On the nature of Snapes

[arcanetrivia]

lilyevans_snape posted an interesting question in her deviantART journal recently: Snape Fanfiction - What is Left to Say...? This was my response, and a response to a response from her.

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It's always been a little dismaying to see comments like "OMG, he's not a Byronic hero, get over it" because to me he's definitely got more than a whiff of that about him. (I wonder if people are misunderstanding "Byronic".) To me he is definitely a dark-romantic character; I understand the problem with excessively romanticizing him (there are parts of his past and his character which are, simply, ugly), but it's not right to just make him a simple bastard without that compelling aura. And you may have seen me rant before about how I don't get or like how "emo" is used as an insult. True he is not the weepy mushy type but it so often comes across to me like people are trying to deny him feeling, deny him the deep passionate heart that makes him him (how else do you carry a torch like that all those years).

I've had a hard time finding my way in Snape fandom over the past couple years actually because I don't know what's okay to think anymore. Every time I think I've settled on an expression or version I feel comfortable celebrating or sharing, I see people I consider friends saying "don't you hate it when people ____?" "Oh god, I know, right? how can they think that way?" and I'm like oookay, well, better keep my mouth shut then. Time and again I get the message "it's not okay to think the way you do", from all sides of the map, and I just don't know what to do.

As far as fic and what is left to say: It's not so much that I'm out of things to say, or at least not that I am bored of saying the same things over and over again, because I love them and I am not tired of them (as *ls269 said elsewhere). It's more that I don't know how or where to start or how to continue. Or something. I can get vague scraps of ideas; there's a private "ideas" tag in my journal with various bits of bunny fur, and I have like four unfinished fics in various stages in my WIP folder. But mostly I just sit there afraid of doing it wrong, and/or just don't have the energy ("spoons") because I'm so brain-fuzzy these days I can hardly do more than read the internet. Drabble prompts and the like spark no response, not because I think there's nothing left to say about Severus, but because of some fault or empty place in myself.

I went way off the original question there didn't I.

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The ones [qualities of a Byronic hero] which definitely fit him from that list all fit so obviously that I would wonder if people who disagreed had even read the same books:

1. Cunning and able to adapt


2. Cynical


3. Emotionally conflicted, bipolar, or moody


4. Having a troubled past or suffering from an unnamed crime


5. Intelligent and perceptive


6. Jaded, world-weary (at least later on)


7. Mysterious, magnetic and charismatic


8. Self-critical and introspective - self-critical, certainly (witness his self-directed vitriol about "fools who wear their hearts on their sleeves")... whether he's introspective, that is, highly self aware, probably can't be demonstrated in canon since we're not in his head, but I think probably he is


9. Struggling with integrity (isn't this, like, the entire point of his character arc?)


10. Treated as an exile, outcast, or outlaw


Not sure about these:


11. Having a distaste for social institutions and norms - he seems to me to approve of them where they benefit him (such as what's attendant on the authority of a teacher), and dislike them where they result in problems for him (such as the social pecking order that produces people who can act like James and Sirius do, without repercussion).


12. Self-destructive - for certain values of "self-destructive", possibly. Not in the sense of "woe is me, I shall cut myself to release the pain" (ugh, now there's a stereotypically "emo" Severus I can't stomach), but maybe echoed in how he doesn't give a lot of attention to his physical appearance.


These I don't think fit:


13. Arrogant - one could possibly make an argument, although I think really it's justified pride in his case.


14. Disrespectful of rank and privilege - quite the contrary in his case I think. He probably has a bitter taste in his mouth about privilege one is born to rather than earns, but he certainly seems to want his own position respected, and whatever his personal feelings about Dumbledore, the Minister, etc. respects their positions as well.


15. Seductive and sexually attractive - Depends on the beholder, of course, but I've put it here because in a strict canon interpretation he is definitely not presented as such.


16. Socially and sexually dominant - ok, obviously not this one. He's not a downtrodden victim but he certainly started out "disadvantaged", and he is often put, or lets himself be put, in more submissive or "follower" kinds of positions. As for sexually dominant, there's certainly no evidence either way in canon. It's interesting how people can arrive at all kinds of different conclusions in that arena: some are sure he's dominant, some submissive, and some that he has had bloody well enough of that in "real life" and would prefer sexual relationships that are mostly equal, which happens to be my own stance. I can see him enjoy passing moments of dominance as he certainly likes to be in control and feel powerful, but submission from him just rings the wrong bells for me.


17. Sophisticated and educated - he's definitely put out effort to make himself well-spoken, and he does seem like the kind who has learned things you might not expect him to just because he likes being learned, but while I have a certain occasional taste for cultured!aesthete!Severus who can enjoy the pleasures of poetry or plays an instrument of some kind - one of those hidden softnesses - I don't think you can fairly describe what we see in canon as "sophisticated and educated" in the sense meant here. He's quite rough around the edges. He's highly educated in a wizarding sense, but not refined and high-cultured.

