Waaaaaay post-DH thoughts.
May. 15th, 2008 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valis2Yeah, probably useless at this point, but still.
Last week I was listening to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
snapecast episode 16 (which was released last spring, before DH hit, yeah, I'm still catching up in a weird way--I missed a few episodes because they were mislabeled in my mp3 player). The snarky chapters portion really made me pause and rewind.
In the segment,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaeche mentioned her fear that JKR would only write 20 pages about Snape and we'd find out precious little else about him. Also, either Chaeche or someone else in the segment mentioned that she expected JKR to pull something really amazing out of her bag of tricks, because she's so clever. (This is very paraphrased, as I don't have my mp3 player in front of me right now.)
Oddly enough, the second part is something I really expected. Each book ended in such a novel manner that I really thought the final ending was going to be something marvelous, some tricksy, astonishing sleight of hand that would set the fandom aflame.
You see, right from PoA (and even more so with GoF) I had this feeling about JKR and her mysteries.
Mystery authors generally write three different kinds of mysteries. 1) The murderer is someone you're introduced to in the start. 2) The murderer is someone who comes onstage somewhere around halfway through. 3) The murderer is someone who pops up out of nowhere in the last five pages.
#3 is not as common as the first two. Readers aren't very fond of it, you see. And as soon as I read PoA, I knew that JKR was inordinately fond of #3. Though not really in terms of finding out the identity of the murderer--more in terms of solving the mystery or mysteries. She repeats this formula again and again. She plants quite a few red herrings. A good example is Barty Crouch Jr's funeral in PoA, which is why I was so completely blindsided by Barty impersonating Moody. When I reread the books, I do notice that the clues are there, but the first time through I never guessed any of the endings. Based on what the reader knows, it's really difficult to guess some of the mysteries--especially the whys and whodunits.
This is partly due to the fact that she withholds information. Which is also a reason that I think the books were so intriguing--but I digress.
I honestly expected her to follow the same formula, but leave the biggest "punch" for last. Like, it would end with a bang like usual, but it would be even a huger bang, because this would take all seven books and transform them into one big mystery. This was reinforced by an interview where JKR mentioned that she hadn't seen anyone guess what she was going to do. I had numerous conversations with people, and in the end I just assumed that it would be a pretty amazing revelation. I mean, we were really swimming in a sea of theories, so if no one had guessed, then it had to be pretty brilliant, and based on something we hardly knew.
Unfortunately, Chaeche was quite the Trelawney, and her unwitting words about Snape came true, in a sense. We did learn about his life (the very barest bones), but otherwise, we found out...well...precious little else. That was definitely a disappointment. Snape was always the most intriguing character for me, and I was very much hoping that Harry's "personal" grudge with him would end spectacularly. Instead, we have a strangely subdued Harry, who never seems to get that angry about Snape. Plus, we have a very condensed version of Snape's backstory, and we see little of him in the rest of the story.
It's been ten months now, and when I think about the book, a few things rise to the top quickly.
There were some really haunting moments. Scenes where I literally put the book down and ran around the apartment like an idjit. The scene where Ron destroys the Horcrux had me nearly crawling up the walls. The scene where Kingsley's Patronus warns everybody that the Ministry is coming. There were so many great moments that I really wholeheartedly enjoyed.
But then there was the camping. And the messy slapstick. And the camping. And the lack of Snape. And the camping. And the authorial shortcuts--getting rid of Hedwig (which sidesteps a few problems), Hermione's beaded bag, the wholesale revision of Secret Keeping, etc.
And that brings me to the next issue. You see, we were kept in the dark for much of the series by having a limited narrator, someone who was raised by Muggles and kept in the dark about magic, and had to have magic and wizarding society explained to him. JKR knows exactly how to ratchet up the tension: leave out some of the details. Which she did, and played up by having question and answer appearances with fans. She left out enough that a large section of fandom became theorists. In fact, that's part of what's gone from fandom; the theories. We have little need for them any longer. I miss the essays, the pondering, the clues. I even miss the crack!theories. It feels like a huge part of the HP fandom experience has vanished.
