There's also Snape flipping out like a mammal when he realizes Sirius has escaped. Love that part.
Well, look at you. All dressed up in big sister's clothes.
Faith ,'End of Days'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Polgara - May 09, 2011 8:04:13 am PDT #14595 of 28297
Karma is a cat, sleeping in my lap cuz it loves me. ~TS
Consuela - May 09, 2011 9:08:29 am PDT #14596 of 28297
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
I'd forgotten, frankly, quite how awful Snape is in this book. There's no "he's just misunderstood" interpretation here--he's petty, vindictive, unprofessional, and abusive; has no ability to consider objectively the possibility that he's wrong, and spends an inordinate amount of time fixated on a nearly 20-year-old grudge.
And people love this character. Want to marry him on the astral plane!
The other issue I've noted is how comprehensively Rowling deconstructs any idea that the adult world can be trusted to implement justice, or protect the innocent. Every institution of the Wizarding world fails Harry and his friends: the school, the criminal justice system, even family.
And of course the Muggle world has failed Harry as well--nobody ever noticed that a pre-teen was half-starved and abused in the Dursley household? Nobody ever called CPS?
It's really a terribly depressing indictment of human institutions.
erikaj - May 09, 2011 9:12:40 am PDT #14597 of 28297
Always Anti-fascist!
The one thing in the world David Simon has in common with JKR. Aw, dag, now I want to see a struggling urban wizard, or like a story where those kids in season 4 of The Wire were right and people were being turned in the vacants.
Jessica - May 09, 2011 9:25:41 am PDT #14598 of 28297
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
I haven't reread a Harry Potter book since they came out, but IIRC Snape in book 4 was pretty severely rewritten to make his character match up with the movie version.
Consuela - May 09, 2011 9:27:37 am PDT #14599 of 28297
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
IIRC Snape in book 4 was pretty severely rewritten to make his character match up with the movie version.
Damn the casting, then. As he is in book 3, he's the perfect encapsulation of the untrustworthy authority.
DebetEsse - May 09, 2011 9:30:09 am PDT #14600 of 28297
Woe to the fucking wicked.
Yeah, I really wish that they had not started the movies till the books were a closed canon.
Polgara - May 09, 2011 10:37:48 am PDT #14601 of 28297
Karma is a cat, sleeping in my lap cuz it loves me. ~TS
Wow, I didn't realize how much the movies influenced the later books. And yet, I just finished a reread of all seven last month, and Snape is still an ass, and Harry was totally bonkers to name one of his kids after him.
Aims - May 09, 2011 11:53:37 am PDT #14602 of 28297
Shit's all sorts of different now.
And people love this character. Want to marry him on the astral plane!
t raises hand
I am, along with Fay, I believe, an unabashed Snape lover. I totally agree that he is a total ass and irresponsible teacher. But he is wounded! And scarred! And was cleansed of his mortal sins! He just needed someone to LOVE HIM.
Ahem.
Yeah, I really wish that they had not started the movies till the books were a closed canon.
t terrorist fist bump.
Consuela - May 09, 2011 12:00:28 pm PDT #14603 of 28297
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
But he is wounded! And scarred! And was cleansed of his mortal sins! He just needed someone to LOVE HIM.
t backs away cautiously
More seriously: did you love him before Rickman was cast? If so, at what point in the series did you love him?
Because as of the end of Book 3 there is no indication Snape is anything other than a vindictive, petty, self-absorbed little man. Not necessarily evil, mind you (it's not evil to think Harry's a major PITA), but he's a poor excuse for a human being, with no apparent charity in his soul.
Amy - May 09, 2011 2:56:06 pm PDT #14604 of 28297
Because books.
It's really unsettling to read this conversation, because I realize I don't remember when Snape *wasn't* Rickman to me. And it's been a long time since I've reread books 1-4.