that is indeed a problem with a lot of Snape fics... perhaps not so much with fics in which Snape is not involved in a romantic relationship though: after all, even though I agree with you that the canon Snape is certainly not physically attractive, he is quite a fascinating character. Fics that explore his complex attitudes regarding Dumbledore, the Dark Arts, Voldemort,the Malfoys, Harry Potter, etc. are usually quite interesting and not at all given to romanticizing his voice or physical appearance. Mind you, a lot of Draco fics have him as a sex god whereas neither the canon character nor the movie actor is particularly sexy, so I guess you can't fight the overwhelming power of hormones and fantasy... (and the need to turn every negative character into a sexy bad boy, because it is a universally acknowledged truth that, against all logic, evil = sexy ;) ).
I hear you talking. I have already had a few things to say about the cult of the Bad Boy as seen in Draco - namely, that in real life such hopes guarantee that the Bad Boy will take his attitudes to the relationship and the bedroom, with the results to be expected. JKR has given some very credible and interesting depictions of unattractive people - Snape, Draco, Pansy, Lucius, Narcissa - and in spite of all the canon evidence, every single one of them has been repeatedly prettyfied by dozens of fan writers, to the extent that in every casse the fanon image contradicts the canon.
Well I guess that things which may be desirable in fiction are often not desirable in real life. In a slightly different vein, I find it interesting that a lot of fics go against the canon idea that you don't have to be pureblood to be a great wizard and go out of their way to invent a pureblood heritage for Hermione or Lily. It's really fascinating to see how the trends in fanfiction reveal much about how people relate to the books: which details they'd rather emphasize or gloss over, etc.
Which raises the problem: if the books are so universally popular (Muslim prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are reputed to ask for them) that they surely answer some primary impulse, why do their very fans want to change their contents around in such an ideologically loaded way? Why do we want to change what we love?
We don't change what we love - a lot of the Potterverse is dull. We kept what we love (the story where we are the hero(ine)), and told that in fanfiction. JK Rowling didn't tell her story for us, we're just fixing things we know are true.
No you haven't - you've made Draco gay, and made Ginny into a version of your angellic heroine. It's fanfic - you're allowed to improve the original story. It's up to the readers to let you know if you oversteped and the original story is lost. Meanwhile, you put your passion into bringing your own world to life. JKR put her passion into bringing her world to life. Her world is pretty miserable - eleven year olds are left alone (by adults with full knowledge of the risks) to fight evil. That's not my world. I'm not passionate about it. I like the old "no one is evil from the inside" view which makes an eleven-year-old unreliable narrator's descpition of Snape very open to to interpretation.
My deepest apologies for the previous answer, which I have deleted. The only excuse for that stunning outburst of stupidity was that I am not feeling particularly well today.
I would say that the Kreacher transformation moment is a point where JKR's personal beliefs prevail over her narrative instincts, as they rarely do elsewhere. It hits us over the head with the fact that Hermione was right - even though JKR herself had previously treated Hermione's crusading attitudes with a justifiably double-edged irony. The conversion of Draco and the Malfoys is rather better handled, but I am afraid it still has the same effect on me. And on the other hand there is the imprudent blanket condemnation of Slytherins - by the time we get to the seventh book, only one Slytherin has actively taken sides on the good side, and that one, Slughorn, has practically been compelled by Dumbledore. That is one thing I have happily modified in my own fics.
The luminously brave and amazingly powerful heroine in The First Nymphadora is a Slytherin. But that has something to do with the fact that, unlike JKR, I do not have a prejudice against politicians as such.
Going to a lonely, horrible death; unable to say goodbye to your loved ones for fear that they will suffer if you do; knowing that this is the only way to strike a blow against Voldemort? Sounds like actively taking sides to me!
Besides, Hogwarts students are what, eleven when sorted? Nature, family and then their house are all conspiring to keep them on one side. Sure, a handful will actually choose otherwise: but most won't even realise that there *is* a choice. Although a muggleborn Slytherin would be an interesting case study.
Re: Eh-hem.....elskuligrAugust 25 2008, 07:02:05 UTC
well, it's true that we do have two Sytherin adults (Snape and Regulus) who changed their mind after going with the Death Eaters. They still went, mind you and we know that Snape's reasons for turning back at least were not purely about right and wrong, which begs the question: if Lily had left the country for Switzerland at the beginning of war, would he have been happy to remain a Death Eater? But fair enough, let's admit that Snape and Regulus chose the side of light and thus prove that redemption is possible for Slytherins
( ... )
To be ambitious and cunning does not mean to be evil unless you exercise your cunning in evil ways, or else fathers of our nation like Washington, de Gaulle or Cavour would have to count as villains. Of course, some such people definitely are villainous - Vittorio Emanuele II, Bismarck and Richelieu come to mind. But another question I had was about JKR's neurotic fear and hatred of politics and administration, and her replacement of patriotism with provinciality. I suspect this has to do with her downgrading of "ambition". Indeed, in Slytherin House as she depicts it, ambition seems to have morphed into its very reverse - conformity, bootlicking and a complete lack of individuality. This may, of course, be the shape that ambition takes in a society dominated by various immovable bureaucracies, but it is a mean and diminished version of what ambition really means. I hope you are ambitious in your goals, and I certainly am in mine. That is nothing to be ashamed of
( ... )
perhaps not so much with fics in which Snape is not involved in a romantic relationship though: after all, even though I agree with you that the canon Snape is certainly not physically attractive, he is quite a fascinating character. Fics that explore his complex attitudes regarding Dumbledore, the Dark Arts, Voldemort,the Malfoys, Harry Potter, etc. are usually quite interesting and not at all given to romanticizing his voice or physical appearance.
Mind you, a lot of Draco fics have him as a sex god whereas neither the canon character nor the movie actor is particularly sexy, so I guess you can't fight the overwhelming power of hormones and fantasy... (and the need to turn every negative character into a sexy bad boy, because it is a universally acknowledged truth that, against all logic, evil = sexy ;) ).
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In a slightly different vein, I find it interesting that a lot of fics go against the canon idea that you don't have to be pureblood to be a great wizard and go out of their way to invent a pureblood heritage for Hermione or Lily.
It's really fascinating to see how the trends in fanfiction reveal much about how people relate to the books: which details they'd rather emphasize or gloss over, etc.
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Going to a lonely, horrible death; unable to say goodbye to your loved ones for fear that they will suffer if you do; knowing that this is the only way to strike a blow against Voldemort?
Sounds like actively taking sides to me!
Besides, Hogwarts students are what, eleven when sorted? Nature, family and then their house are all conspiring to keep them on one side. Sure, a handful will actually choose otherwise: but most won't even realise that there *is* a choice.
Although a muggleborn Slytherin would be an interesting case study.
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