history in the shipping war - it is, after all, only one war, is it not? - quite a mercurial relationship with the HMS Harmony, and in light of recent events it seems quite natural to dsicuss it further, and publicly. This bond, such as it is, does not have as long and storied a legacy as some do; though I have been a fan for seven years, I have only been in fandom for three, and only solidly so for nine months.

How can such a newcomer to the game have anything to say about canon's oldest (as they now comfort each other by repeating) ship? Perhaps, I might respond, the sinking of an old ship by a new one is very much in line with the death of an old mentor leading to the rise of a new hero. Hard to say it was planned that way, but as my less-well-read counterparts on the HMS Harmony keep clucking, the author is dead, the author is dead! So clearly we can posit an interpretation which suggests an identity between events in the text and events in the fandom.

In any event. As I say, it seems natural to discuss the insight which I feel I have gained as to the increasingly infamous ideals of the HMS Harmony. We will delve, then, into my Pensieve, and try to discover the history of the fans who have become so un-fan-like.

I first entered fandom three summers ago, joining the only forum I ever really debated on, Mugglenet's COS. It was awhile before I read the Love Thread the first time, but there was (I flatter myself) an instant reaction to my presence. I remember Sirius83, Mad Eye Mike, Turambar, and others. You shouldn't come here just bringing down everyone else's theories. You've managed to upset people who have been here much longer than you. Tell us who you ship and why. I found myself, a very new newbie, attacked on all sides after having had the gall to question, for example, the statement that the books were written in "first-person." Eventually a moderator (Tarawyn, who is not active in fandom, I believe, but is truly a heart) came to defend me, and later I managed to quite politely agree with Mad Eye Mike that interview quotes probably proved nothing about the romance. His suggestion at the time was, you see, that the "all the wrong people" quote proved H/H.

Hold it, you say, those are not the ideals of the HMS Harmony! Quotes? They abhor quotes! Ah, but - well, let us return again to my Pensieve.

By midwinter 2005 I had been very active at COS for several months running. As I explained before, my presence has a tendency to be dynamic, to say the least, in terms of my relations with the opposing ship. A few shippers in particular seemed to despise me, but I was quite friendly with others, and several of them stuck up for me when I was banned. My ban ran out and I posted an essay which was at the very least rather long. The essay did not, apparently, merit a response, but I did manage to garner for my ship the moniker HMS Moron, which I began to see as I discovered the site A Mad World, whose purpose was to entertain Harmonian essays about, for example, Ron's homosexuality or my stupidity without fear of retribution.

You might ask why a group so ceratin of their rightness would be afraid of any counterargument. But were they really certain? If we are to take them at their word now - now, when they say they are angry because there was no buildup for R/H and H/G, when they say they are angry because they couldn't see it coming, when Mad Eye Mike brings that same quote from three years ago back and says it has never been and can never be explained away, even though his ship has spent most of the past two years explaining away quotes... If we are to take them at their word now, they were very certain. But back then they whistled quite a different tune.

Yes, midwinter 2005. I have already introduced you to the now-defunct site AMW; we arrive now at the real purpose of this memory. The members of AMW decided - how, I cannot quite recall - to stage a boycott at my central haunt, COS's Love Thread. They would only return when their opinions were respected, they said, and when it was acknowledged by the administration and by the opposition that all had a chance.

Oh, you fool! For then I did something both very stupid and very time-consuming. I stuck my tongue out at my elder fellows on the ships Chocolate and Heron. I began a dialogue on AMW.

Don't get me wrong. This was, in many senses, a productive dialogue, and many members of the community were very gracious. I should, however, have known that the radicals who ran it did not desire mutual respect or acceptance of any sort. They did not believe anything about ships having equal chances. As we now know, they thought theirs was the only conceivable route. This has been evidenced repeatedly in their posts over the past two weeks. In short, they lied, like lying liars, who lie.

But we are still in my Pensieve, watching, perhaps, as some of the kindlier mods at AMW try to keep their dog Helvius on his chain; or as Mad Eye Mike makes power plays, hour after hour, day after day; or as Sienna insists that they have gained the moral high groudn by leaving the Love Thread, that they already accept my ships' chances, and that it's my job to bring the rest of my ship to their forum. We are watching, maybe, as hopes for truly respectful debate vanish in favor of Lanifiel's failed Love Files. Lanifiel, on a side note, eventually banned me from COS again based on a private discussion. After that I stowed my ship-war gear, battleaxe and olive branch, weary and bitter, repeating in my head that if it's respect you want, you should respect other people's interpretation of canon and quotes no matter what it does to your ship - especially if you were equally sure ours were sunk all along!

So when I say I have an interesting perspective on the shipping war, what I mean is this: I truly do not know what ideals the radicals of the HMS Harmony embrace, if they merely like birds, admire the perfection of a Platonic circle, or think that self-insertion and claims to character entitlement (I am Hermione!) are causes to which they can sign their names. But I know that they have no ideals regarding true respect, consideration, politeness, and common decency. Their domain has long been that of deceit, word games, power plays, and intentional misreadings, and I am not surprised that many in their ship have chosen to distance themselves.

