Snape and gender
Jul. 31st, 2007 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmDH spoilers below
Or anti-hero in this case.
I'm surprised by the silence from folks on Snape's death as regards his giving the memories to Harry. I assumed, as I assume most of you assumed, that when Snape said "Look at me," Harry would and we'd have some story told in a dying occulmency moment, instead we get Harry having to collect the viscuous fluid of memories Snape emits.
There's all sorts of things we don't know in this moment --
We don't know if Snape does this intentionally or not.
We don't know if he needed to look into Harry's eyes to do it (occulemency interrupted due to oncoming death? some other variation of same not necessarily effected by death?)
We don't know if Snape is begging to see Lily's eyes one last time or if he is asking Harry to see him for who he really is.
There's a damn book in this moment and we have no idea what it is (note, for example Snape dies and his memories are bottled, here he is again, contained and recontained). Thing is, neither does Harry.
But to get back to my point, as sort of random as Snape's death is (snake bubble to the head! obscure point of wizarding law JKR pulled out of her ass!), one could argue it's the only point at which he's a "man" in the sense of how fantasy novels and honour work.
He's essentially testifying to his love for Lily and delcaring the truth of his allegiances. Those memories are in many ways the only proof the series has offered both in terms of his humanity and masculinity -- we see desire, we see conflict, we see honour, and, of course, we see absence: no other loves, no children. This viscuous emission of memory is what counts for seed in the life that has been Snape's.
Reading it I was so struck by the sexuality of the metaphor (and not, thank you, in a particularly porny way), especially when you think of all the times Snape's been put in woman's clothes (Neville's grandmother's suit, his mother's blouse, arguably the long night-shirt), or had his handwriting compared to that of a girl or the more general connection made not just by the French, thank you, between death and orgasm.
I feel like fandom should be all over this.
Perhaps we are and I'm just missing it.
Or perhaps no one has picked their jaw up off the floor yet.
Or perhaps it's somehow too serious and sad for us to talk about next to our usual play things?
Or anti-hero in this case.
I'm surprised by the silence from folks on Snape's death as regards his giving the memories to Harry. I assumed, as I assume most of you assumed, that when Snape said "Look at me," Harry would and we'd have some story told in a dying occulmency moment, instead we get Harry having to collect the viscuous fluid of memories Snape emits.
There's all sorts of things we don't know in this moment --
We don't know if Snape does this intentionally or not.
We don't know if he needed to look into Harry's eyes to do it (occulemency interrupted due to oncoming death? some other variation of same not necessarily effected by death?)
We don't know if Snape is begging to see Lily's eyes one last time or if he is asking Harry to see him for who he really is.
There's a damn book in this moment and we have no idea what it is (note, for example Snape dies and his memories are bottled, here he is again, contained and recontained). Thing is, neither does Harry.
But to get back to my point, as sort of random as Snape's death is (snake bubble to the head! obscure point of wizarding law JKR pulled out of her ass!), one could argue it's the only point at which he's a "man" in the sense of how fantasy novels and honour work.
He's essentially testifying to his love for Lily and delcaring the truth of his allegiances. Those memories are in many ways the only proof the series has offered both in terms of his humanity and masculinity -- we see desire, we see conflict, we see honour, and, of course, we see absence: no other loves, no children. This viscuous emission of memory is what counts for seed in the life that has been Snape's.
Reading it I was so struck by the sexuality of the metaphor (and not, thank you, in a particularly porny way), especially when you think of all the times Snape's been put in woman's clothes (Neville's grandmother's suit, his mother's blouse, arguably the long night-shirt), or had his handwriting compared to that of a girl or the more general connection made not just by the French, thank you, between death and orgasm.
I feel like fandom should be all over this.
Perhaps we are and I'm just missing it.
Or perhaps no one has picked their jaw up off the floor yet.
Or perhaps it's somehow too serious and sad for us to talk about next to our usual play things?
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 04:32 pm (UTC)I think what is most jarring is that most of us probably expected Snape to die, but probably expected some big public scene. I certainly always imagined the man going down in some moment of speechifying rage about true allegiances and the grotesquery of sacrifice, myself. And I'm sad that we, and he, didn't get that. On the other hand, I do acknowledge that JKR did something honest in his death being somewhat narratively random and sudden. Death _is_ stupid. That said, I'm not sure if this was smart on her part, or just her need to get rid of a character she created who happened to be more complex than she either understood or knew what to do with.