I get nostalgic for Canon Snape sometimes, considering the ways people spin his character on the forums or feel the need to spread the Snape-Hate around. Luckily many artists understand book-Snape perfectly because they aren't in denial about what actually happens in Deathly Hallows.  

Edited to Add: I intended this post to be some quick escapist fan art, and didn't realize I was expressing myself so badly.

After reading many of your comments, I realize that my view of Canon Snape may be somewhat different from the norm.  I was actually referring to people who hate Snape's character in general and are stuck in the past around PoA when his character still seemed like a cardboard villain. I talk to people like that every day on the forums.  They want to dwell on the dark side of his character rather than the redeemed man he became by the end of the series (with apologies to Mary J ~ we'll have to agree to disagree on that fact).

I don't know why fans of "Dark Snape" have a monopoly on the term "Canon Snape." I disagree with their view of Snape in the canon because I don't think of "Canon Snape" as just mean and cunning, and I shouldn't have used such a charged phrase. To me that is what Snape haters say when they accuse Snape fans of glossing over his faults - that we are missing Canon Snape and only seeing a romantic hero.

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These are some pictures from DeviantArt that have touched me lately. Follow the links to see more from each artist. And of course, all these are much better seen at full size, so check that out also. The first one especially may be one of the best fan art pics ever done. Cheers to Vizen for her brilliant use of color, the blurry plaid on McGonagall's clothing, thhe sense of humor, Dumbledore's cocktail glass with a tiny umbrella, and Snape's spectacular nose.

Pictured Intensive for those on dial-up. No Slash.

 

The Snape-Haters say they see him that way, but in reality they want to believe Harry's view of his least-favorite teacher. There's a guy I know who continually says that Snape "whipped" Harry with a lash and pushed him to the ground at the end of HBP just for the enjoyment of it. I don't see that at all - but it's the allegedly the same canon.

So to me, Canon Snape is the guy in the books with his many faults and his good points. In my opinion, he is a sympathetic character by the end of the series, and not just a baddie or a mean old schoolteacher. He's a well-rounded character, and a very complex character, which is why we are still talking about him years later.
 

Congratulations, Emerson, Ben, and the staff!

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We'll take as many stories as possible and post them on MuggleNet later this month. Thanks!

HP the Musical was written and produced in early 2009 by a bunch of college kids/recent grads through a non-profit student-run theatre company. It was a free show that ran for three nights (five performances) and will never be done again... but luckily we taped it so everyone can get a chance to enjoy its magical silliness. The songs were written by Darren Criss (who plays Harry Potter) and AJ Holmes (who plays piano in the band). The script was written by Matt Lang (who also directed the show), Nick Lang (who assistant directed and made the dragon puppet) and Brian Holden (who was busy working at a real job while the rest of us were making a goofy play).
HP the Musical was a completely non-for-profit unofficial parody show made by Potter-fans for Potter-fans. All of us involved love the books immensely (and strongly encourage everyone to read them if you haven't) and it is with the utmost admiration that we celebrate and poke fun at them with this musical inspired by our very favorite stories.

saiphgrl

From I Am Holden Caufield

The best client you could have if you are an intellectual property lawyer is JD Salinger. The second best is JK Rowling. This is because they are both extremely litigious, guarantee great publicity, and because their aura of great virtue, together with the belovedness of their creations, helps them win.

...Salinger and Rowling are examples of the current anomaly in which intellectual property becomes ever more protected in traditional media, and ever more impossible to protect in digital media.

I am writing this in the air so I cannot check if jdsalinger.com or holdencaufiled.com have been taken, but, if they aren’t, I will try to remember to grab them soon after I land. Alternatively, I will try for iamholdencaulfield.com—that could work, nicely. (At some point, we have all dreamed of being Holden Caulfield.)

