Writing and The Half-Blood Prince

[lightofdaye]

First, this is your weekly 'waaaa! writing' post brought to you my ability to only have ideas and writing ability when I'm no where near my computer.


Secondly I've been reviewing Half-Blood Prince the way i experience Hp mostly these days: with stephen fry's audio book versions. Si I've been thinking about it again. I still think its the weakest Potter book for me. But I know others like it.

But why is it called 'Half-Blood Prince' that's never more than a subplot and it elevates snape to a position only Harry and Sirius have otherwise to be mention in a title.

Second why does it matter that Snape is the Half Blood Prince? I mean its a nice bit irony that Harry learns so much for the book and never from Snape but its not important to the plot of Deathly Hallows nor does it seem to be to be thematically important.

But I'd love to hear i'm wrong and its actually very important. Any ideas?

Comments

[torino10154]

Obviously you know I'm a big Snape fan but I'm going to try and be "impartial" LOL when I explain why I think it matters within the series. Also, there may end up being tangents I go on--hopefully I'll get back on track eventually.

In HBP Dumbledore shows Harry things about Voldemort, both for the purpose of defeating him but also humanizing him. He was a boy once, just like you. Then he made some really poor choices and look where he is today--also with him especially, how early he was already a sociopath. At the same time, Harry learns about this mystery person who he really identifies with and thinks is terribly clever. He, too, though ends up being not quite what Harry thinks, even before Harry learns who it is.

Like Harry and Voldemort, Snape is half-blood which, being a Slytherin, is well, unusual considering how they seem to see things. So for Snape to have been a DE when his father was a Muggle is just another one of those things that muddies the waters, I think. Shades of grey not B&W.

I do know that JKR had planned to put some of the themes of HBP in COS but that it was "too soon" to know them and I've always thought Snape being a half-blood was going to be it. But it needed to be put off because otherwise one would be suspicious about Lily (think of OotP if we already knew his dad was Muggle).

Also, I'd personally argue he's definitely worthy of a book title since he's such an important character in the series. And in that book it starts with his apparent promise to be a loyal DE and ends with him killing DD so the book really is about him and his (false) loyalty. So here Harry sees him do terrible things, thinks he's a horrible villain but there was a time, Snape really was a boy a lot like him (that also continues from the Pensieve scenes in OotP).

People have said HBP reads like part one of DH. The way it sets everything up, leaves on a cliffhanger. Doesn't feel quite as complete as some. That's one reason I know some people don't care for it.

But I do also agree that it has to sound good. Specifically, is the fact that Snape is the Prince important? Not in the strictest, literal sense. We could have learned about him and his past in a different way. Do I think the book really is about Snape and Voldie and Harry and the different paths they each take? Yeah, I do. As Harry says in DH, they are the abandoned boys.

Er, anyway, yeah, that's all over the place. /o\ Sorry.

[lightofdaye]

Don't apologise. This post is more exactly what I was asking. :) I was thinking about you three abandoned boys icon when i wrote the post. the snape is half-blood thing is probably bigger than i give it credit for.

I was thinking 'now ootp and the end of dh is where we really find out about snape.' not really counting that snape being half-blood really as big deal.

thanks so much for writing this.