Musings on the Severus Snape Fandom
May. 31st, 2009 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
northangel27This is probably going to be of no interest to anyone but hardcore Severus Snape fans, but I feel the need to whine a little. I know that awhile ago I bemoaned the slow dying embers of the Severus Snape fandom. Well, I continue to see it dying out. And god, how I miss it sometimes. I miss searching ‘Snape’ on DeviantArt and clicking ‘Newest’ and seeing dozens of new pieces of fan art and fan fics that have appeared there over night. I miss all the great conversations one used to see on Snapedom at Live Journal (also InsaneJournal), in my LiveJournal, and others, as well. I just miss discussing all things Snape, gorging myself on glorious fan art and fan fic. Whine, whine, whine…. ;-)
I’m as guilty as anyone. I really don’t journal about Snapely subjects over at LiveJournal anymore. I’ve all but given up on writing Snilly fics (my recent contribution to the LESS Flying Challenge not withstanding), and I know that the dying out of fandoms is natural (for me personally, my interest in a particular fandom seems to last about two years, and this September will mark the two year mark for my obsessive interest in Severus Snape). But still, I can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness.
I remember the days when I used to write LiveJournal entries like this: http://lilyevans-snape.livejournal.com/40079.html and this: http://lilyevans-snape.livejournal.com/64831.html#cutid1 . Where did all that love go? I mean it’s not that the love is gone, per se, but just rather that real life has come along and stolen some of the joy. If find that sort of unfortunate, really.
I suppose that fandoms develop sort of like relationships. At the beginning you have all the rush of learning everything there is to know about a new book series, movie, or television series. You pour over every detail, everything is new and exciting. There usually tends to be a character that is your favourite, or a pairing, and you learn all about them too. You theorize on their motivations, on what might have been if this or that had been different. You are ecstatic over the newness. And then, with time, you get to know all there is to know, and your feelings start to mellow with familiarity. I guess one could say that the first spark dies out.
At this point one either has to find something new to love in the fandom, or they move on. Most people move on. I’m not sure why, but this has been more difficult for me with the Harry Potter (oh, I mean Severus Snape…) fandom. Perhaps it is because it has meant to much to me. It came into my life when I desperately needed it, it has spurred me onto heights of creativity I never thought I would accomplish, it brought so many wonderful new friends into my life!
I can honestly say that I would not have as much confidence in my writing, as much knowledge of Photoshop, or as many wonderful friends all over the world if it was not for the Harry Potter fandom, and specifically Severus Snape.
I can literally say that I owe my life to Severus Snape. At the time that I started to form an interest in this fandom, I was in one of the worst depressions of my life. I had lost my sister-in-law very unexpectedly to heart failure a few months prior (she was only 36), and I was still having trouble adapting to living in the United States, where I had moved to marry my husband 2.5 years prior. I hated my job, and I hated almost everything about my life.
But from the moment that I woke up to the delights of the Severus Snape fandom all that changed. My outlook on life instantly improved. I started writing the Alchemist. I started drawing, and eventually learning how to use Photoshop, a tablet, etc. I got first one and then another promotion at work. I met so many wonderful people from all around the world, became members of different online communities, lost almost 30 lbs. I never realized how much my life changed when I discovered Severus Snape, until I was talking to my husband the other day, and he mentioned that he hoped that Severus Snape never ceased to be a part of my life because it was when he entered it that I truly came alive.
So, now that I sit back and take a look at this, I realized that it started out as a bitch fest, another example of me feeling sorry for myself and ended up as another love letter to Severus Snape. Huh… It appears that the Muse still has what it takes ;-).
God, I love Severus Snape…
I’m as guilty as anyone. I really don’t journal about Snapely subjects over at LiveJournal anymore. I’ve all but given up on writing Snilly fics (my recent contribution to the LESS Flying Challenge not withstanding), and I know that the dying out of fandoms is natural (for me personally, my interest in a particular fandom seems to last about two years, and this September will mark the two year mark for my obsessive interest in Severus Snape). But still, I can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness.
