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

So-Not_Urbane Snape

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

The way Snape is sometimes portrayed in fanon as being well-read in classic literature, or knowledge about classical music or wines or some other marker that says 'classy' makes me laugh.

I can see Snape possibly liking chamber music or knowing wine because he was introduced to such by a mentor (Dumbledore or Lucius), but he's so obviously not a 'refined' guy in the books -- he spits in public, among other uncouth habits.

Really, if I'm writing Snape, he likes beer, he follows Quidditch, and if he likes any music, it is songs that he can sing in the pub. He might have hobbies, but they will be 'earthy' ones in keeping with his probable background -- poor but pureblooded.

Re: So-Not_Urbane Snape

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is what I think. All one has to do is compare him to Lucius and it is immediately obvious. Plus, the little bits of info Harry dredged out of his mind are pointers to an obviously not upper-class environment.

Re: So-Not_Urbane Snape

[bell-witch.livejournal.com]

I don't see Snape as being of wealthy family, either. And we know his personal hygiene, for whatever reason, is poor, both as a teen and as an adult.

I read that, generally, as he just doesn't care enough. Once he's at school and has heard all the jokes, he knows better, if he didn't at home. Then again, why should he change himself, because no one will like him anyway. (Thinking like a teenager. Perhaps he tried to clean himself up for a bit, and chances are he was laughed at for doing it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, so why bother?)

He's a schoolteacher. I respect teaching as a profession--it's very important. But schoolteachers are not considered high society in any Western culture that I can think of. They're a bit more respected in the East.

Although I don't see Snape as following quidditch, if only because it would remind him of James Potter. Snape is more than a little stuck on his past. He hasn't been able to escape from it, and he's forced to wallow in it. He's probably more than a little bent from it all. Nobody tried to kill me back at school, but my memories of it are bad enough and still tick me off sometimes.

And Snape belittles those in his care. He'll risk his life to save someone he hates--Harry. But being that rude to his students is a mark of low class. (Lucius Malfoy mistreats his servants, which is also a sign of low class, but in a different way. Snape's low self-worth is easy to extrapolate from canon. What's Lucius' excuse?)