But on iamholdencaulfield.com I can invite visitors to the site to write their own versions of what might have happened to Holden in the intervening years (perhaps I will link to the British version of the Swedish author’s book). This is fan fiction of the kind that piggybacks off many best-sellers and pop-culture characters with obsessive followers—and Catcher in the Rye, at 22 million copies and counting, has always had its obsessives. It’s probable that such explicit Holden sites and Holden fan fiction already exist—so much for my new pastime. Certainly Harry Potter is as finely documented on the web as Harry and friends could ever be in the reference book that Rowling has blocked from publication.

(Someone should write to him and let him know the Lexicon is in print!)

Rowling and Salinger and their lawyers do not pursue such possible web infringements because it is too penny-ante and time-consuming, and victories on the web tend to do nothing to discourage other infringements on the web. If Salinger and Rowling have deep pockets, they are not deep enough to sue the entire Internet.

The result is that, more and more, two worlds of intellectual property exist. One becomes increasingly a pretend world, or a world of principle but not of meaning. Lawyers and courts and obsessive creators (who inspire obsessive fans) and their heirs can have their way with books and expensive video productions, while a new sort of popular culture, unrestrained and unbothered, is being created...

Calling West Michigan Potter fans and friends of fans!
Can you help out on a video shoot this Friday at 10am?
Even if you can't be there, please pass the word to the Potter fans you know who might want to be part of this fun project.
Have them email me at steve.lexicon@gmail.com

lemon_ashwinder

Mugglenet's Harry Potter Should Have Died
Pre-Order it on Amazon
Read the Back Cover Here

"So if you have both a pulse and at least a modicum of knowledge of the
Harry Potter books, we’ll be very disappointed if, upon reading some of our
verdicts, you’re not inspired to challenge us to a duel or something."

President Obama may be the world's most famous man but he became positively star struck in the presence of the Harry Potter author J K Rowling.

The President made a beeline for Miss Rowling, at the end of the Downing Street G20 dinner, and told her that he had read all her books himself and to his children Sasha and Malia.

Miss Rowling then received a second presidential seal of approval for the boy wizard from Russia's President Medvedev and his wife Svetlana, who not only admitted to having read the Harry Potter books but also asked for her autograph.

. . . As talk of a $1 trillion bail-out dominated Thursday's G20 conference, Mrs Brown took the wives to the Royal Opera House for a morning of high culture. J K Rowling, who wore a pale pink shift dress, read extracts from her latest book, The Tales Of Beedle The Bard which was a best-seller last year.

Los Angeles,03/04/2009 00:09:41

FIRST LADY: We just love your Harry Potter books.
JK ROWLINGINNIT: Well, thank you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, and could the USA have a few million sub? To see us to Friday?

This is what we are talking about here - a franchise attacking their own fans.

Hey NBC Attorneys ~ Copyright is not a Weapon!

Techdirt Blog: NBC Universal Shuts Down Battlestar Galactica Fan Charity Event In Toronto 

 

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weerdone

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P2PNet: Universal NBC Battlestar Galactica Disgrace

 "One would expect nothing less than from a company which believes suing its customers and treating them like dirt makes good business sense."

From Andy at the Fox: Simply the write the word "Donate" on the back of your ticket, sign it and return to the location it was purchased.. For each ticket signed in this way, we will donate $7 to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Canned goods can still be dropped off at the Fox and we'll make sure they get there as well.

aredwitch

 

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I had people as early as Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book. I remember a woman saying to me : "I think Snape loves Lily". I was "Oh my God what the hell did I give away ?". But so people, people got stuff very unnervingly right. Often. Yeah.
~ JKR interview on receiving the James Joyce Award

It’s very strange to think that you must have been pretty much the target audience, ten years ago, so you’ve really… you have been reading this book all through these ten years so you are… You are my people ! No, I don’t mean in any political way, I’m not trying to lead you to an uprise or something… Yes, it is odd to sit in this room and to think that Harry Potter would be examined in that particular way and in a room with people who are exactly the age that Harry was, really.
~ JKR interview on receiving the James Joyce Award

...it makes me enormously happy that people continue reading and enjoying the books. They grew older with Harry Potter. But I never thought adults were potential readers.
~ Interview in Spanish newspaper El Pais

