Snape: The Real Protagonist of the HP Series

[harmony_bites]

Found this article via sylvanawood's post in dh_oh_shit. It’s chock full of spoilers, so don’t read it unless you’ve finished Deathly Hallows, but it expresses eloquently and succinctly something I think a lot of us feel about Snape.

Missing from ‘Harry Potter’ - a real moral struggle

Oh, and how does Rowling feel about Snape now?

Comments

[pennswoods]

Here, here! I don't buy into the idea that authorial intent holds primacy over the readers' interpretation.

Writing is a form of communication, and all successful communication is a process of negotiation between individuals. Though a speaker (or author) may have intended to communicate one thing, what was in fact communicated to and understood by the listener (or reader) is often beyond the power of the speaker (or author) to control.

[harmony_bites]

A friend of mine from Trek days wanted to get into a pro anthology so we used to haunt the forum of the editor and learned a lot about writing that way. He spoke of writing as "coding." That basically you have something in your head, and the craft and skill comes in conveying it to the reader the way you want

[ginny_weasley31]

...canon is what is on the film, not interviews or novelizations.

At this point I've decided that I won't consider her interviews canon. I'm rather upset with her right now.

[harmony_bites]

I know Mugglenet considers interviews and whatever drops from Rowling's lips canon, but she's contradicted herself over the years which is to be expected. For instance she said at one point that the professions of Harry's parents would be important and that we'd see more of Zabini in the last book--neither materialized.

Even if you outline and have an epilogue as a goal, plot and characters change under your fingertips--this is what I thought might have happened to JKR with Snape.

So what Rowling *says* is not canon. Just like whatever Roddenbury (Trek's creator and first producer) says is not canon. That's the way it is in the other fandoms I know of--but then other fandoms don't make you repeat an author's mistakes in grammar, hyphenization, and capitalization to be "canon compliant."

What's canon is what is in the books--and that Snape is a hero--not a "deeply horrible man."

[ginny_weasley31]

Snape is a hero. He may be a bit disturbed, but the problem is that JKR is seeing Snape through Harry's eyes, too. She just doesn't get it or him. An incredible accident that she created someone so deeply complex. A pity that she can't understand him.

When I was part of the sleuthing side of things we took everything she said and wrote to be canon. Then, when she opened her website, everything there was canon as well.

That is no longer my opinion.

Please tell me, why is it that Minerva is too old to be headmistress of Hogwarts 19 yrs after DH? JKR said she was 70 or so... and didn't she also say that DD was nearly 150?

Even if you outline and have an epilogue as a goal, plot and characters change under your fingertips--this is what I thought might have happened to JKR with Snape.Hear! Hear

[harmony_bites]

Please tell me, why is it that Minerva is too old to be headmistress of Hogwarts 19 yrs after DH? JKR said she was 70 or so... and didn't she also say that DD was nearly 150?

Well, that's the other thing that leaves room for fanfic. The contradictions, the paradoxes, and the things that just don't make sense.

Funny, but in Trek my specialty was writing stories from the point of view of villains and making heroes of them. But that's the fun of fanfic so often. I have a lot of problems with HP culture and the moderated archives but in the end I think my problem comes down to people trying to exert far too much control.

Fanfic is not about control. It's about creativity. Its about using canon rather than following it.

Even if Rowling had said--"Yes, Snape is a hero", you know she would never have said:

Yes, well, Hermione was on that platform because she didn't trust Ron to drive the kids. They've actually long been divorced and she's married to Snape now. I wrote that death by Nagini scene so that you all could find ways he could

[mollilicious]

Hearing that disturbed me, too, although I've always held the position that only the books (or films, or shows depending on the fandom) are canon.

My poor stretch at a positive interpretation of her words... strictly speaking, I don't think Snape is a hero. He's an anti-hero, and, to my mind, one of the most striking ever written.

[harmony_bites]

Some moderated HP archives will hold that anything that drops from JKR's lips is canon and will enforce it. I once had a story rejected by Mugglenet because I was told it contradicted something Rowling said in an interview. I resubmitted it later and it went right through

[catherinecookmn]

As someone pointed out in a comment to Sylvannawood, when Snape makes the remark that the people he saw being killed were "only lately those I haven't been able to save" it's being implied he's long looked well beyond Lily for his reasons.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! Thank you for pointing out the single greatest thing for showing that Snape isn't the drip JKR keeps saying he is.

[harmony_bites]

Astonishing isn't it? That's her character. She's the one that put those words into his mouth, who has had him act in heroic ways.

But then, I'm still seeing some readers claiming that Snape was just probably playing both sides, and edited what got shown to Harry.

::headdesk::

[scatteredlogic]

~sighs~ I admire JKR for her world-building skills. She has a wonderful imagination and she created a compelling and vivid world, but consistent plot and characterization weren't always her strongest points. I think that GinnyW nailed it when she said that she believes JKR sees Snape through Harry's eyes.

Snape was a bully and a petty man in many ways, but he worked hard for his redemption. For her to brush that off is puzzling to me.

[harmony_bites]

I tend to agree with you. I've never seen Rowling as a graceful writer who should be held up as a role model. Her style often makes me cringe. Her characters are vivid, but other than Snape and Dumbledore, not very complex, her plotting imo often is brilliant, but has holes. I think it's her world-building that made HP special.

I'm in the minority on my f-list in actually loving the last book, but that may have been because of my low expectations--I had feared she wouldn't do as I'd been expecting her to since HBP--show that Snape was on the right side.

So when she not only had Snape still working against Voldemort, but as we guessed had it all be because of Dumbledore's own orders, when she showed such depth of emotion and feeling in him for Lily, when she had Harry say it didn't matter if his son was in Slytherin, named his son for Snape, called Snape the "bravest man" he'd ever known, I thought Rowling "got it."

Apparently not...

[scatteredlogic]

I think it's her world-building that made HP special.

I think so. Her adverb use was pared down in DH, so she has learned, but there was still some cringe-worthy prose that slipped through, and there were still some rather large plot holes. However, she still turned out an entertaining book.

Apparently not...

It's been surprising to me to learn that she created such a multi-layered character almost by accident. ~shakes head~

[lipasnape]

I agree with everything you wrote here and in comments. I agree with your choice of issues to address. Lots of irritating irrelevant comments all over the place

[harmony_bites]

I don't think I've ever cried at any of Rowling's books. I have cried at some Harry Potter fanfics though. Both in terms of characterization and style, there are several writers in the fandom I find more powerful than JKR.

Does that mean I think what she wrote is "bad fanfic?" No. I can think of a bare handful of fanficwriters that match Rowling in terms of intricacy of plot over hundreds of thousands of words and only one I can think of that might very well match Rowling in world-building someday. After all, my f-list is made up of a community of people who read and write fanfic based on Rowling's world. Who are a bit *cough* obsessed. Seems to me she didn't do so shabby.

And we shouldn't expect her to write the book we wanted. So, fair enough. In her eyes Snape is still a horrible man with nothing admirable about him. That's her opinion and she's entitled to it.

But it's still not canon despite her authorship. Canon is what is *in* the book we play with between the lines. If I wanted to follow canon rather than use it I'd be