stuttermoan

Belated edit 02/19/2016: I messed up and nobody told me for years? I'll get around to doing the correct one eventually.

After a 5 year break since my last astrology post, I'm back with a new HP astrological analysis. Up for analysis: Dobby. I used to find him irritating, but in my most recent read-through of the series, I've gained a new appreciation for him. Italicized words are from The Secret Language of Birthdays by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers.

( Cancer - June 27 - The Day of the Defensive Developer )

Back in 2005, I won a kiriban (the 25k pageview on Laerry's deviantart portfolio) and chose to be awarded with an image of newly-minted-teacher-and-spy Snape.

Earlier this year, I won yet another kiriban (the 20k pageview on Sigune's deviantart portfolio) and chose to be awarded with...you guessed it, newly-minted-teacher-and-spy Snape (well, technically that was one option of several possible requests, but still).

There is a three year span of difference in my life between these pieces.

I'm fairly certain that Sigune didn't check or reference Laerry's piece in any way. Shoot, I don't even know if they're aware of one another. Still the similarities are interesting. Most obviously, they both feature Snape at around the same moment in the timeline of his life. They both include a section of beautifully-done stone wall. They both feature chalk writing on a greenboard (which I don't automatically associate with Hogwarts, but perhaps most fans do). Due to stylistic and personality differences in the artists, the two versions of Snape are very emotionally different. The first looks young and insecure. The second is obviously in control.

These two pictures also show some similarities between three-years-ago me and recent-me. I'm still lurking deviantart. I still dig the character of Snape. I still have enough attention span to notice when an artist is paying attention to their pageviews. It's pretty strange to consider that, since 2005, I've lost two loved ones, completed two degrees, narrowly lost one poetry contest, overwhelmingly won another poetry contest, won NaNoWriMo three times, lost 15 lbs., been diagnosed with a learning disability, and made a decision about What I Want to Be When I Grow Up™ that seems to have stuck.

(Yay, new Fanstudy survey!)

I was channel surfing the other day when I came across an old black-and-white movie. The scene: two old guys sitting on a porch, and one is telling about a beautiful rocking horse he wanted as a child, and how, after his family had saved up the money to buy it for him, it fell apart the first time he rode it. The guy likened the rocking horse to the misleading, misused aspects of the Bible. From that point forward, I was hooked.

Turns out that the movie I ran across was Inherit the Wind, a movie version of the play version of the famous U.S. 1925 court case over the teaching of evolution.

Naturally, there was a lot of intense court speaking in the film. At one point, Henry Drummond, the lawyer defending the man arrested for teaching evolution, used an uncommon word I had heard recently.

"For I intend to show this court that what Bertram Cates spoke quietly one spring morning in the Hillsboro High School is not crime. It is incontrovertible as geometry to any enlightened community of minds."

In the OotP trailer, Dumbledore asserts to the officials at Harry's hearing that evidence of Voldemort's return is "incontrovertible". My copy of OotP is currently being borrowed, so I can't check, but I really don't remember that word actually being used in the text. So why'd they add it in? Is it just a nice word to throw around in a court situation?

There are more similarities between the scene in Inherit the Wind and Movie 5 than vocabulary. Both are, as stated, in court. Both are spoken by an older, educated man who is defending another's right to speak their controversial views on what they see as truth. Okay, I know technically Harry's hearing is concerned with his use of the Patronus charm, but if Dumbledore is speaking about the Dark Lord's return at the hearing, the subject had to have come up. I suppose the issue of free speech was placed there to lead up to Umbridge's reign of enforced ignorance. (And there's another similarity, the issue of limiting what can and cannot be taught in school.)

It is entirely possible that I'm reading too much into this based on word choice, but still, I think it's an interesting set of parallels.

Manson of the Marilyn stripe.

My original concept of Snape's appearance was somewhat tainted by the movies before I read any of the books. Since then, I've carved out my own idea about the character's appearance. Rickman, bless him, makes a fine Snape, but he is not the Snape in my brain.

( My Snape bears a striking resemblance to Marilyn Manson. )