...the other day I was on the street and a woman came up to me and asked if I was J. K. Rowling, I said yes. She then said: “You deserve everything you have.” I don’t think she was talking about the money...
~ Interview in Spanish newspaper El Pais

...it's not about love of a story or even wishing to spoil a story. It's become something that people want to be attached to because it's the quickest way they can see to get some publicity for themselves or notoriety for themselves and you have this fringe - I can't dignify them with the word fan because I think if it wasn't Harry Potter it would be Star Wars or it would be something high-profile enough that they could just get a little bit of face-time. ... it's really got nothing to do with Harry Potter...
~ JKR in Vault 27 on HAH 

... I'd become used to the fact that people were so invested in this world, and felt such ownership of this world that I was not on a pedestal at all in their eyes, I was right in the thick of the fight. And it's uncomfortable on and off the pedestal, so you get used to it."
~ JKR in Vault 27 on HAH

...if a fight comes to me, I will not duck it. So, if people want information on my characters, then they have to accept that I'm going to give them the information on the characters. And if they don't like it, that's the nature of fiction. You have to accept someone else's world because they made that world, so they probably know a little better than you do what goes on there.
~ JKR in Vault 27 on HAH

I was not at all new to the concept of fan entitlement because that had now been going on since, I think, around 1999. As the Snape Debate hotted up, I would occasionally receive mail from fans that was instructing me on my characters. And you know what, that's very endearing when it comes from a younger person, and it's less endearing when it comes from an older person.
~ JKR in Vault 27 on HAH

At no point have I indicated, or would indicate,  that any of these fan websites is a "favorite."
~ JKR Declaration for Trial, Feb. 2008

Welcome to Pottercast, your number one source for news, theories, discussion and interviews . . .  I know a small amount myself, having written the books. My name is J. K. Rowling. I am now happy to introduce your hosts: Melissa, John, and Sue...
~ JKR's weekly intro to Leaky Cauldron's Pottercast

I was asked to make a video slideshow of Fan Art for the Severus Snape For Minister Campaign on Chamber of Secrets Forum. This will be posted on our Spotlight Thread in the coming week.

The music is "Night in That Land" by Night Noise. I found the song on this album:
Sanctuary: 20 Years of Windham Hill

 

Excerpt: Johnson: “But what do I think? I think it is not a lexicon either. A lexicon would be a word list, yes, where the word is most frequently reserved for Greek or Latin dictionaries forhistorical reasons. But we would expect a lexicon to have the kinds of information systematically and uniformly given that this doesn't, like etymologies or like pronunciations. "Lexicon" is another word for dictionary.”

Bluestocking: You know Ms. Johnson you should really stop speaking in absolutes like you are the authority. I checked my copy of Webster’s Dictionary, lexicon is listed as an encyclopedia not a word list. Would it really have been that hard to check this out? Once again, some examples would be really nice. Just so you know, when experts testify they give their opinions to a reasonable certainty. See the problem with absolutes is that you run the risk of having your opponent start putting Lexicons that are more than merely word lists and start quizzing you on them. In addition, a really cheeky lawyer might read you the Webster’s dictionary definition.

bnmc2005

alanrickman

AR: ...I'm at one end of the story... as an actor, and you guys are at the other end as deciding the stories that you want to go and hear told, and somewhere in the middle are a manipulative greedy bunch of pigs. (Audience laughs - Alan does not)

Moderator: It's a big middle.

AR: . . . who just want bigger houses and more airplanes and cars. And I guess it's a bit like, you know, what government do you want ~ You've just got to stand up and say you're going to fight for it, if you want to have a rich culture: It's yours and it's mine. And it's not theirs.

. . . This is exciting to me to be in a beautiful old theater absolutely filled with people who have just had a story told to them. You're not being manipulated at all, and I hope you each had your own relationship with that story. You know, we could go out with this microphone now and find out who thought what about all the characters in the story, 'cause God knows it's not just about wine - it's about people.

I think that's a big fight on, which is part of the life. (applause from audience)