Memoirs and confessions of a justified potions master

[tree_and_leaf]

All right, I'm going to take a leaf out of weymms' book, and post this first draft of a prologue to my Calvinist!Snape fic. it's probably too short to make any judgements on it, but all the same, any comments you might have would be appreciated.

Disclaimers: firstly, no offence intended to Catholics, or any other group of (mostly) reasonable people who Snape will doubtless damn at some point during the course of this. Equally, Snape has rather missed the point of Calvin's teachings (and of the Gospel, come to that), and I do know that not all Calvinists are like that. Those who know their Scottish literature will recognise a debt to James Hogg and his brilliant spiritual (or is it psychological?) horror story, Memoirs and Confessions of A Justified Sinner. I kiss the hem of his plaid.

Obviously, I am not JK Rowling and would not dream of asserting ownership over Snape, any of her characters who wil appear later (though, it has to be admitted, through a rather darkened glass).



One day, they will see the truth, and it will do them no good at all. It would do them no good if they saw it now. There is, indeed, an awful sublimity in this, which they assuredly cannot see.

Indeed, I wonder if this parchment will find a reader who can see it. But that is doubt, and unworthy of me. I only know that I feel myself led to set down this account, for the benefit of some future historian, in trust that the LORD who has brought me so far and by so strange a road will not abandon me, His servant, and will not see me forever put to scorn by the ungodly. Strange and wonderful are His ways, and incomprehensible even to the Elect. As for the fools and worldlings of both ‘sides’ who have surrounded me at every turn, they will be shown their error only at death, and the pain of that knowledge will be the first fires of the Pit in which they will burn. And I will delight in it, as all the saints delight in the damnation of the ungodly.

But understand? They will not understand. And it is true that I, too, do not understand everything, and hope, perhaps, to achieve some clarity by putting my thoughts in writing, as I was always used to do when working on intellectual problems, matters of magic, from the days of my youth. Always it have seemed too dangerous before to write of other matters, but now I see that that thought was faithlessness. For that faithlessness I have suffered, and yet the LORD, though He disciplines, never abandons His Chosen People. I have faith that He will hide this book, until it is found by the right person, and indeed I have ways to conceal it from the eyes of those who would do me harm.

This, then, is the story of Severus Snape, the chosen instrument, though unworthy, of the LORD, and of my struggles and wanderings before I came to accept that I am but a tool in His hand. My confession, if you will, in the Augustinian rather than the Papist sense, for I require no absolution. All I have done is walk, albeit often blindly, the path set before me. My testimony, certainly.

*

Comments

I will lay aside my dignity, and say, Squee!

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Brilliant beginnings, Free and Tleaf!

Re: I will lay aside my dignity, and say, Squee!

[tree_and_leaf]

Why thank you! remains to be seen wher it goes...

Re: I will lay aside my dignity, and say, Squee!

[tree_and_leaf]

And apologies for misspelling you in the entry above.

[lunaedraconis.livejournal.com]

THAT IS CRAZY WEIRDGOOD.

*goes crosseyed with the possibilities*

[tree_and_leaf]

Thank you! Calvinist!Snape has always sttod out for me as being replete with possibitities, so I'm looking forward to finally putting my more where my mouth is and exploring it.

[gramarye1971]

...you should know that the very thought of a Calvinist!Snape fic just makes me clap my hands with delight, and I fully intend to cling to your ankles and beg for more.

[tree_and_leaf]

Gosh! Well, I certainly do intend to provide more - especially now I can feel assured it isn't just my warped perspective on things....

[tree_and_leaf]

Terribly appropriate icon, by the way - the things one misses when answering via e-mail...

[eagles-rock.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just 'Wow'.

Yes, please. I had the joy of many years far-out Christianity (but I wasn't born into it) and I have a real love of hardcore religion. A Snape who knows that the Saved must laugh at the Damned - fantastic. And the 'path' - oh yes.

(Here from Wemyss's friends; hope you don't mind if I friend you.)

Oh, you two are made for one another.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

I mean that in a non-femme-slash way.

[tree_and_leaf]

Very pleased to have you on bord, and glad you enjoyed these tentative beginnings.

[tree_and_leaf]

For a horrid moment, I thought you meant me and Snape...

[tree_and_leaf]

And I shall friend you back. Glad to have you about the place.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

J.K. Rowling meets James Hogg? Definitely literary crack!fanfic, but in the good way.

As they would say over at the Pit of Voles:

PLz rite more!1!

[tree_and_leaf]

Why, thanks, especially as you aren't a HP fan...

[harriet-wimsey.livejournal.com]

So cool! Oh wow, I can't wait to read more of this. And I'll have to tell my Calvinist former roommate.

[tree_and_leaf]

Thanks! Something of more substance coming soon, hopefully.

[theentwife.livejournal.com]

Here from a mention in a comment in hp_essays.

I liked this and would like to see more. Your Calvinist!Snape was absolutely delicious.