I remember the days when I used to write LiveJournal entries like this: http://lilyevans-snape.livejournal.com/40079.html and this: http://lilyevans-snape.livejournal.com/64831.html#cutid1 . Where did all that love go? I mean it’s not that the love is gone, per se, but just rather that real life has come along and stolen some of the joy. If find that sort of unfortunate, really.
I suppose that fandoms develop sort of like relationships. At the beginning you have all the rush of learning everything there is to know about a new book series, movie, or television series. You pour over every detail, everything is new and exciting. There usually tends to be a character that is your favourite, or a pairing, and you learn all about them too. You theorize on their motivations, on what might have been if this or that had been different. You are ecstatic over the newness. And then, with time, you get to know all there is to know, and your feelings start to mellow with familiarity. I guess one could say that the first spark dies out.
At this point one either has to find something new to love in the fandom, or they move on. Most people move on. I’m not sure why, but this has been more difficult for me with the Harry Potter (oh, I mean Severus Snape…) fandom. Perhaps it is because it has meant to much to me. It came into my life when I desperately needed it, it has spurred me onto heights of creativity I never thought I would accomplish, it brought so many wonderful new friends into my life!
I can honestly say that I would not have as much confidence in my writing, as much knowledge of Photoshop, or as many wonderful friends all over the world if it was not for the Harry Potter fandom, and specifically Severus Snape.
I can literally say that I owe my life to Severus Snape. At the time that I started to form an interest in this fandom, I was in one of the worst depressions of my life. I had lost my sister-in-law very unexpectedly to heart failure a few months prior (she was only 36), and I was still having trouble adapting to living in the United States, where I had moved to marry my husband 2.5 years prior. I hated my job, and I hated almost everything about my life.
But from the moment that I woke up to the delights of the Severus Snape fandom all that changed. My outlook on life instantly improved. I started writing the Alchemist. I started drawing, and eventually learning how to use Photoshop, a tablet, etc. I got first one and then another promotion at work. I met so many wonderful people from all around the world, became members of different online communities, lost almost 30 lbs. I never realized how much my life changed when I discovered Severus Snape, until I was talking to my husband the other day, and he mentioned that he hoped that Severus Snape never ceased to be a part of my life because it was when he entered it that I truly came alive.
So, now that I sit back and take a look at this, I realized that it started out as a bitch fest, another example of me feeling sorry for myself and ended up as another love letter to Severus Snape. Huh… It appears that the Muse still has what it takes ;-).
God, I love Severus Snape…
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-31 11:15 pm (UTC)I could still send you a first edition copy of Bring forth the best robes, or if you would rather have the corrected ISBN version, it is available on my website (logospilgrim.com) or amazon. In any event, I am humbled that you wish to consult my scribblings, and hope with all my heart that your presentation will go well! I only wish I could be there to see it. I shall travel again in 2010; I shall go to Infinitus then. I am not a seasoned traveller and need long periods of rest between trips, I fear :-p
Do you know if your lecture will be recorded, most beloved?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-31 11:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-31 11:45 pm (UTC)I have been told that by God's grace, it has helped loved ones cope with what happened to him. As you know, I do not at all hesitate to call him a saint (for one does not need be perfect to be a saint... Even difficult people have been saints). Towards the end of the book, I wrote,
Lilies are called the “white-robed apostles of hope.” Snape was just such an apostle.
Hope is the power behind love.
~ St. John Climacus
As the golden anthers inside the Easter Lily are a symbol of heavenly light, thus was Snape’s heart a fragrant white vessel overflowing with the radiance of Paradise.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-01 12:09 am (UTC)It is amazing to me how God can use even the most flawed and broken of vessels in such amazing ways. In some ways I feel that Severus is so affective a Muse to so many precisely because he is so flawed and broken. We see our worst in him, and yet we also see the power of love overpowering all that is low, and dark and base, and creating hope where there was no hope.
He has healed me more than I can ever say, and I shall always be grateful to him for it, and to God for sending him my way just when I needed him.