Helsiniki - Day 43
Sep. 30th, 2003 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfsbrideARRGH!!!
I wasn't going to rant about this here because I felt I really didn't have any right to, after all, I haven't read the books. I've since decided that I've read enough about the books to have an opinion worth expressing. I'm talking of course about the violation of the character of Severus Snape. I have tried and I can not in all honesty, think of a character in any fandom, that is more maligned and mistreated that he.
In my reading experience, the only character that comes even close to this is the Sentinel's Blair. For whatever reason, there is something about him that causes many authors to write him on the far side of oocness. Severus Snape, however, inspires an all new height of madness.
There is no character that has as many unbelievable variations as the character of Professor Snape. From Happy!Snape all the way through to Muggle!Snape, the clones run rampant through the majority of the Harry Potter fandom. What I want to know is why.
People profess to love the character of Snape and yet they then proceed to portray him in some of the most nauseatingly unSnape ways imaginable. They take a character whose potential for depth, complexity and subtleness is almost infinite and turn him into a one dimensional caricature.
Now I'm usually very open minded when I read. As long as the story is good, I can forgive many things. But unfortunately, most of the stories that feature the multiple Snape personalities, have no substance.
Most stories barely brush upon the things that personify Snape or then they treat his uniqueness in a cavalier manner. They go to one extreme or the other. Snape may have survived his years as a Deatheater, but he seems not able to rise above the whims and wiles of Potterdom.
It amuses me to imagine what the real Snape would have to say about the whole matter. I think it would be something along the lines of...
One million points off and detentions for the rest of your lives!
WB
I wasn't going to rant about this here because I felt I really didn't have any right to, after all, I haven't read the books. I've since decided that I've read enough about the books to have an opinion worth expressing. I'm talking of course about the violation of the character of Severus Snape. I have tried and I can not in all honesty, think of a character in any fandom, that is more maligned and mistreated that he.
In my reading experience, the only character that comes even close to this is the Sentinel's Blair. For whatever reason, there is something about him that causes many authors to write him on the far side of oocness. Severus Snape, however, inspires an all new height of madness.
There is no character that has as many unbelievable variations as the character of Professor Snape. From Happy!Snape all the way through to Muggle!Snape, the clones run rampant through the majority of the Harry Potter fandom. What I want to know is why.
People profess to love the character of Snape and yet they then proceed to portray him in some of the most nauseatingly unSnape ways imaginable. They take a character whose potential for depth, complexity and subtleness is almost infinite and turn him into a one dimensional caricature.
Now I'm usually very open minded when I read. As long as the story is good, I can forgive many things. But unfortunately, most of the stories that feature the multiple Snape personalities, have no substance.
Most stories barely brush upon the things that personify Snape or then they treat his uniqueness in a cavalier manner. They go to one extreme or the other. Snape may have survived his years as a Deatheater, but he seems not able to rise above the whims and wiles of Potterdom.
It amuses me to imagine what the real Snape would have to say about the whole matter. I think it would be something along the lines of...
One million points off and detentions for the rest of your lives!
WB