As for my ship, you can clearly see that many of us had planned on wholesale acceptance of new canon, no matter the romantic outcome. Many of the Harmonian radicals, you'll note, offered similar claims, including Mad Eye Mike, who stated that a non-H/H pairing would sadden him for a few minutes and then he would move on; sentiments akin to this were offered by Sone, Phoenix Writer, and others. This was back when they still valued the pretense of a search for honest, reasonable debate. They have since abandoned even this pretense, flailing about through the fandom, clucking the author should die, the author should die, supporting canon when they like canon, quotes when they like quotes, honesty when they like honesty. Ask yourselves, fandom, shippers and shipping neutrals: what ideals are those?

My two favorite things evar.

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:28:54 GMT

http://books.guardian.co.uk/harrypotter/story/0,10761,1527757,00.html

and the whole article
http://books.guardian.co.uk/potter/page/0,13381,1521782,00.html

Preliminary VII Predictions

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:25:29 GMT

HBP and the experience of being spoiled brought about one epiphany I had about the Potterverse, which I think you all have come to as well: The shipping really does not have as much importance as we all afford it. There are much better ways in which we can - indeed, in which some of us do - direct our energy. (This is the point I tried and failed to make in my brief comments to Gryffindor Phan.)

So the only really solid positions I took on HBP were about shipping. This was a big mistake, and I have decided right now that I'm not going to make it again. I've labelled my early predictions about VII based on the importance I think they hold and the confidence I have in them (importance is I: on a scale of 1-10; confidence is C: on a scale of 6-10, because why would I predict something I had no confidence in?).

1. Simply put, R/H (I:2; C:10)

2. RAB is Regulus Abraxas Black - we know that Malfoy's grandfather was named Abraxas and we know that Regulus died literally days after he left Voldemort, and didn't the letter signed RAB say that he knew he'd be dead "within days"? (I:7; C:8)

3. Snape is good - supported by Tunxeh:
Me: I disagree! I think Snape is still ambiguous. I predicted for him to turn evil, but the way it's treated in HBP suggests to me that there still may be something left with him - some twist.

Consider:
1. Snape would have died had he not killed Dumbledore - because of the Unbreakable Vow.
2. Snape told Dumbledore he "didn't want to do it anymore" but Dumbledore said he'd agreed to - and we know that he agreed, among other things, to the Unbreakable Vow.
3. Dumbledore says "Severus, please" - but we don't know why. Is he pleading for his life, or for Snape to choose his own life over Dumbledore's? Which is more like Dumbledore?
4. Snape lied to Bella and, we must assume, Voldemort when he said that he didn't know Quirrell was aligned with Voldemort in PS/SS - he doesn't mention the fact that he knew that Quirrell was trying to kill Harry and worked against him.

Tunxeh: I don't think Snape is ambiguous. I think he's unambiguously on the side of the Order. Along with the clues you list, pay attention to how, in the fight at the end, he lifts someone else's Crucio from Harry, and gives him tips on how to fight Voldemort (wordlessly and keeping his mind blocked), while blocking Harry's curses and sending nothing damaging back at Harry. Of course, what Snape intends and what Harry thinks of him are likely two different things...
(I:9; C:6)

4. The Horcrux-creating part of Voldemort's failed Avada Kedavra worked, as the Avada Kedavra did as well, merely rebounding - it might not be that Harry's scar is a Horcrux, but I expect a twist of some sort (I:10; C:6)

5. Harry will renege on his decision regarding Ginny while at Bill and Fleur's wedding (I:5, C:6)

6. If not, and if they both survive, then they'll get back together after VII (I:7, C:10)

7. But they won't both survive (I:10; C:6)

PS. And also two things that I have no idea about that need to be thought about:

8. How did Dumbledore hurt his hand?

9. Why did Tom Riddle come back to Hogwarts?

Because Dumbledore never tells Harry either. Keep in mind for #8 that Snape has some idea of the answer, as he told Bellatrix that Dumbledore's reflexes were snow, which is exactly what Dumbledore himself said. And remember, too, that Snape saved Dumbledore right at that moment. And of course,

10. What is up with Lily?

Snuggles all!

Can I get an AMEN?

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 17:20:10 GMT

I want to write this and I want everybody who shares my positions to give me an AMEN! (Choosing to only share one or two of them is fine too.)

a. I do not think writing ships which I do not endorse would make JKR a bad or cheesy writer.
b. I will stay in the fandom no matter the outcome of the romantic subplot.
c. If a competing ship sails in canon, I will be impressed with those who had the foresight to ship it.

This stuff is really getting disgusting. I'm not even going to make this entry private - I want Harmonies to see it (in fact, I really want them to *sign* it, and will be very pleasantly surprised if any do!). If they don't look now we can show it to 'em later.