Hmmm... I enjoy your essays. Sometimes, I think you might overdo the symbolism a bit, but then again, I never enjoyed literary analysis in high school. ;)
I'm not really a FAN of Snape, mostly because I identify him as a sort of worst-case scenario for myself. I mean, no offense, but he does have deep-running flaws. I don't see the poor grooming, irritability, and insomnia as signs of depression - I had a good deal of all of the above as a child and early teenager, and I was hardly depressed THEN. (On the other hand, I do think Snape had an emotionally abusive father. Not physically, just emotionally. Emotionally can do a lot of damage in and of itself.)
I never really appreciated Snape's humor* because I've been on the receiving end of snarky and/or harsh humor, and found it very NOT enjoyable. Then again, some people dislike the Twins due to having been on the receiving end of "practical jokes", and while I'm not QUITE sure what my opinion of them is (I slot them into my 'Slightly... Off-Kilter' archetype and thus like them - note that said archetype says NOTHING about their moral status), I do see them as less ambitious (due to anti-Slytherin conditioning) Grindelwalds. I certainly LOATHE James, though - ugh! I could never stand people like Draco, and no matter WHAT JKR says in interviews, she LITERALLY wrote him as Draco in Gryffindor's clothing! *shudders* How she can STILL call him one of the heroes of his generation... bleurgh. And she makes comments about not equating Draco with Tom Felton (who, personally, I never found attractive in the slightest). She has an entirely valid point, but she's an utter hypocrite.
I don't agree that there IS a dissonance with what she actually did - then again, I'm a tad cynical due to choking down massive amounts of bad fanfiction. I realize there's a strong distinction between the fans who somehow enjoy Draco's personality and want to write him IC and develop him and those who just want to bang a pale pretty boy in leather, so there's a distinction between those who love the book!Snape and those who... well, have a crush on Alan Rickman. :P
To go slightly off-topic, I DO see dissonance in Harry Potter, but not about Snape. (I swear, I think she WAS trying to make him more sympathetic, but overshot and now can't figure out why people love him more than her pwecious gang of "cool" bullies.) For instance, in DH, I was quite intrigued by the Dumbledore backstory. *laughs* Yes, I know I'm one of the few in fandom who doesn't view it as unnecessary fluff, bad storytelling, blah-blah-blah. But it was CLEARLY setting up comparisons to the present! It was one of the few times I've seen a story that has been playing "For the Greater Good" fairly straight to turn around and say "But atrocities HAVE been justified as For the Greater Good, and no, I'm not just mouthing that line, HERE SOME ARE!". I thought we would see Our Heroes reevaluating their means to the end of the Greater Good, and - maybe "maturing" isn't quite the right word, but coming to realize that they've done or were doing wrong.
What do I get?
A ****ING "GALLANT" CRUCIO, in DIRECT contradiction to the canon that you CANNOT power a Cruciatus off of righteous wrath! ...Or perhaps it isn't even a contradiction. What THAT would say about Rowling's mindset - that torture for the sake of seeing someone suffer is "gallant" -, I don't what to think about. *shudder* And, of course, Harry telling poor Aberforth that "sometimes you've GOT to think about the Greater Good!". That moral lesson just rebounded off Harry's forehead, didn't it?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-05-26 07:32 pm (UTC)I'm not really a FAN of Snape, mostly because I identify him as a sort of worst-case scenario for myself. I mean, no offense, but he does have deep-running flaws. I don't see the poor grooming, irritability, and insomnia as signs of depression - I had a good deal of all of the above as a child and early teenager, and I was hardly depressed THEN. (On the other hand, I do think Snape had an emotionally abusive father. Not physically, just emotionally. Emotionally can do a lot of damage in and of itself.)
I never really appreciated Snape's humor* because I've been on the receiving end of snarky and/or harsh humor, and found it very NOT enjoyable. Then again, some people dislike the Twins due to having been on the receiving end of "practical jokes", and while I'm not QUITE sure what my opinion of them is (I slot them into my 'Slightly... Off-Kilter' archetype and thus like them - note that said archetype says NOTHING about their moral status), I do see them as less ambitious (due to anti-Slytherin conditioning) Grindelwalds. I certainly LOATHE James, though - ugh! I could never stand people like Draco, and no matter WHAT JKR says in interviews, she LITERALLY wrote him as Draco in Gryffindor's clothing! *shudders* How she can STILL call him one of the heroes of his generation... bleurgh. And she makes comments about not equating Draco with Tom Felton (who, personally, I never found attractive in the slightest). She has an entirely valid point, but she's an utter hypocrite.
I don't agree that there IS a dissonance with what she actually did - then again, I'm a tad cynical due to choking down massive amounts of bad fanfiction. I realize there's a strong distinction between the fans who somehow enjoy Draco's personality and want to write him IC and develop him and those who just want to bang a pale pretty boy in leather, so there's a distinction between those who love the book!Snape and those who... well, have a crush on Alan Rickman. :P
To go slightly off-topic, I DO see dissonance in Harry Potter, but not about Snape. (I swear, I think she WAS trying to make him more sympathetic, but overshot and now can't figure out why people love him more than her pwecious gang of "cool" bullies.) For instance, in DH, I was quite intrigued by the Dumbledore backstory. *laughs* Yes, I know I'm one of the few in fandom who doesn't view it as unnecessary fluff, bad storytelling, blah-blah-blah. But it was CLEARLY setting up comparisons to the present! It was one of the few times I've seen a story that has been playing "For the Greater Good" fairly straight to turn around and say "But atrocities HAVE been justified as For the Greater Good, and no, I'm not just mouthing that line, HERE SOME ARE!". I thought we would see Our Heroes reevaluating their means to the end of the Greater Good, and - maybe "maturing" isn't quite the right word, but coming to realize that they've done or were doing wrong.
What do I get?
A ****ING "GALLANT" CRUCIO, in DIRECT contradiction to the canon that you CANNOT power a Cruciatus off of righteous wrath! ...Or perhaps it isn't even a contradiction. What THAT would say about Rowling's mindset - that torture for the sake of seeing someone suffer is "gallant" -, I don't what to think about. *shudder* And, of course, Harry telling poor Aberforth that "sometimes you've GOT to think about the Greater Good!". That moral lesson just rebounded off Harry's forehead, didn't it?
(cont.)