I'm still surprised at the Snily, in a way. JKR's thought that no one had guessed where she was going was the ultimate red herring, and I should have known better, because how could she have known all of the theories we generated? Still, there were a lot of fans who guessed Snily. And I remember reading "Snape's Worst Memory" and thinking, this is it? Being upside down in front of tormentors? Isn't this all in a day's work for him at this point? So then I thought that either Harry had interrupted it before it went further, or that calling Lily a Mudblood was what made it so awful for Snape. (Seeing the OotP film made me think that it was the former, as the latter wasn't present in the film.)
I have started thinking of my personal fandom experience in a different manner. I view the time between OotP and HBP as a Golden Age of fandom, in a way; certainly we had lots of new information to use, new characters, and lots of open space to write in the margins. I view the time between HBP and DH as a Silver Age. Some loose ends were tied up, and creativity was necessary to write certain pairings. But in all, it was still a time of blooming. Of course, I come to this viewpoint from being a Snape fan and entering the fandom in November, 2003. I'm certain that other fans have their own timeline.
Overall, after spending time thinking about it, and talking to other fen, I've really revised my opinion of the books. I used to say, over and over, that they were definitely more mature and more adult; but, having really thought about it, I have revised my opinion. They straddle a line, but they never really cross over one way or the other. I went to a great lecture at Prophecy about how JKR combines kid's lit and adult lit, and I really think that the speaker was right on target. JKR writes about Spellotape and names her werewolf characters Lupin and Fenrir, for example. And the whole Fiendfyre scene, and Malfoy getting punched in the face...these scenes felt very kid-oriented and kind of slapstick-y to me.
When it comes down to it, I can't forget what I wrote in my LJ after I read it. This book was not written for us, the obsessed fen. It was written for the millions of kids and adults who casually enjoyed the series. This isn't meant to sound like, "Boo-hoo, us big fans were mistreated," or anything like that. It's just that I think I lost perspective on the way. I immersed myself so much in the world and read so much amazing fanfic and saw so much amazing fanart that her world was broadened and enriched, and when I returned to the source for what I felt would be the triumphant, brilliant ending, I felt a little let down. Yes, the book was definitely the definitive end to the series; it explained what it need to explained, and parts of the journey were terrific. Please don't think that I don't appreciate its strengths. I'm just whining about the fact that my expectations were pumped so high--which is entirely my own fault.
Yeah, I know, total tl;dr. But I've had these thoughts rattling in my head for a while and I needed to get them out. Thanks for reading.
Last week I was listening to
snapecast episode 16 (which was released last spring, before DH hit, yeah, I'm still catching up in a weird way--I missed a few episodes because they were mislabeled in my mp3 player). The snarky chapters portion really made me pause and rewind.In the segment,
chaeche mentioned her fear that JKR would only write 20 pages about Snape and we'd find out precious little else about him. Also, either Chaeche or someone else in the segment mentioned that she expected JKR to pull something really amazing out of her bag of tricks, because she's so clever. (This is very paraphrased, as I don't have my mp3 player in front of me right now.)Oddly enough, the second part is something I really expected. Each book ended in such a novel manner that I really thought the final ending was going to be something marvelous, some tricksy, astonishing sleight of hand that would set the fandom aflame.
You see, right from PoA (and even more so with GoF) I had this feeling about JKR and her mysteries.
Mystery authors generally write three different kinds of mysteries. 1) The murderer is someone you're introduced to in the start. 2) The murderer is someone who comes onstage somewhere around halfway through. 3) The murderer is someone who pops up out of nowhere in the last five pages.
#3 is not as common as the first two. Readers aren't very fond of it, you see. And as soon as I read PoA, I knew that JKR was inordinately fond of #3. Though not really in terms of finding out the identity of the murderer--more in terms of solving the mystery or mysteries. She repeats this formula again and again. She plants quite a few red herrings. A good example is Barty Crouch Jr's funeral in PoA, which is why I was so completely blindsided by Barty impersonating Moody. When I reread the books, I do notice that the clues are there, but the first time through I never guessed any of the endings. Based on what the reader knows, it's really difficult to guess some of the mysteries--especially the whys and whodunits.
