Snapedom

It's still July, huff, puff, just barely in time I bring you the June banners before I have to issue the August challenge and make the July banners. :) But, here they are, something a bit different this time.

The June challenge, Snape in the Muggle world, had a tremendous response - in the comments. For now, I've made banners for the five 'essayists' who posted essays and invited all the discussion. If, however, some of you have written an essay-like post as a reply to one of these (and I've seen several) and would like to get a banner, too, please tell me in a reply here. Or if I overlooked your essay, which can happen if I don't tag it properly.

Enough blabbing, banners under the cut.

I had an image in my head of Snape as a pureblood for a long time before Half-Blood Prince was published, so I still have a difficult time picturing him in the Muggle world. He seems to have embraced the wizarding world once he got to Hogwarts--and probably even before that, since he's able to tell young Lily so much about it, and seems to look forward to attending Hogwarts. And he appears to be neglected at best (and at worse, possibly abused) by his parents, so it's no wonder that he prefers the wizarding world, especially if he's welcomed and accepted by the likes of Lucius Malfoy. It's not clear to me whether Mulciber and his ilk truly considered Snape to be their friend or were just using him, but even if it was the latter, at least they appreciated his skills enough to find him useful, and he was no longer regarded as the freakish kid that he was in his Muggle neighborhood.

I should mention that this post and the one I posted previously, are in response to the Snapedom June Challenge, "Severus and the Muggle World." It's only one, specific facet of Severus' relationship to the Muggle world, but obviously it's an important one to address! I really appreciate the discussion my first post has generated, even where I disagree with what people have said. Simply having the discussion at all is a good thing.

Because so many people have touched upon many of the same points in their comments, I decided to compose a single post addressing some of the most common concerns and observations. As time permits (I'm not online at home, except to read text-only via cell phone) I will reply to individual comments on other points that were raised.

Also see: ether_bunny's post and cardigrl's post which further explore prejudice in the wizarding world.

"Prejudice against Muggles and Muggleborns," "On using the term 'racism,'" and "Ethical considerations in the scene in Snape's Worst Memory" are discussed behind the cut:

( The prejudice against Severus, based on class, appearance, House affiliation, and so on, exhibited in this scene is just as morally and ethically objectionable as the prejudice against Lily based on her circumstances of birth... )

If we want to apply real-world concepts of prejudice to the wizarding world, then let us see this scenario (and the five-year history leading up to it) for what it really is: divide and conquer. One reason oppression continues in the real world is because the various oppressed groups are set against each other. To see Lily alone as right and Severus alone as wrong is to miss the bigger picture of multiple bigotries that interweave and permeate the social and relational dynamics at Hogwarts and in the larger wizarding world--and in our own. Racism, sexism, classism, status-ism, affluence-ism, beauty-ism: It's all connected. None is better, or worse, than another. None should be set against another. Tug at one string in the web of life, and everything begins to unravel.

If we carry through on the racism/blood prejudice equivalency... 

Pondering for the zillionth time the intended-to-be inspiring Great Love of Severus for Lily, I finally hit upon what bothers me so deeply about the prospect that he spent his entire life in Eternal Love of Lily to the exclusion of all other loves: It's not so much the idea of exclusive and undying devotion, itself, although the idea of having only One Great Love in one's life is probably more romantic than realistic in terms of how life plays itself out, as well as in terms of standards of mental and emotional health. Still, widows and widowers do find themselves content with the memory of a happy marriage, so it happens.

That doesn't bother me. What has been bothering me about Severus and Lily finally articulated itself in a single, simple question: HOW COULD HE STILL LOVE HER AFTER WHAT SHE DID TO HIM?

She cut him off. She refused to accept his apology. She refused to consider that the circumstances under which he shouted the offending word might possibly be a mitigating factor in judging his "culpability." As far as we know, Severus and Lily never spoke again, let alone reconciled, after his apology was rejected by Lily.

