User Profile

Rattlesnakeroot = Cherokee Cure For Snakebite

I'm really nobody.
I use my Livejournal as a blog.
I grew up in Tennessee, and I lead a quiet life.
I'm also a life-long Democrat who loves Al Gore and Barack Obama.
I've been married for 24 years.
I have three children, 2 in college, one 13-years-old.
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in "English and the American Language and Literature."
I write essays about Harry Potter and I've been published.
I'm Essay Moderator for Harry Potter Network.
I don't write fan-fiction very often, except for short parodies full of snark.
I make graphics and my icons are posted on nettlebrew.
I enjoy gardening, birds, and cooking.
I am intrigued by mysterious subjects and the ironies of human nature.
I like to write about legal matters and fandom controversies.

I've Been a True Fan of Harry Potter Since 1998.
I have strong opinions some of you may not want to read.



"There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures."
~James Thurber

"A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come.
At the darkest moment comes the light."
~Joseph Campbell

"Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary,
is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object."
~Albert Camus

"Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light."
~Theodore Roethke




This journal is mainly to talk to my best friends in fandom,
but I will also use it to write public entries about Harry Potter.



I am a proud founding member of Snape's Army, or the SA ~
a group that believed in the truth about the character of
Severus Snape long before Deathly Hallows was published.
We stuck together and were vindicated in every possible way
by Deathly Hallows.



Snape's Army Shield created by Chievrefueil





Why Does Snape Matter?

Article, Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2007

"A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside, Harry
doesn't change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path of
good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels,
not just inevitable, but hollow.

But there is one character who does face a compelling inner crisis:
Snape.



With all the debate – and with all of Rowling's clues – about whether he
was good or bad, it's fair to say that the sallow-faced potions professor
has entranced many readers. His character ached for resolution.

And it is precisely this need for resolution – our desire to know the
real Snape and to understand his choices – that makes him the most compelling
character in the Potter epic. His decisions, not Harry's, were the linchpin.
And his moment with Dumbledore after the death of Harry's parents, not
Harry's last duel with Voldemort, is the authentic climax of the series.

. . . Rowling has publicly expressed mystification over her readers'
fascination with Snape, even suggesting that his appeal is simply "the
bad boy syndrome." Instead, her readers, whether consciously or not, have
tapped into something that Rowling herself may have failed to recognize.

. . . In a society increasingly steeped in moral relativism, it's not
the Harrys of the world who will make a difference. It's the Snapes.
It's those who need redemption, then choose it.
It's those willing to press on and fail and then to press on again
– especially when there are no clear answers.





I stood ~ Among them, but not of them; In a shroud ~ Of thoughts
Which were not their thoughts.
~ Lord Byron



"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat.
And what were the qualities that defined Gryffindor?
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindor apart."

It was a Silver White Doe, moon-bright and dazzling ...
She was nothing but light ... she had come for him and him alone.
... overwhelming instinct told him this was not dark magic.





"You were named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a
Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."
~Harry Potter to his son, Albus Severus Potter

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never
been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.
~Scout Finch about her father Atticus, To Kill a Mockingbird






"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion
so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death.
~Severus Snape



My Essay on HPN~
"Essence of Asphodel: Lily Evans Potter and the Poetic Tradition"

I have learned much in my life
from books
and out of them
about love.
Death
is not the end of it.
~William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel That Greeny Flower"

For hardly can my tremulous lips draw breath
To fill the silver trumpet with thy praise,
So bowed am I before thy mystery;
So bowed and broken on Love's terrible wheel,
~Oscar Wilde


"Heaven" by Rawenna on DeviantArt

Idyll

In the grey summer garden I shall find you
With day-break and the morning hills behind you.
There will be rain-wet roses; stir of wings;
And down the wood a thrush that wakes and sings.
Not from the past you’ll come, but from that deep
Where beauty murmurs to the soul asleep:
And I shall know the sense of life re-born
From dreams into the mystery of morn
Where gloom and brightness meet. And standing there
Till that calm song is done, at last we’ll share
The league-spread, quiring symphonies that are
Joy in the world, and peace, and dawn’s one star.

~ Siegfried Sassoon







To the illumined mind the whole world burns
and sparkles with light.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wise as serpents, gentle as doves.

Friends (83):

Mutual Friends (66):

Also Friend of (24):