So, ten out of seventeen; I'd say he's more than faintly Byronic.

I don't see him as all soft and squishy, almost without flaw, someone to be pitied because the bitch Lily broke his heart, and the asshole James Potter bullied him mercilessly.

I do pity him the latter, much as I'm sure he hates it. Or at least I feel compassionate, sympathetic, and like James Potter desperately needed taking down a peg or five. I doubt he wants succour from anyone but it's what I have the urge to give. Lily did break his heart, of course, but not by deliberate "bitchy" action in my view. They were both insensitive to each other in various ways. She might have got to a point where she probably felt he deserved whatever he got since he'd chosen dark ways, and if she hurt his feelings well he'd brought it on himself by hurting hers and that's his own damn problem, *grumble mumble Death Eater wannabe*, but it's not the same as being the "queen bee" people sometimes make her out to be.

I can't justify and forgive his mistakes and flaws because of his suffering.

I probably can't say "justify", but I guess I do overlook and forgive if not exactly "forget". Certainly not keep reopening those wounds, which I sometimes get the feeling what people who are not keen on Severus want to hear: never to give him praise or love but what it's tempered with scorn (not unlike Dumbledore in some scenes) and if you try to let his past alone and focus on better things then it's "woobifying" him. (I don't mean erase them entirely - of course he himself is still aware of them and it affects his character. I mean just putting down the damn punishment stick and not having to say "but let's remember he joined a terrorist organization that wanted people like Lily dead!" in every second breath.)

"Because of" isn't quite the right connecting verb for me - the causality doesn't work like that in my head ("he did XYZ but he suffered, therefore it's ok"). It definitely is a factor though. He suffered partly as simple consequences and partly because he voluntarily took on more suffering; it's the latter that has an atoning effect, I think.

I think that takes away personal responsibility, and again paints him as a victim.

He is certainly not just a blameless victim. Obviously his choices were his own and hypothetically he could have made others. But I sometimes find myself going "hey, I might have done something similar if I were in his particular rock and a hard place", and empathizing with how he must have felt he could not realistically make another choice (if indeed options occurred to him). slashpervert has/had a sign up in her bathroom with some daily meditation kinds of things, and one of them is that "Everyone is doing the best they know how to with the information they have." I find it kind of unfair when people blithely say "oh, but he should have had the strength to do differently" -- well perhaps, but when you tot it up it sounds like they were expecting him to be a saint from the start and damning him when he doesn't make all the perfect choices right as they come up, for letting pain get to him and making choices that aim to relieve that pain even though they are "wrong". (How many of us do not do likewise? Even on a daily basis? The urge of the organism to avoid pain is very, very strong!)

Worse yet (to me anyway), is the view of him as this muscled, wavy-haired, dashing character who is sexually dominant, seductive, magnetic, etc. There are so many people who paint him like that.

To borrow a line from OotP, "I may vomit." (Fabio!Snape for the lose!) You and I probably know as well as one can that he can be sexually magnetic, sure - his eyes may be described as cold, dark tunnels in canon, but even cold can burn. I have no problem with a Severus who knows his power well and applies it with finesse (and that's canon, certainly, if not sexually expressed). But he's not Don Juan, or de Sade for that matter. The words "dashing" and "suave" do not apply and he hasn't the temperament to be a "ladykiller".

seducing young and/or wealthy girls (Narcissa, Hermione, or the like) with his suaveness and flawless sexual technique. He is cruel, merciless, powerful. [...] I just can't wrap my head around that characterization at all!

I agree! He can be intense and passionate, sure - but he doesn't romantically sweep people off their feet and carry them away in the tide of his sexual prowess. He has a tendency to perfectionism that I think would lead him to quickly learn what pleased a lover and deliver it to the best of his ability, but while he would try to appear comfortable and in control it would crack, perhaps a lot more often than he'd like. Sometimes he might be able to pull off the kind of sickening thing you often see in SS/HG fic [to be clear, I am not hating on this ship on principle; it was previously brought up as an example of a ship where it's not uncommon to find that kind of fare] - he has a taste for the theatrical, after all - but I wouldn't put "cruel" or "merciless" on it at all and it's just ... gah, rant off, suffice it to say I know what you mean and I dunno how they squeeze that particular blood out of our canon turnip either! Even old-school pureblood!Severus needn't have necessarily implied that he's some kind of dark-haired caricature of film!Lucius (look at the Weasleys, for instance, or the Gaunts, for Merlin's sake).