This is partly due to the fact that she withholds information. Which is also a reason that I think the books were so intriguing--but I digress.
I honestly expected her to follow the same formula, but leave the biggest "punch" for last. Like, it would end with a bang like usual, but it would be even a huger bang, because this would take all seven books and transform them into one big mystery. This was reinforced by an interview where JKR mentioned that she hadn't seen anyone guess what she was going to do. I had numerous conversations with people, and in the end I just assumed that it would be a pretty amazing revelation. I mean, we were really swimming in a sea of theories, so if no one had guessed, then it had to be pretty brilliant, and based on something we hardly knew.
Unfortunately, Chaeche was quite the Trelawney, and her unwitting words about Snape came true, in a sense. We did learn about his life (the very barest bones), but otherwise, we found out...well...precious little else. That was definitely a disappointment. Snape was always the most intriguing character for me, and I was very much hoping that Harry's "personal" grudge with him would end spectacularly. Instead, we have a strangely subdued Harry, who never seems to get that angry about Snape. Plus, we have a very condensed version of Snape's backstory, and we see little of him in the rest of the story.
It's been ten months now, and when I think about the book, a few things rise to the top quickly.
There were some really haunting moments. Scenes where I literally put the book down and ran around the apartment like an idjit. The scene where Ron destroys the Horcrux had me nearly crawling up the walls. The scene where Kingsley's Patronus warns everybody that the Ministry is coming. There were so many great moments that I really wholeheartedly enjoyed.
But then there was the camping. And the messy slapstick. And the camping. And the lack of Snape. And the camping. And the authorial shortcuts--getting rid of Hedwig (which sidesteps a few problems), Hermione's beaded bag, the wholesale revision of Secret Keeping, etc.
And that brings me to the next issue. You see, we were kept in the dark for much of the series by having a limited narrator, someone who was raised by Muggles and kept in the dark about magic, and had to have magic and wizarding society explained to him. JKR knows exactly how to ratchet up the tension: leave out some of the details. Which she did, and played up by having question and answer appearances with fans. She left out enough that a large section of fandom became theorists. In fact, that's part of what's gone from fandom; the theories. We have little need for them any longer. I miss the essays, the pondering, the clues. I even miss the crack!theories. It feels like a huge part of the HP fandom experience has vanished.
I'm still surprised at the Snily, in a way. JKR's thought that no one had guessed where she was going was the ultimate red herring, and I should have known better, because how could she have known all of the theories we generated? Still, there were a lot of fans who guessed Snily. And I remember reading "Snape's Worst Memory" and thinking, this is it? Being upside down in front of tormentors? Isn't this all in a day's work for him at this point? So then I thought that either Harry had interrupted it before it went further, or that calling Lily a Mudblood was what made it so awful for Snape. (Seeing the OotP film made me think that it was the former, as the latter wasn't present in the film.)
I have started thinking of my personal fandom experience in a different manner. I view the time between OotP and HBP as a Golden Age of fandom, in a way; certainly we had lots of new information to use, new characters, and lots of open space to write in the margins. I view the time between HBP and DH as a Silver Age. Some loose ends were tied up, and creativity was necessary to write certain pairings. But in all, it was still a time of blooming. Of course, I come to this viewpoint from being a Snape fan and entering the fandom in November, 2003. I'm certain that other fans have their own timeline.
Overall, after spending time thinking about it, and talking to other fen, I've really revised my opinion of the books. I used to say, over and over, that they were definitely more mature and more adult; but, having really thought about it, I have revised my opinion. They straddle a line, but they never really cross over one way or the other. I went to a great lecture at Prophecy about how JKR combines kid's lit and adult lit, and I really think that the speaker was right on target. JKR writes about Spellotape and names her werewolf characters Lupin and Fenrir, for example. And the whole Fiendfyre scene, and Malfoy getting punched in the face...these scenes felt very kid-oriented and kind of slapstick-y to me.
