Comments | chazpure: SPOILERS - reaction to JKR interview

chazpure

SPOILERS - reaction to JKR interview

Jul 27, 2007 19:37

I'll have something more to say about DH, one of these days, but for now, having heard JKR's latest pronouncements, I'd just like to say...

( SPOILERISH STUFF HERE )

Comments 14

ellid July 28 2007, 02:45:40 UTC

Actually, I think she's a Slytherin. She's misled people for years about what precisely would be in her last book.

chazpure July 28 2007, 17:02:39 UTC

Heh. I might think so, if I credited her as being organized enough to plan and carry out a deliberate campaign of misdirection! ;-)

maddiec24 July 28 2007, 02:55:48 UTC

JKR is like my husband about her heroes - - they have to be simple and good, black and white, no gray at all, no flaws. We've had that argument dozens of times. I like my heroes as you say - - complex, flawed, *human*. Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors may be the ones who get the glory, but it *is* us Ravenclaws and Slytherins who do the dirty work and the thinking, and get no recognition. And I'd rather be that way.

chazpure July 28 2007, 17:05:27 UTC

Yeah - I think she's got hung up on very simple hero/villain archetypes, as concepts, and even though she's created these lovely, complex, human characters, she can't see Snape as a hero, because she knows he's flawed, and heroes can't be flawed. Someone needs to sit her down and point out all the flawed heroes in great literature...and then thwack her over the head. ;-)

karasu_hime July 28 2007, 05:20:51 UTC

I agree with you!

chazpure July 28 2007, 17:05:58 UTC

Thanks, hon! :-)

warped_factor July 28 2007, 07:09:32 UTC

Hehehe, yes! At first I was pissed at Jo's answer, but then I remembered that she's an idiot. .... Okay, fine, that's a bit harsh; I'm still grumpy about that book, I can't help it. But yeah, she's definitely got that simplistic view of things, and like you said, she can't even appreciate her own character in Snape nor (apparently) fathom why people love him. I just don't get her sometimes. *sighs*

chazpure July 28 2007, 17:13:18 UTC

J and I were discussing it again last night, and it occurred to me that in a way, Jo-the-author (as opposed to Jo-the-mom, at least I hope so!) is like a parent who never really sees the good in (one of) her kids. I've known people like that - they may love their kids, even know and understand them, their motivations and how they'll react, to some degree, but all they *focus* on is how the kid screws up. They forever find fault, rather than seeing the kid's good points. I think that's how she is with Snape - she made him; she knows he's bitter and petty and vindictive. She knows he loved Lily, and she knows why he did all the things he did, but instead of giving him credit for it all, she can only see him as a nasty person, and therefore unworthy of admiration, unworthy to be a hero. She grudgingly admits he's brave, but she's still focusing on his flaws, rather than the fact that he did the heroic thing, when really, he didn't *have* to.

*sigh*

*rescues Snape and Remus and Fred and Hedwig and puts them somewhere safe*

(The comment has been removed)

chazpure July 28 2007, 17:17:56 UTC

Yeah, it just boggles my mind that she can write this stuff - complex, detailed, fascinating world and characters - enthrall us all with it, and yet not really see what she's created, except in the most simplistic of forms.

As I just replied to ebonyserpent's comment above, I think Jo, as Snape's "mom," can only see his failings. Harry's her favorite, her golden boy, and although she admits he has his faults, he's THE HERO, and therefore all is forgiven him. Hell, she even cuts Dumbledore huge swathes of slack, when to my mind, he's a hell of a lot more culpable than poor Snape!