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

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the more I read into the books the more I see the mention of Flamel's and Dumbledore's musical tastes as only being mentioned to show how quaint and amusing they are. "Oh, they like opera wink wink." The implication being that "we" as in "Harry" are very much cooler than Dumbledore and Flamel becuase "we" meaning "Harry" know that opera is very much uncool and old.

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

That's possible. Dumbledore being into chamber music seems to my highly selective reading as reinforcing (for those in the know) his status as interested in Muggle culture, but a fan of one of the most refined kinds of classical music. Chamber music has always had some connotations of connaiseurship, something listened to in private instead of public (chamber instead of public paying concert hall), and as being the most 'intellectual' form of classical music. That's my read, at least.