Comments | rhetoretician: "Extend His Passion" (Ch. 2 of Returning Were As Tedious)

rhetoretician

"Extend His Passion" (Ch. 2 of Returning Were As Tedious)

Jun 17, 2007 17:40

Here's Chapter Two of the Snape fic. With it, I now have completed the first three chapters, and I think I feel safe beginning to post on PS and Mugglenet (no use even trying with SIYE). In case you haven't read the others, Chapter One, the prologue, is about Eileen Prince's intention to marry Tobias Snape, while Chapter Three is about their son ( Read more... )

hp, curses, child abuse, fanfic, wand wood, bigotry, snape, magical theory, childhood, macbeth

Comments 10

girlspell June 18 2007, 01:42:56 UTC

Wow...what can I say? That was impressive...and scary. It stuck me that in the midst of tension and fear from his father, the yelling and the screams, Snape would memorize the curses and spells almost as an aside. As if he had the same detached, methodical nature of his father

I'm so glad you decided to go back to Snape's childhood...to see what made him tick. Interesting to read what makes spells dark. Not the spell itself but the one who casts them. It was kind of justifying Snape's intentions to harm his father in order to protect his mother. It was so like Snape after z(almost) hexing his father, to go quietly upstairs to finish reading his book.

I also felt the little scene with Snape and his clumsy attempts with the owl funny.

rhetoretician June 18 2007, 03:13:35 UTC

Thanks, Rachel. Scary is good. I needed the detatchment (and the rigid self-control) to presage the future Snape.

I don't necessarily believe Crossroad's interpretation of what "dark" magic is -- but I needed a context in which a person with good (or at least not totally bad) intentions could rationalize using it. It's supposed to be the diametric opposite of the Slinkhard book in OoP: Slinkard implies that intent is completely irrelevant, while Crossroad says it's the only thing that's relevant. I agree with neither of them.

bandcandy June 18 2007, 02:31:50 UTC

Just wow. I certainly hope that you didn't come by your knowledge of child abuse the same way I did; you've captured perfectly the frightening quality of the unpredictable-ness of the abuser and the helpless feeling of victims who could fight back but don't even though they may have their own powers to wield.

I'll reply to your email in a bit; I spent the weekend in Austin (and went on a date!) and have things to prepare for work in the morning.

rhetoretician June 18 2007, 03:17:50 UTC

Oooooh, a date! Yay! (Champagne cork popping in the background, hits author in the eye.) I want details!

Happily I did not come by my understanding of child abuse the hard way. I have had, however, the experience of being attorney-in-fact to a number of battered women, and I know the drill. (There's more I could say, but I think I'll leave it to a private e-mail; I didn't lock this post to friends-only.)

ndanukiwi June 18 2007, 18:12:47 UTC

Fascinating. It's quite something to see those study habits growing out of urgent necessity. Very plausible origin for a lot of his character traits.

rhetoretician June 18 2007, 23:53:59 UTC

Thanks, hon. Plausibility is what I seek...

madderbrad June 19 2007, 11:25:37 UTC

Very interesting and engrossing reading!

rhetoretician June 19 2007, 14:13:56 UTC

Thanks!

stmargarets June 19 2007, 13:23:58 UTC

Oh, I liked the name of the author - Crossroad indeed. The tone of this made hearing about the abuse bearable - it was if seeing it from a great distance. I also like how Severus puzzles out how to get an owl and how to make a wand. That power of observation stays with him the rest of his life.

It was interesting to see what Severus inherited from each of his parents and I'm glad that you didn't make Tobias a complete monster.

Of course he had to kill for his power (cutting the tree for the wand). How prophetic for MacBeth and for Severus.

This is just fascinating. I'm glad you got more written!

rhetoretician June 19 2007, 14:20:56 UTC

Oh, thank you! I'm really happy that you noticed the little things that I hoped would add texture. The name Crossroad, and the death of the tree, were two such things.

It was really important that Tobias be at least a little comprehensible as a human being, not because I needed anyone to sypathize with him, but because I needed the reader to believe that these things had really happened. A confused, clueless, tormented abuser is (to my mind) more horrifying than an unreal "monster." Vernon Dursley never really scared me, and he should have.

I was conflicted about whether to use the distanced tone for this chapter -- I wanted the reader to feel Severus's fear and desparation, but I didn't want the reader overwhelmed. (Also, Severus has a great gift -- or curse -- of detatchment, and I wanted that to come through here.)