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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, I really wish that they had not started the movies till the books were a closed canon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wonder what would have happened with Snape if Tim Roth hadn't turned down the role.
