The Phantom of the Snarry
Feb. 3rd, 2004 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darth_stitchI've just finished work and killing time until I'm off home. I'm too tired to seriously mess with any kind of fic. But apparently, my lunatic brain wants to work out this doozy of an idea. So here it is:
ETA: Have added the rest of what I was thinking.
ETA: Coincidence creeps me out. I have long enjoyed the Phantom fan work of a Mr. Romil Ilagan (hm, I wonder - is this a countryman of mine?) and I discovered something very odd. Is it me or does his Christine have GREEN EYES?! (I know, I know - Erik's Angels. BWAH!)
Yup, those pretty eyes are definitely green. Coincidence and serendipity love me. *facepalms*
Most of the characters that I like in books are usually similar. Not surprising, obviously, because just like in real life, there are certain characteristics that I like or find intriguing in a person and therefore, I just end up finding similar people to like in the books I read or the various TV shows, movies and anime that I watch.
Check it - Methos of Highlander, Severus Snape, Erik aka Phantom of the Opera, Himura Kenshin aka the Hitokiri Battousai, Darth Vader....they're not always easy to compartmentalize as "good guys" or "bad guys." (After that classic scene in Empire Strikes Back, I could never look at Vader the same way again) They've got complex history and motivations and umpteen untold stories in them that makes you wanna get in their heads and figure them out.
Even the heroes that I like tend to get their own complex shades. Aragorn's not your standard Boy Scout. Neither is Harry Potter. And I freely admit to cheering on the dark-edged Luke Skywalker in the Dark Empire comic book series, way back in the heydays before I completely gave up on the emerging idiocy that was the Expanded Universe of Star Wars books and comics.
And then, there are times when my brain comes up with a serious doozy of an idea where I find myself finding the oddest parallels in the oddest places.
Like Phantom of the Opera, as written by Susan Kay and the fics that slash Harry Potter and Severus Snape. For those who've never read THIS version of the classic Gaston Leroux tale, please, I beg you. Run to the nearest bookstore and read. Forget the version Frederick Forsythe did - that was cheap. THIS books - Phantom, by Susan Kay is a hauntingly brilliant expansion and retelling of the Phantom tale, tracing his life from his abusive, tormented childhood, to his time with the gypsies all the way to the tragedy of his first love (not Christine), the horrors of the Persian court and finally, back to Paris, where he built (not designed, alas!) the Paris Opera House as his opulent tomb. Trust me. You won't regret it.
As characters, Erik - the Phantom as portrayed by Susan Kay and Severus Snape, as he appears both canon AND fanon, share surprisingly similar physical characteristics. They're both tall and thin, have the ability to appear imposing, forbidding, stern and even frightening. The ability to move with a certain grace, magnificently stalk their chosen territory (Erik in the Opera House's underground and endless corridors; Snape in Hogwarts' dungeons and hallways) and oh yeah, that flair for the dramatic. They are both physically unattractive - Erik is, of course, horrifically deformed. However, in his white mask, Erik cuts a striking figure and Snape definitely does as well.
They are both smart, intelligent, witty men with vocabularies that cause the rest of us poor mere mortals scampering for the nearest dictionary and scholarly interests that would make the rest of us feel poorly uneducated by comparison. Erik is hailed as a genius in many fields besides music which include architecture, science, engineering and yeah....he's a master magician. We can argue about the real meaning of Severus as "Potions Master" - is this his title as schoolmaster or a label he's literally earned through hard study. But we can't deny that the man's got brains and lots of 'em. They also have lethal tempers and the ability to hold grudges on a geological timescale.
Severus was a Death Eater - whether by his own hand or by his arts, I believe he has dealt death to people. We just don't know what the score is. Erik used to be an assassin in the Persian Court - skilled in the art of strangling his victims using the Punjab lasso.
And the most distinct thing about them both, whether we're talking fanon Severus, canon Severus or Erik in his own myriad incarnations on stage and screen - is their voices. It's the characteristic we remember best. Erik's voice stops people in their tracks and he weaves true magic when he sings. Snape's voice is also memorable - he may not sing but he's got a way with the snarking that's unforgettable.
And if you write Severus as falling for any of the Hogwarts students - Harry, Draco and Hermione are the most common - you've got yourself a Christine to Snape's Erik.
More later.
ETA:
This is later.
Essentially, Christine's got the damsel in the distress role. Beauty to Erik's Beast. She's immature, dreamy, very fey and is the classic lost lamb, wandering around bereft of the only strong and stable figure in her life - her father. That's her fatal flaw - she's unable to face reality on her own two feet. She's got the talent but without her father to cheer her on, she hasn't got the drive, the will to succeed.
Your/My Spirit and Your/My Voice, in one combine....
Erik starts off as her Angel of Music - a father figure. It's later that the relationship takes on a different and far more uncomfortable angle for Christine. It's easy for Erik to care for her as a child but he also sees her as a woman to desire, despite the fact he knows damn well he's old enough to be her father, that he's hideous, that's he's a dangerous, lethal sonuvabitch. And that, the realization that she is not a child but a grown woman who must face her own desires, scares the hell out of her.
In Susan Kay's version of the story, she makes her choice...and it's not quite the choice you see her make on stage and screen. In the end, she grows up, finds her love, only to lose him again. And that's when she becomes a better character, instead of the hapless child-woman she's been, pushed around by all the men around her.
