tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19053670.post5589819566979113512..comments2023-10-31T05:03:38.910-07:00Comments on Letters from a broad...: What else is wrong with Harry Potter?C. L. Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12698855413639518095noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19053670.post-85476846148109248522014-08-24T06:21:46.851-07:002014-08-24T06:21:46.851-07:00Hey Aerin!!!
I agree with you that the bullying i...Hey Aerin!!!<br /><br />I agree with you that the bullying incidents themselves served to give more sympathy for Snape and served to make James a more ambiguous character (successfully). Yet, overall, I still get this vibe from the story that the bullying was understandable because, hey, James was cool and Snape was a loser.<br /><br />For me it actually kind of tipped the ambiguity balance too far -- to the point where I have a hard time seeing James Potter as a sympathetic character. <br /><br />Then I start wondering why Lily picked him over Snape. Then I start thinking <i>well, Lily was a pretty boring, vapid character herself, so maybe the choice makes sense</i>. And then it bugs me that Rowling had Snape pine for Lily for 20 years. Seriously? And (as indicated by his patronus charm) the happiest moments of his life were those few childhood moments with Lily before she became a teenager and decided she didn't like him after all...? Seriously...?! That has about the credibility level of the Hermione/Krum relationship. (OTOH, maybe Snape really is a loser, lol)<br /><br />I totally get what you're saying about Snape needing to take responsibility for how he responds to these childhood incidents. But here is where I think the real problem is that we're talking about a fictional character and not a real person. A real person would have grown up and moved on. But for the sake of the narrative, Rowling needs Snape to play a certain role with respect to Harry, and that outweighed any attempt to make the character believable.C. L. Hansonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12698855413639518095noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19053670.post-5868181741635347872014-08-23T07:52:00.514-07:002014-08-23T07:52:00.514-07:00For me, I didn't necessarily see James Potter ...For me, I didn't necessarily see James Potter as a more likable guy after bullying Snape. In the books, I felt those scenes were to help Harry understand his dad better, that his dad was not always a good person - and to have more sympathy for Snape. After losing his dad to a brutal murderer(and never knowing him), it must have been easy to think of his father in black and white terms; but James was a flawed person who sometimes made bad choices. <br /><br />With that said, I think Snape bears some responsibility for where he ended up as well. Not that a victim bears responsibility for abuse. <br /><br />But at some point, each adult must choose how to react/respond to their past and move forward - whether or not the past will govern them. It's not denying the bad stuff happened, it's processing it and not letting it run one's life and choices (if that makes sense). So it's true that Snape was a bitter, spiteful person at times, but that can't be solely blamed on what happened to him as a teen. <br /><br />It's actually one of the more amazing things about so many people (and our culture); people who have been through so much are able to process it and move forward.Aerinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11142518259771067132noreply@blogger.com