Persephone

[tree_and_leaf]

Thank you - there certainly should be more in the pipeline.

(Which essay comment? *is curious*)

[theentwife.livejournal.com]

This (http://community.livejournal.com/hp_essays/167021.html?thread=3706221#t3706221) was the comment I referred to.

I look forward to reading more of your Calvinist!Snape soon!

By the by, are you currently at Oxford University? I ask because a friend, anarchist_nomad, is there now, soon to be joined by his sweetie cheshcat, who is a scholar in your field, from what I can gather from your LJ profile page. Since they are new to Oxford, I worry that they might get a wee bit lonely at times.


Persephone

[tree_and_leaf]

Guilty as charged. Perhaps my path will cross that of cheshcat, though we're only very broadly in the same field - I love Old English, but it's a strictly amateur interest these days.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, intriguing. I'm hooked on the idea of a Calvinist!Snape already.

One day, they will see the truth, and it will do them no good at all. It would do them no good if they saw it now. There is, indeed, an awful sublimity in this, which they assuredly cannot see.

Great opening. It draws you right in. The whole piece gives the parchment's author a distinct voice which is still recognisably Snape.

I really want to see where you go with this.

And, as I have the misfortune to have been born a cradle Catholic, any Snapean Papist-bashing will give me a good laugh.

Looking forward to the next installment.

MM

[tree_and_leaf]

Glad you enjoyed - and I'm glad you think the voice is still Snape-y, even with all the Calvinist rhetoric. That was worrying me a bit.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

That is wonderful. Ive read Catholic Snape, I've read Jewish Snape, and I've always thought "You must be joking". The pomposity, the utter lack of sense of humour, the unassailable sense of superiority even whilst looking rather dubious - it's the only explanation that makes sense ;-) An excellent capture of Hogg's style, too.

[tree_and_leaf]

Thank you! I've never bought Catholic Snape (I've never even seen a fic with Jewish!Snape, although I suppose you can argue that there are similarities between his physical description and anti-Semitic stereotype - but that's not a good justification). He doesn't have enough of a sense of the possibility of forgiveness to be interesting as a Catholic. A touch of the Darcys, though not in the fanon sense: 'my good opinion, once lost, is lost forever'. And not much 'guilt', or a sense of his own sinfulness, that I can see.

Not, in RL, that you don't get unforgiving and self satisfied Catholics, but it would be pointless as a subject of a fic. (Unless the conflict involved them struggling with their unforving nature, but - oh, this is getting too complicated! I should get back to work).

Oh, and thanks for the approval of the style! Very heartening.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Jewish!Snape (read a long time ago) essentially struck me as a Gary Stu. Catholic!Snape seemed to involve very little doubt, a certain amount of angsting over forgiveness, and a great deal more concern over sex outside marriage and contraception…

I should add that I know almost nothing about actual Calvinism, but Hogg enlivened an otherwise grim Romantic period literature paper.

[tree_and_leaf]

I have to admit to doubting that Snape would ever need to have to worry about contraception....

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Joining in at random, but maybe it might amuse you to hear that I once came across an HP mary Sue who converts Snape to being a loving Mormon husband. No, really. The story would have required more than a willing suspension of disbelief, methinks.

[tree_and_leaf]

asasdasfjk;lhjgas;hga;

Sorry, words fail me.

[theentwife.livejournal.com]

I've come across a wonderful Snape, who happens to be Catholic, although that is not the focus of his characterization. I find Rebecca Webb's Smallest Slytherin (http://cda.morris.umn.edu/~webbrl/SmallestSlytherin/) trilogy of novel-lenth fics to be delightful, if more than a bit AU. (I actually like her Harry and Draco much more than Rowling's!)

You might want to give her Catholic!Snape a try.


Persephone

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, certainly I will - thanks for the rec!

Catholic Snape-

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Well - Sigune's Snape is Catholic, and I *love* her comic - have you seen it? Mine is Catholic, too, for the same reasons she gives, and a few more besides, but I don't think he's particularly religious - the man strikes me as a natural agnostic, full of pain and self-doubt. That said, a Calvinist Snape is a probable (and very scary) idea, also. But it's a different conception of the character from the one I have.

My reasons for Catholic Snape: he is (probably) celibate and seems to be living as a penitent monk (Sigune pointed those out); he is from a Northern mill town and has very typical Irish coloring, though the name's Danish; and finally, if he's from Yorkshire, that was (and still is, I think) one of the traditionally Catholic areas in England. If he's from Manchester/Liverpool/Birmingham - well, those towns also have substantial Irish Catholic populations. And the Jansenists are just about as uptight and righteous as the Calvinists, IMHO -

But I'm not trying to persuade you! Keep writing! (And heaven only knows what J.K.Rowling thinks -)

Anyway, Sigune's a good writer. And thanks for the link above, entwife, and, tree and leaf, please keep writing!