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

via daily_snitch

[jollityfarm.livejournal.com]

Personally, I like to imagine him as being rather lower-class, for all that he tries to adopt the ways of the posh purebloods he knows. I get so annoyed sometimes by the dandyish version. Especially the one that wears silk boxer shorts and drinks absinthe or knows about wine. In fact, the latter point is what annoys me most about Severus-as-dandy. He's always a very heavy drinker in those stories and I think that'd be hugely OOC for the canon character. Someone as prissy as him, someone who gets so angry at the mere possibility of being humiliated isn't going to risk being in a situation where he would lose control of himself. The very idea that he wouldn't be able to keep himself together probably repulses him.

Mind you, I say this from the POV of being a teetotaller myself, so perhaps it's just easier for me to imagine a stressful situation in which one wouldn't reach for the bottle. But if Severus did drink alcohol, I would bet you anything it wouldn't be absinthe. I mean, it's green, for crying out loud! It's practically got a sparkler in it already.

Re: via daily_snitch

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I definitely think that he does not come from money, or perhaps he comes from a family that once had money, but does not now.

As much as I would like to see him in silk boxers...I can't imagine him wearing them, really. And the wine thing...nope, can't see that either, though who knows.

I must admit, though, I do have a weakness for the absinthe-sipping Snape...it's so lovely...so fanon...hee!

And I don't think he'd be turned off by the color green, consummate Slytherin that he is...

Re: via daily_snitch

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

Absinthe is the ultimate decadent drink, the drink of choice for your French Symbolist poets and all of that. It has a certain appeal for those who see Snape as a kindred soul to Baudelaire and Rimbaud.

Now I don't think Snape is always terribly good at keeping control of himself (I think the flipouts in PoA and OotP are both genuine), but I can't see him being a really hard drinker. He seems more the nice bottle of Scotch (not fabulous, but not Christian Brothers either), a bit in the evening, type.

Re: via daily_snitch

[jollityfarm.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree that Severus can lose control, but I think there's a difference between that and indulging in something that he knows full well will (likely) make him embarass himself. I think he prizes self-control (remember what he said to Harry about people who wear their hearts on their sleeves) and the fact that he sometimes loses it himself is not really the point. He wouldn't risk it deliberately.

Re: via daily_snitch

[bell-witch.livejournal.com]

I have a problem with reading about a heavy-drinking Snape myself. I can see him having a glass every now and again, probably in those forced social situations. He gets one drink and takes the occasional sip, but keeps the same one all night long.

I don't see Suave!Snape. I read all sorts of stories, and if they're well-written, I can enjoy them even if I don't see the characters the same way. He seems to have been an awkward young man, and is fairly antisocial as an adult. He probably knows how to behave in most situations, although I don't see the 'high culture' thing going on.

Much of Snape's personality is facade, and we don't know how much, canon-wise. He's obviously intelligent and I assume him to be talented in his field. Besides disliking children, being gifted at potions would make his position as a teacher even harder to endure. You don't set the top men and women in any field to teaching secondary school students, because that's a waste of their talents.

Snape might be bitter enough to turn to drink, but I see him as too paranoid to ever give up his self-control in that way. In extreme situations, yes, and it can be done well with great dramatic effect. Done poorly, it's lame.