Just a little Snape musing...

[valis2]

rickfan37 did her own build-a-snape here and mentioned this really excellent point:

Here’s the Urbane!Snape myth again. I don’t know, and we’re given no clue in canon. I simply don’t believe he’s a closet opera buff and spends his spare time humming along to great arias, or that he can quote Dante or Shakespeare at will.

It really made me think of something new. I've always been a bit apprehensive about fics where Snape quotes Byron and listens to Bach.

I think what really is happening is that giving Snape these "pretentious" hobbies is a way for an inexperienced writer to "shorthand" their characterization of him, because in just a sentence of quoting/playing classical music, they set him up (in their minds) as a certain sort of character, aloof, mysterious, educated, etc. It's a short-cut.

The thing is, the sort of character they're trying to develop is not canon. Snape is a pure-blood, and would most likely know very little, if anything, about the Muggle world (his matchbox comment notwithstanding). And I'm certain that most pure-bloods wouldn't want to involve themselves in any sort of Muggle-world scrutiny.

So authors who attempt this short-cut are really doing canon a disservice, when what they really need to do is discover what would make him an aloof, mysterious, and educated character in Rowling's world.

Just my little musing for the moment.

Comments

[pen-and-umbra.livejournal.com]

I only meant that they are viewed as pretentious by a large portion of society.

Oh, quite so, and I very well understand such a view; when observed objectively, opera is an extremely ridiculous genre with formalisms and structures that are either incomprehensible or utterly laughable unless one takes them in the proper context of the art form. Very much an acquired taste, in other words. And certainly, a lot of people invoke opera or classical music when they wish to appear more educated/sophisticated than they feel they are, hence the unfortunate reputation. Why this is so, I have no clue. I'm just there for the music. :)

Obviously the students are expected to be literate, but not much else happens in that arena, unless you consider the valentines Lockhart coordinated.

A very good point, and I could even construe the lack of arts classes at Hogwarts to speak on behalf of wizards being forced to seek their cultural fix in the Muggle arts. The wizarding folk are taught to be consumers of literature and music and such things, but outside Lockhart's valentines and singing the school song at the start-of-term feast, there is not much encouragement to become a producer of art. Not that education in such matters is imperative to make artists -- one can be self-taught, after all -- but it certainly seems to discourage seeking careers in the arts.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

it certainly seems to discourage seeking careers in the arts.

Yes, all of the occupations we've seen so far seem to be rather prosaic...Ministry official, teacher, Dark Lord...

I know we're not getting the entire schedule, but I haven't seen a glimpse of arts, just about. And there doesn't seem to be an outlet for crafts, or handcrafted spells/goods...they're either amusingly charmed items that embarrass or hurt people (Dark Magic items at Grimmauld) or they're practical (brooms, Molly's clock, etc.). Or they're mass produced by companies, though perhaps "mass" isn't quite the best word. Actually, the entire wizarding economy fascinates me, because it's so small. Anyway, short of shops, we don't hear of any private money changing hands, probably because of Harry's pov, though.

I'm rambling, sorry.

[pen-and-umbra.livejournal.com]

Actually, the entire wizarding economy fascinates me, because it's so small.

Ditto. Hence, I was all a-squee over the details of the broom industry in Quidditch Through The Ages.