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

[amberdiceless.livejournal.com]

(Here via (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=daily_snitch)daily_snitch (http://www.livejournal.com/community/daily_snitch/) or (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=quickquote)quickquote (http://www.livejournal.com/community/quickquote/))

Though I do tend to think he comes from a lower-class Pureblood background, I can deal with a Snape who's interested in just about anything, Muggle or Wizard, as long as there's some sort of rationale for why and the author knows something about the subject (and it isn't taken to ridiculous extremes.)

I've seen him written as spouting Latin fluently and incessantly, for example, which I thought was a bit over-the-top; but using one carefully-chosen phrase here or there? Sure. (Docet Minervam (http://www.astronomytower.org/authors/reellifer/DM.html) is a lovely example.) Latin is the primary spellcasting language used in the books, after all, so I imagine most wizards raised in the society have at least a passing familiarity with it. Likewise, absinthe wouldn't necessarily be an unreasonable subject for a Potions Master to have investigated, and Shakespeare is so well-known throughout the Western Muggle world that I have a hard time believing most wizards don't at least know the name. My general rule of thumb is that the more widely known, useful in a non-technological way, and/or just plain nifty something is in the Muggle world, the more likely it is to have bled through into wizarding culture to some extent. And snooty purebloods are just as prone to guilty pleasures as anybody else, if not more so.

I've written Snape as being familiar with Tolkien, not because he's widely read in Muggle literature or pop culture, but because I imagine some of the underlying themes would speak to him; he probably confiscated a paperback from some Muggleborn student, picked it up in a moment of boredom, and got hooked.

I'll confess I do fall prey to the Severus-the-walking-thesaurus syndrome at times. It's fun to haul out all those long pretentious words I never get to use and let him play with them, darn it. :) And as much as he seems to crave respect and recognition, I could see him working hard to shed the stigma of his working-class background in any way he could, including building an impressive vocabulary. So even if it isn't altogether canonical, I don't mind so much seeing him written that way.

Frankly, I often find canon!Snape somewhat bland compared to the aggregated fanon version. He occasionally leaves me scratching my head, wondering how we've managed to extrapolate such a fascinating personality from, well...a surly, spiteful wanker stuck in a state of arrested adolescence. :)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

In the fanfiction guide I wrote an entire passage on the subject of quoting/using languages beside English in HP fics, and honestly, when it comes down to it, it is up to the author to include it or not. Whether it works or not depends on how well they've integrated it. It also depends on how believeable it is. Honestly, I didn't mean for this to get linked to d_s, though it's nice that it did...I was just ranting a little bit to the poor flist about it. The fanfic guide is a much better gauge. I am not steadfastly opposed entirely, I just need for it to work really, really well.

And the thesaurus problem...I have to constantly remind myself to tone his language down...I always want to make him sound extremely wordy...it's hard! :)

And you are absolutely correct...I like my canon!Snape with a touch of fanon!Snape or he's just a bit too limited.