Orson Scott Card on Severus Snape

[harmony_bites]

A friend sent me the link to this article so I thought I’d pass it along. It’s LONG-but meaty, and by an award-winning and bestselling novelist, author of Ender’s Game. His analysis is not “good news”-it pretty much tracks fandom analysis-that Snape is indeed loyal to Dumbledore, but will sacrifice his life in the end-because, as he puts it, there’

Comments

[boji]

Thanks for the link to the article. It's odd isn't it, to see how fandom changes ones perceptions from a regular/bog-standard reader to ... well someone who gets to the last para of that article which reads: Snape is not the character we are rooting for, and has to think through the initial reaction of wtf? What is he talking about? Of course Snape is who we're rooting for.

Then again I'm a reader who has read so much fic I can't help wishing there was less celebration of Gryffindor in the main texts - a great deal lesss celebration of fools rushing in... everywhere. And I'm the reader who boggles at the fact that the war effort isn't making use of it's brain-pool, i.e. Ravenclaw...

[harmony_bites]

You're not alone in being bothered by the Gryfindor-centricity though--and in that I'm speaking from my perspective pre-HBP as a non-Snape fan. I wasn't rooting for Snape through the first five books at all--or any of the Slytherins who I found unappealing (HBP, and fic, turned that around).

But even when my take on the Slytherins was that Snape was untrustworthy and nasty, Draco just an evil, weak cowardly bully, and the rest of Slytherin rather creepy and inbred...

The Gryffindor-centricity bothered me--a lot. It seemed flat. And my favorite of the books had been OotP--because for once it wasn't all Slytherin--the DA was more than that. One of my biggest disappointments with HBP is that we lost that.

So fandom didn't make me deplore that, nor did it create my initial interest and sympathy for Snape and make me root for him--HBP did that because like Card it made me believe Snape was loyal and Snape would die--how can you not feel sympathy then?

But fandom did this--it made me care deeply. Snape is more than a fictional character

[harmony_bites]

I want to--it's my first novel and as much as it's given me grief, I've learned more from writing it than any number of short stories--even if I look now at my very fanonized Snape and sometimes cringe.

I think, after a suitable period of mourning, I could go back to the story and finish it even if Snape dies. What would actually make it impossible would be if Snape did turn out to be a traitor, because that wouldn't just kill the character (AU here I come) but my vision of him, and I think it would be impossible in the face of the "official" take to sustain the story.

And yeah, we fandomites are not the only ones (that article was *long*)--hey, when Salmon Rushdie is a Snape fan it's almost respectable...

[harmony_bites]

I'd written a couple of dozen stories before my WIP--but it took my WIP for me to really understand how different a novel is--that a chapter is not an equivalent of a short story. I'm up to 9 chapters now--and it's not like writing 9 short stories at all--you have to bob and weave and withhold info in a completely different way. I feel like I'm finally growing a plot bone--that's what the story has done for me among other things.

So yeah, it is quite an accomplishment to finish a novel, if I could get it done.

Dead!Snape or not...

Evil!Snape otoh... *winces*

[wade_scott]

Yeah, having heavy hitters as Orson Scott Card and Salmon Rushdie and the like on my side makes me feel pretty smrt indeed.

[harmony_bites]

LOL. I think you're pretty smart all by your lonesome!

[wade_scott]

Bah, I just play a genius on television.

[harmony_bites]

Ha!

And er... speaking of WIPs... I know, I know, not your turn... Where is Danae so I can nag her?

[lillithj]

::holds hands over ears::

LALALALALALALA! I can't hear you!

[harmony_bites]

There, there.

::pats::

[lillithj]

::lowers hands::

Where do you get the smileys?

[harmony_bites]

LOL. The lovely and gracious renitaleandra will provide them to any and all that ask. She hosts the images herself and will forward you an email with the codes if you speak up on her LJ. She loves sharing them.

[misstee123]

I love that article. I always enjoy it when people are able to articulate things so much better than I can. I won't be deterred if Snape dies, as long as he is redeemed. Can you say "The Summoning"?

BTW, kudos to you on how well you've kept up with commenting on the exchange. There have been some great stories, but I've been too busy to keep up with all the multi-chaptered stories at the moment. I'm probably not even halfway through the month.

And finally, YAY! for another chapter of BoS. I'm so happy to read more. :D

[harmony_bites]

I love that article. I always enjoy it when people are able to articulate things so much better than I can. I won't be deterred if Snape dies, as long as he is redeemed. Can you say "The Summoning"?

I'm with you there. Although one argument I've heard for why Snape should live kinda is the inverse of Card's argument--that precisely because it would be harder for Harry to forgive a living Snape, Harry should be faced with exactly that--and nothing else could as strongly show his growth and maturity.

BTW, kudos to you on how well you've kept up with commenting on the exchange. There have been some great stories, but I've been too busy to keep up with all the multi-chaptered stories at the moment. I'm probably not even halfway through the month.Keeping up with this Exchange was hard--there were twice as many stories as last time, and 6 posted have been novel-length. But since I was participating this time, I thought it was even more important to try and leave feedback, and this time I set myself to feeding back not only every story but