When it comes down to it, I can't forget what I wrote in my LJ after I read it. This book was not written for us, the obsessed fen. It was written for the millions of kids and adults who casually enjoyed the series. This isn't meant to sound like, "Boo-hoo, us big fans were mistreated," or anything like that. It's just that I think I lost perspective on the way. I immersed myself so much in the world and read so much amazing fanfic and saw so much amazing fanart that her world was broadened and enriched, and when I returned to the source for what I felt would be the triumphant, brilliant ending, I felt a little let down. Yes, the book was definitely the definitive end to the series; it explained what it need to explained, and parts of the journey were terrific. Please don't think that I don't appreciate its strengths. I'm just whining about the fact that my expectations were pumped so high--which is entirely my own fault.
Yeah, I know, total tl;dr. But I've had these thoughts rattling in my head for a while and I needed to get them out. Thanks for reading.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-18 02:30 am (UTC)I had my doubts. The scenario I though was most plausible was that he would be a baddie through the book, sort of a ghost-Snape-walking, dispensing badness that Harry would find out about on the front page of the Prophet. And then at the end he'd have a change of heart. And then probably die.
But then I kept wondering about what would happen, and I kept see-sawing back and forth. I overanalyzed things big time--if I had kept to my writer's instinct, I would have seen that the strings were pointing to
Mistah Lovah LovahSnape as the good guy.But I was a bit worried that he would turn out to be too good
Yeah, during the Pensieve memories I was hoping, just a little, that he took off George's ear just for the hell of it. heh. Yeah, I'm a little crazy, as you already know...but anyway, JKR apparently couldn't even give him that little bit of baddassery, because he was just trying to protect
his secret lovahLupin."Sure, he's a bastard--but he's our bastard" was my take on him. He was a nasty person on a mundane, ego-driven level, but on a deeper level he was doing the right thing.
haha! That's definitely what turned out to be true in the end. I always liked that he was a bastard, I liked that he wasn't easy to pigeonhole, and I was always intrigued by why he was so accepted into Dumbledore's trust. He was definitely a scene-stealer of a character, seriously. Which makes me wonder why she left him out of so much of DH. Or--wait--maybe I just answered my own question.
Could she manage to walk that line, to show him as fundamentally good and redeemable, without sugar-coating or explaining away his worst qualities?
Yes, she did, but she really held her cards to her chest, and I'm of the mind that it didn't help much--she could have been a little clearer, had a few more moments, and it might have actually strengthened the book. Then again, I'm a foaming-at-the-mouth Snape-girl, so what the hell do I know? I sure as hell haven't sold a billion books. I can't even finish one!
Post-DH, I've seen a few people complain that Snape either didn't get redeemed "enough", or didn't get redeemed at all--which just makes me shake my head and wonder what books they were reading.
Oh no, I was totally satisfied with the...level?...of redemption. I thought it was just perfect--no soppy speeches, no drawn-out death scene, no moronic moment of Snapeish sobs.
What I felt unsatisfied with was this mention of Harry-Snape as being "personal" and then having absolutely no confrontation between them at all, not even a burning, simmering rage in Harry's chest monster.
Snape's redemption began in that ugly, terrible moment of overwhelming guilt, shame and remorse. He wanted to die then, but instead agreed to live in order that Lily's death not be in vain. And while the single-minded love for Lily that motivated Snape may seem selfish and limited--especially when contrasted with the sort of great universal love that enabled Harry to go face Voldemort at the certain cost of his own life--it was everything he had to offer, and he offered it willingly (sort of like the widow's mite).
Yes, his love for her was the thorn pricking him to do what needed to be done, the slender thread that drew him, step by step, over agonizing terrain. Looking back, the story does resonate more, and his character is more impressive and understandable. But it does suck that I'll have to re-read it all to really get all of that. heh.
Okay, I was giving myself a haircut and took a break to address this question. And now it's 1:35 and the post office closes at 3:00 and I only have the hair on one side of my head cut. So I'd better quit discussing Snape and go finish giving myself a trim so I can mail packages out today...
Yes, you must not face the public lopsided! Though you could grab a nearby feline and drape it over your head as a chapeau.
And thank you for not unleashing the hounds of DH hell upon me! lol
Oh, and I dreamt of your NOLA pants this morning. I was wearing them in the dream, and when I woke up, I said, "Hey, those weren't my pants, those were Julian's!"