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July 19, 2007
Yes yes yes! What is Snape?
What Is Snape?, by Orson Scott Card, is a fantastic essay, and a must-read for anybody who can't understand why I love Snape and alternately despise and dislike James Potter. (In fact, it reminded me of perfectly good reasons to despise and dislike Sirius Black.)
I'm pretty sure he's wrong about LotR being written as a sequel to The Hobbit, though. I am under the impression that LotR was in the works long before the Hobbit was written, and although it seems like a sequel because of when it was published and some story elements, it wasn't originally planned as one. But I could be wrong. I'm no Tolkien scholar.
Anyway: good stuff. And I agree completely that if Rowling has a big reveal and shows Snape to have been a bad guy all along it will lack artistic integrity in the extreme (or, as I usually say it, show that she really is a shitty writer after all). Good stuff.
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Posted by Ealasaid at July 19, 2007 12:23 PM
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IIRC, not only was LOTR written after The Hobbit, but the first printing of The Hobbit had Bilbo's story about the meeting with Gollum presented as the truth. Or at least there was something to that effect in the foreword to The Hobbit.
Card makes some very good points, which are especially convincing because they seem to grab at things that were simmering just below my own consciousness. I tend to disagree with his moral comparison of Snape and James, if only because James's bad actions took place when he was 15, and I don't think people of that age carry the same moral responsibility as adults. (Put another way, I think plenty of "good" people were nasty bastards at that age--if only because everyone's a pretty nasty bastard at that age.) Moreover, I think Rowling doesn't hold that moral equivalence, either, as evidenced by Lupin's later explanation of the scene. Though there are degrees, and if anyone deserves to be thought of badly it's Sirius, who was happy to send Snape to his near-certain death.
But all that is quibbling about trifles. For many of the same reasons, and for others, I must agree with Card in his assessment of Snape. Or at least I must do so until Saturday. :-)
-AS
Posted by: Alex Summers at July 19, 2007 02:23 PM
LoTR is a sequel to the Hobbit, because it comes after the Hobbit, chronologically in the storyline. As far as I know, it was also written after The Hobbit-- in fact, there was something of a war in between that delayed writing, as I recall.
Posted by: Stephanie (mortaine) at July 20, 2007 09:17 AM
I have to say my prediction for Snape is that he will be the hero at the end. It annoys the crap out of me but I sense he will be the hero and that killing Dumbledoor was part of the plan all along.
If Harry dies I would be very disappointed in Rowely. All of her books have exhaulted heroism and bravery, and for Harry to get whacked at the end would say "Don't be a hero or do the right thing cuz all that happens is you get killed and make you friends and family miserable".
I know the next main point that people would bring up is the "hero's sacrifice" that's all well and good when the hero has something to sacrifice. Harry is out of stuff to give.
At least that's my take.
Posted by: keith at July 20, 2007 10:10 AM
Alex - interesting. My gripe with James is that (as far as I remember) he never repented of his behavior toward Snape. James and his friends ganged up on a loner student and maltreated him on a routine basis. As Snape reminds Harry, James never came after him unless it was four against one.
To me, that speaks of arrogance, cowardice, and a serious cruel streak. Admittedly, I was bullied a bit as a child myself and was an enraged loner during high school, so I may be a bit biased here, but I think the point that James was a deeply flawed person stands. There's a difference between being a typical teenage bastard and stripping someone's clothes off by brute force in public. The fact that James later saved Snape's life shows that he's not evil, just mean (a distinction Card draws that I quite like). But I don't think someone should necessarily be forgiven for being mean just because, well, they were only a teenager. I'd be willing to believe James was a mean, arrogant, cruel bastard as an adult too, we just didn't get to see him that way. (And he probably learned to hide it once he grew up. A lot of people do.)
Wow. I am apparently an incredibly bitter and cynical grouch. No wonder I love Snape so much.
Posted by: Ealasaid at July 20, 2007 01:23 PM
E:
You make a fair point about James. I didn't mean to say (and will now explicitly state to the contrary) that people should be forgiven for being mean just because they were teenagers. Rather, having been a bullied loner myself as well--but also recognizing that, like most humans, I took the few opportunities I had to push the shit downwards--I allow for the possibility that James later became a better person. Nowhere in the first six books do we see anything conclusive either way, though Rowling hints at it by, if nothing else, the fact that Lily changed her opinion of him.
However, compare the situation with Snape: He is not only mean and cruel, he is a) an adult while he was doing it, so he doesn't have that potential excuse, and b) uses his position as an authority figure to be mean and cruel to people less powerful than himself.
But I'm still convinced he's not a loyal Death Eater.
-AS
Posted by: Alex Summers at July 20, 2007 02:38 PM
Alex - re He is not only mean and cruel, he is a) an adult while he was doing it, so he doesn't have that potential excuse, and b) uses his position as an authority figure to be mean and cruel to people less powerful than himself., you are completely correct, and I did some thinking trying to figure out why I forgive Snape for that (and even kind of like it when he's nasty to students).
Then I remembered: I worked as a teacher for many years. Scenes of Snape being nasty to his students serve me as a sort of wish-fulfillment. I've often longed to be that nasty to the students I was working with but I never dared. So there's that. I'm biased. Sigh.
It probably helps that I was always very, very good at getting teachers to like me (even teachers I loathed). I no doubt don't identify with Snape's student victims because I'm subconsciously convinced that if he were my teacher, he'd like me. :)
Anyway, thanks for provoking some introspection.
Posted by: Ealasaid at July 23, 2007 10:28 AM
LOL, I can certainly understand how being a teacher would change your perspective on teacher nastiness. Plus, as Card pointed out, Umbridge is there to illustrate just how nasty Snape isn't.
I'd say more, but I've finished the last book and don't want to accidentally spoil anything.
-AS
Posted by: Alex Summers at July 24, 2007 08:48 AM
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