And many in the broader Harry Potter fandom nod their heads, pseudo-sagely, and say, aha, yes, rightly so, because calling someone a "Mudblood" is the Unpardonable Sin, and anti-Muggle prejudice is the Unpardonable Sin.

Never mind that Severus himself had been the subject of an appalling degree of prejudice, from James and Company, and apparently other students, for the past five years. Never mind that Severus shouted his epithet out of humiliation and rage and a less than clear mind in the midst of being horribly ABUSED by James and Company. Never mind that when he did lash out, it was in self-defense and retaliation for abuses initiated by James and Company. That he was being tormented is of no import to these people: Nope, they say, Severus got what he deserved. In fact, he was lucky that Lily had bothered to put up with him for so long, because Severus Snape, in using the word "Mudblood" and in associating with an organization that espoused anti-Muggle prejudice, was a racist. And racism, in this view, is the card that trumps all other considerations.

Is that so?

Should anti-Muggle prejudice be equated with racism? Here are a few thoughts on why I think it should not be.

( Continue reading behind the cut )

ETA: I continue this discussion in Still Further Thoughts on Prejudice in the Potterverse and Snape's Worst Memory. That post analyzes, in detail, my view of the ethics in the situation of Snape's Worst Memory, and also makes brief observations on Muggleborn prejudice and on using the term "racism" in discussion.

This was my response to the challenge. It was buried in the comments to Sylvanawood's original question, so I decided to post it separately, for those who haven't seen it. Please note that this was what I'd imagined between HBP and DH; after HBP, especially, I simply couldn't see Severus as an anti-Muggle racist. Now it's clear that we're supposed to see him as exactly that - but I can't buy it. It contradicts the picture built up in the first 6 books, IMHO. Here goes:

(and how do you do a cut in IJ? Is it ?)

In my personal canon, Severus had a pretty miserable time at his Muggle primary school, was considered a freak and ignored by most of the other kids, and had a Muggle Dad who walked out on the family for a couple of years. So he was disposed to be prejudiced against Muggles. But:

1. In that same primary school, he had a teacher who showed him the periodic table of elements.
2. And he used to hang out at the library sometimes. It was a safe haven and he felt welcome there. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some Muggle literature he actually enjoyed, though he mostly read (and reads) nonfiction.
3. Most of all, he had his slightly older cousin Jimmy Snape and Jim's friend Tim Fawkes. The three boys all loved the Clash and the Sex Pistols and thought - summers - about starting a punk band, making their fortune, and getting the heck out of their hometown. Unfortunately, they were stymied by lack of time and space to rehearse, lack of equipment, and lack of talent, Severus being the only musical one among them. Jimmy eventually joined the army and, on discharge, emigrated to Canada. Tim has a garage in the town he and Sev were born in, and Sev - well. He became convinced that Muggles were murderous and dangerous by 12, (He made exceptions only for Lily's parents and the Fawkes family) pulled away from the Muggle world entirely by 17, and only got reacquainted with Tim in the mid-90s. But the band is quite definitely dead.

All the same, Severus does like Muggle music, of several varieties. He still has a weakness for punk, as well as The Who, but he also enjoys Christmas carols sung by his local Church choir, and knows several folk songs as well. He (rightly) considers Wizarding music entirely derivative and boring.

And, though he would rather die than admit it, he always thought Maggie Fawkes's flower garden was beautiful!

This challenge is issued by our own melusin:

Following on from last month, June's challenge is

Snape and the Muggle World.

What, if anything, of the muggle world did Severus miss at Hogwarts? (Football, cricket, music). Did he bunk off the odd Death Eater gathering to go to the theatre or the cinema?
Was there anything muggle he had a sneaking admiration for, but was too afraid to admit?

Put your thinking caps on and let your imaginations run riot.



The May banners will be posted soon.
If you have an idea for a monthly contest you'd like to see, please tell me, I'm running out of ideas of my own.