but why do you say that I am mad?
Jul. 9th, 2007 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnHad a number of heated Potter-centric conversations in RL this weekend, which is kind of weird for me. I found out that of the 5 people I talked to,
2 think the text says Snape is clearly evil
2 think there is no good textual evidence either way (although one of these two agrees with me that the first four books were written assuming Snape was good, and meta-textually she thinks it would be very unsatisfying if Snape were evil).
1 thinks Snape must be good, although mostly because she really likes Snape
I think the text clearly supports Snape being good, though I will valiantly try to resist spending too much bandwidth on it. I think I am fairly unbiased here, as I'm going to be unhappy either way, as it basically means assuming either Voldemort is a complete idiot (if Snape is good), or that Dumbledore and Snape are both complete idiots (if Snape is evil). (Why, after all, would Snape do an idiotic thing like show Fudge his Dark Mark in Book 4, or give Harry Occlumency advice (instead of, say, throwing Sectusempra) at the end of Book 6?) However, given Voldemort's previous idiotic actions, I suppose I'm more inclined to believe that he's the idiot here.
I realize this LJ is becoming increasingly Potter-centric... I do read/think about/do other things, really! ...I promise, sometime in the next month or so, a post on Sarah Waters (perhaps a couple), St. Paul, and The Magic Flute. Hm. Perhaps not all at the same time :) Also, someday I will read the new Bujold and rant about it.
2 think the text says Snape is clearly evil
2 think there is no good textual evidence either way (although one of these two agrees with me that the first four books were written assuming Snape was good, and meta-textually she thinks it would be very unsatisfying if Snape were evil).
1 thinks Snape must be good, although mostly because she really likes Snape
I think the text clearly supports Snape being good, though I will valiantly try to resist spending too much bandwidth on it. I think I am fairly unbiased here, as I'm going to be unhappy either way, as it basically means assuming either Voldemort is a complete idiot (if Snape is good), or that Dumbledore and Snape are both complete idiots (if Snape is evil). (Why, after all, would Snape do an idiotic thing like show Fudge his Dark Mark in Book 4, or give Harry Occlumency advice (instead of, say, throwing Sectusempra) at the end of Book 6?) However, given Voldemort's previous idiotic actions, I suppose I'm more inclined to believe that he's the idiot here.
I realize this LJ is becoming increasingly Potter-centric... I do read/think about/do other things, really! ...I promise, sometime in the next month or so, a post on Sarah Waters (perhaps a couple), St. Paul, and The Magic Flute. Hm. Perhaps not all at the same time :) Also, someday I will read the new Bujold and rant about it.
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Date: 2007-07-10 03:36 pm (UTC)Yeah, to me the very unclearness of the text indicates to me that he must be good, otherwise why mince words at this point? Especially since all the characters think Snape is evil.
One of these conversations (one of the Snape-is-evil ones, if you care) pointed out to me that Voldemort is an egomaniac, which explains a lot of his poor decision-making processes. Dumbledore... has no excuse. He's just a poor pawn of the author's, I think.