(no subject)

[rm]

Jury Duty is over.

I just turned down 3 days of non-union background work with no chance of an upgrade because I just wasn't in the mood. I feel guilty, but I know this is part of the new strategy.

Dear Pax Foods,
I am wearing a cute sexy blouse and pig tails. Do not call me sir. it makes you look stupid.

Dear 7-11,
Thank you for being in NYC and giving me a weird opportunity to be nostalgic about Australia of all things. But all your crappy American candy made me sad.



Why was Snape's old potions book floating around that classroom for Harry to wind up with? I certainly kept all my textbooks throughout my education (in fact, I hated my two years at public school because books had to be returned at the end of the course), only weeding them out recently, and I'm less of an intellectual freak than the dude -- and I didn't write copious notes on original work in my books either -- so what gives? Why just abandon it? Was it all in his head and he just wrote the shit down for Lily? We know the book was published 50 years before Harry gets his hands on it... was it an old onelying around the classroom when Snape was a student -- that is, was it a loaner given to him because of his meagre means?

I don't know why I care, but, help?

Comments

[ladypeculiar.livejournal.com]

was it a loaner given to him because of his meagre means?

That's one idea . . . though I think another interesting idea is that Mr Walrus Teacher (I forget the name) planted it for Harry to find. I don't know that it's really plausible Snape would just return all of his notes at the end of the year, loaner book or not.

Though yes, in public school we always had to return books at the end of each term, and margin notes were always fun to find.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Okay, so then the question becomes how did Walrus teacher get a hold of it?

And I agree, Snape wouldn't have given back a loaner book with that much info that could be used against him (or to compete with him) in it.

It makes _no_ sense.

[fleur.livejournal.com]

I would think that if the kids buy their own books now, they probably did back then, too, and as you say I cannot imagine Severus writing those things in a book he didn't *know* he was going to keep. He would have put his notes on a separate parchment if that were the case.

I like orien's theory.

[orien.livejournal.com]

I think I'd vaguely assumed somewhere in the part of my mind that makes huge allowances for plot holes and devices, that Snape kept the book around when he was teaching Potions since it was full of his own notes -- like the teacher's version of a textbook -- and didn't think about it since it got mixed in with the student books when he moved the rest of his things out of the Potions classroom to take over DADA.

[sola.livejournal.com]

Something like that, but i also thought that Slughorn planted it so he could fuss over Harry - i coertianly wouldn't put it past him to have shuffled it out from under Snape's nose somehow. It was certainly used in the first place, and doubtless Snape is long past having to refer to those old notes now. Despite the embarassing content, it would likely have been fairly simple.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

When I attended a fancy UK international high school, some of my 'textbooks' were paperback Penguin Classics of literature, and I made copious notes in those. While I was less likely to do so with hardbacks, if I bought it (and had no intention of selling it back) I certainly could do so.

I think I assumed Snape did intend to keep it, but forgot about it when he switched classrooms. It's possible he would have lent it to a favored Slytherin student, too.

None of this explains why things like 'Sectusempra' were scribbled in a POtions book - surely Snape's preferred subject was Dark Arts? Now there's a book I'd like to see - his old DADA book, if he bothered with it.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The other theory I have kicking around is maybe he had some little narrative in his head about the book, that he filled it full of notes and did leave it behind as a student hoping it would fall into the hands of some other deserving (by which I mean Slytherin, or half-blood or tormented by his/her peers or some such) student who, if nothing else, would at least manage to put a teacher (and Slughorn was clearly his, and clearly didn't show much favouritism towards him) in his place. It makes sense of Snape's character -- he's after power more than glory, he seems perfectly happy getting his jabs in at people in private or in a way unknown to those except those immediately involved.

And I don't know -- what is Snape's best subject... I mean, that's never managed to become clear, since there are all these reasons outside of person interest for him to want the DaDA job. Certainly the dude's too smart for his own good though.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Up until recently in the UK (recenlty as in the past 15 years or so! :) ), textbooks were provided by the schools and given back at the end of term.. when I was in high school we got handed out really old German text books in first year, some with pencil scribbles on, which we were to use all year and then return. They were well worn and years out of date, some held together with sticky tape.. I think JK is thinking back to that and assuming Hogwarts stuff would be hanging around for even longer. I like orien's theory too, but JK has used the "handy book with the vital information happening along" too often for it to have even given me much pause for thought!

[lachupacabra.livejournal.com]

my guess is its just a not-very-well-thought-out plot device

(dont get me wrong, i LOVE the books but
i think there are simply parts of them that
we are not meant to question too carefully).
;)

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're right, honestly, which is why I need to fix this in my head.

you might hate these questions, but please humor me

[franny-glass.livejournal.com]

What is the new strategy, or have I just not gotten to that entry yet?

P.S. Was wondering- would you ever in a million years live in L.A.?

P.P.S. Does anybody ever go to New York to "get famous" anymore? Is it the wrong town for that sort of thing?

Re: you might hate these questions, but please humor me

[rm.livejournal.com]

The new strategy is more the odl strategy, since like April -- which is being wary of low hanging fruit, not taking every gig that comes along just because it's a gig. If it won't advance me in some way, and saying no won't harm me, I'm allowed to not do it so I can be rested and ready for the stuff that matters.

I would never live in LA without a SAG card, and I'm fairly confident I would never move out there without having good reason to (either a role, regular auditions out there, an agent really wanting topush me out there, or a partner there). But yeah, I would if I needed to -- there's very little I wouldn't do if I needed to. And it is closer to Sydney, and I think about that a lot.

Finally, I don't think anyone gets famous anywhere anymore. Not in America. I think Hollywood churns out hot young things like a pre-scandal puppymill and the New York star machine has always been about a type of musical theatre that doesn't exist anymore. No one erupts out of nothing in this town, because it's a small place, and you see people as they come up. Surprises come from abroad, and increasingly so do stars -- because in other places Hollywood and American stardom are still a mythology of hope as opposed to a reality show expectation.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I would say ego.

As a student I can see him making the crib notes as he did, but as an older student his ego would clearly say that he was just so damn good at potions that he did not require a book. Give it to someone who needs it, he could say, with a sneer as he tosses it away. I can also see him being slightly put off by the refrence to himself ( as the HBP ) and trying to seperate himself from it.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

I think it was an old book because it was his mother's. I think he used it as a hand-me-down when he was a Hogwarts. He probably kept it in the potions room because he was the teacher there for so long.

As to how it got to Harry, well, Snape's had a lot of things on his mind lately, so he may have forgotten it. Or, someone (Snape, Slughorn, or Dumbledore) wanted Harry to have it. It's not beyond reason that Dumbledore put it there. He advised Harry to take the class, and he'd have known Harry didn't buy the book. Maybe it was an extra part of Harry's training to prepare for facing Voldemort.

[rufus.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that too. I would think that it probably was a loaner given to him because he was poor, and possibly taken away from him, rather than left behind, at the end of the course. The annotations, I have a feeling, were his dialog with the author -- a somewhat nerdy, one-sided game of one-upmanship that gave him something to do in class.

It certainly adds a layer to the scene in the bathroom with Draco; the expression on Snape's face as much irritation as the penny dropping that Harry has somehow gotten hold of *his* book.