(no subject)

So many people's lives seem to be getting so massively upset around me right now. Valued relationships ending, strife occurring, jobs lost, property wrecked. I only speak of the narrow window I have through my two LJ lists and IJ list, but still. I hope with all my heart that you will find respite from your sorrows very soon, grace and comfort for your hurts.

(no subject)

So many people's lives seem to be getting so massively upset around me right now. Valued relationships ending, strife occurring, jobs lost, property wrecked. I only speak of the narrow window I have through my two LJ lists and IJ list, but still. I hope with all my heart that you will find respite from your sorrows very soon, grace and comfort for your hurts.

"mired in adolescence"

Reposted with permission from atdelphi, from this thread in persepolis130's journal. I just thought these were some really insightful comments:

Just chiming in as someone who likes to ship Snape with Dumbledore, Filch, McGonagall, Hagrid, or Slughorn. I had to fudge some of my answers - for instance, none of those listed pairings would make me spew, and none of the Lily options really described my view of the relationship (that is to say, looking at the character, I see a difference between how Snape would feel about Lily and how he would think he feels. To me, a defining point of the character is how his position at Hogwarts has kept him mired in his adolescence, living on grudges and wrongs, stunted emotionally and possessing a distorted self-awareness). In short, I think what he's in love with by the end of the series has more to do with ideals, guilt, himself, and lost opportunities than any real woman, but they all go by the name Lily. [emphasis mine]

I've always enjoyed the mirroring in PoA, where we see Snape and Sirius set up as the least mature adults in the series - Snape for his pettiness, Sirius for his recklessness, both for their obsession with the past - and you realise that just as Sirius is emotionally arrested at twenty-one from being locked away at that age, so is Snape. The presence of the Dementors at Hogwarts really needles in that image of Hogwarts as Snape's Azkaban, a place where he's forced to relive his unhappy memories. Then in HBP we get that chilling note of finding out why [emphasis original] Snape keeps asking for the Defence position - because he knows that the Defence professor never comes back the next year.


FWIW what she says about "mirroring" with Sirius is one of the reasons I like to ship those two, actually. :)

"mired in adolescence"

Reposted with permission from atdelphi, from this thread in persepolis130's journal. I just thought these were some really insightful comments:

Just chiming in as someone who likes to ship Snape with Dumbledore, Filch, McGonagall, Hagrid, or Slughorn. I had to fudge some of my answers - for instance, none of those listed pairings would make me spew, and none of the Lily options really described my view of the relationship (that is to say, looking at the character, I see a difference between how Snape would feel about Lily and how he would think he feels. To me, a defining point of the character is how his position at Hogwarts has kept him mired in his adolescence, living on grudges and wrongs, stunted emotionally and possessing a distorted self-awareness). In short, I think what he's in love with by the end of the series has more to do with ideals, guilt, himself, and lost opportunities than any real woman, but they all go by the name Lily. [emphasis mine]

I've always enjoyed the mirroring in PoA, where we see Snape and Sirius set up as the least mature adults in the series - Snape for his pettiness, Sirius for his recklessness, both for their obsession with the past - and you realise that just as Sirius is emotionally arrested at twenty-one from being locked away at that age, so is Snape. The presence of the Dementors at Hogwarts really needles in that image of Hogwarts as Snape's Azkaban, a place where he's forced to relive his unhappy memories. Then in HBP we get that chilling note of finding out why [emphasis original] Snape keeps asking for the Defence position - because he knows that the Defence professor never comes back the next year.


FWIW what she says about "mirroring" with Sirius is one of the reasons I like to ship those two, actually. :)