Re: The redemption of Severus
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"Which she does not really manage here, if her explicit statements about bravery have to be brought in in order to make Severus' moral redemption unambiguous."
Well, I disagree about it needing to be unambiguous. That's a big call for any author. After all, readers will always interpret many things differently. To make sure every reader gets the exactly right interpretation, an author would have to be far to blatant.
And did JKR really do such a bad job *overall* of convincing people of Snape's redemption? After all, there's a very large group of Snape fans who were convinced of his redemption ages ago. Did we all just dream it up without any help from the text? Was it all a mistake on JKR's part, cluelessly giving so much evidence that Snape was actually a good guy? I mean think about it. JKR convinced loads of people that Snape was a good guy long before that last page.
Remember the Barnes and Noble marketing campaign for DH? It was all about whether Snape was good or bad. Obviously they had done their market research and *knew* that was the Big Question and that a huge portion of the readers were already thinking he was good, with another large portion thinking him evil. But the point is, JKR convinced a huge number of people of Snape's character.
I agree that the later part of DH should have been a lot better written. And I certainly think Harry got let off the hook without ever having to do the real work of forgiveness. But just because JKR didn't convince every one of her readers that Snape was good, doesn't mean she didn't do her job of convincing people. Because a huge number of people *were* convinced.
People love Snape as a character not because everyone re-wrote him. They love the character JKR created, even if fan fiction enables people to do more with him. Still, no matter how messy the ending, JKR did indeed convince a whole lot of people that Snape was good.
Well, I disagree about it needing to be unambiguous. That's a big call for any author. After all, readers will always interpret many things differently. To make sure every reader gets the exactly right interpretation, an author would have to be far to blatant.
And did JKR really do such a bad job *overall* of convincing people of Snape's redemption? After all, there's a very large group of Snape fans who were convinced of his redemption ages ago. Did we all just dream it up without any help from the text? Was it all a mistake on JKR's part, cluelessly giving so much evidence that Snape was actually a good guy? I mean think about it. JKR convinced loads of people that Snape was a good guy long before that last page.
Remember the Barnes and Noble marketing campaign for DH? It was all about whether Snape was good or bad. Obviously they had done their market research and *knew* that was the Big Question and that a huge portion of the readers were already thinking he was good, with another large portion thinking him evil. But the point is, JKR convinced a huge number of people of Snape's character.
I agree that the later part of DH should have been a lot better written. And I certainly think Harry got let off the hook without ever having to do the real work of forgiveness. But just because JKR didn't convince every one of her readers that Snape was good, doesn't mean she didn't do her job of convincing people. Because a huge number of people *were* convinced.
People love Snape as a character not because everyone re-wrote him. They love the character JKR created, even if fan fiction enables people to do more with him. Still, no matter how messy the ending, JKR did indeed convince a whole lot of people that Snape was good.