Now, of the three students Snape's usually paired with - Draco, Hermione and Harry - I'm going to pick Harry out for this. One, I haven't read enough of the other pairings to get a feel for the fanfic trends there and two, hell I like the Snarry. Oddly enough, both Draco (maybe this is the Dungeons influence talking) and Hermione strike me as able to keep up with Snape on an even keel. Obviously, they have their own vulnerabilites but I can't speak for them (anyone want to try?) so I'll stick to what I know best.
Let me make it clear: Harry's NOT literally Christine. Despite the fact that in a lot of the bad fiction out there, he usually lands the "ingenue, poor little me, lost and abused (usually sexually)" role, he's STILL not insipid as Christine Daae tends to be in the classic Phantom tale. Susan Kay does a better job of making her more "rounded" but Christine's still no Harry Potter.
But there are similarities in their situation. Harry is on the edge of adulthood - not quite a child anymore but not yet a man either. Unlike Christine, who doesn't WANT to grow up, Harry knows he has to but he does resent the fact that he doesn't have the chance to BE the child that he is the way that his peers are. Until the fifth book, even Draco gets to be the spoiled teenaged snarky brat that he is - it's only in the arrest of Lucius Malfoy that he's realizing he's not always going to get his own way and Daddy's not always going to be there. Harry doesn't have that luxury. Every time he thinks he can just forget about Voldemort, it smacks him upside the head again.
Harry, like Christine, is also manipulated by the adults around him, especially Dumbledore. Don't get me wrong - I don't buy the evil!WTFareyouthinking!Dumbledore but it's still, essentially manipulation, no matter how well-intentioned it is.
However, as tough as a kid he is, there's still this vulnerability about Harry that raises the protective instincts of the adults around him and no, I'm not counting canon Snape here. There's Arthur and Molly Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Hagrid, Minerva McGonagall and of course, Dumbledore. They've not managed to protect Harry from everything but they do try, in their own ways.
Canon Snape is an enigma. You can argue that he does this out of duty to Dumbledore, out of a wizard's debt, hell, even the mere fact that Harry's still a student under his care as a teacher. But I can't see Canon Snape feeling anything for Harry other than loathing (yet!). The most we'll likely see in actual canon is a mutual respect.
Fan fiction's a different thing though and Snape makes a very, very good Erik for Harry's Christine. There's a ton of bad fiction that tries to echo this kind of theme but misses the mark. On the other hand, there's a lot of good fiction that "ages up" Harry or "matures him" so that the age/experience contrast isn't so stark and disturbing. It can be done and done well - like with 'Femme's fics (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme), Sushi's fics (Civil War) and Lamardeuse's "A Taste of Liberty."
The Harry in Lamardeuse's fic reminds me of what Christine should have been though. Her Snape is also very Erik-like, sans the impulse to bring down an effing chandelier on everyone's head. But this is a happier tale than Phantom is.
But the most Phantom-like of the Snarry fics I've read is Telanu's Tea Series. Erik's initial revulsion at himself and his "unholy desire" for a young, nubile girl old enough to be his daughter is echoed in Snape's horror at realizing he's infatuated with a young boy old enough to be his son. After the initial denial, there's that obsession, that ruthless protectiveness and just as Erik caves in by finally singing to Christine as the "Angel of Music," Snape gives in to his desires by kissing Harry on that balcony in the second of Telanu's Tea Series.
And Harry's fascination with Snape is very much like Christine's with Erik's. Christine takes longer to come to terms with the physical aspect of their relationship - Erik's disfigurement and his past fill her with horror. Harry hurdles first his shock at the fact that he's attracted to men, well, one man in particular and good gods, Snape, of all people. After that, he's the one who seduces Snape in his sixth year.
There's the hiding and lies - just as Christine eventually starts deceiving her castmates and her suitor Raoul about Erik, Harry does the same thing....with Sirius as a less romantic substitute for Raoul. Whether Sirius looks on Harry in a romantic or paternal sense, he still gets that "rival" role for Harry's affections and Snape, just like Erik, is insanely jealous of that.
Just like Christine, Harry's got a long way to go in sorting out his feelings for Snape. Is this simply lust? Desire? Love...the "sort of that thrills and excites but dares not name" (paraphrasing Raoul)?
It took Erik's sanity snapping and murderous acts to convince Christine of her choice. But at the end, just as she finally wants to stay with Erik, out of love and not out of pity, she loses him to death. I just hope that the Tea Series Harry doesn't face the same kind of situation in this tale - though I don't doubt that pain and angst and loss may be in his future. I think, however, that Harry's reactions will be a hell of a lot more spectacular and destructive than Christine's.
There. And now I'd better hop back to the fluffier side of the Snarry fence.
ETA: Have added the rest of what I was thinking.
ETA: Coincidence creeps me out. I have long enjoyed the Phantom fan work of a Mr. Romil Ilagan (hm, I wonder - is this a countryman of mine?) and I discovered something very odd. Is it me or does his Christine have GREEN EYES?! (I know, I know - Erik's Angels. BWAH!)
Yup, those pretty eyes are definitely green. Coincidence and serendipity love me. *facepalms*
Most of the characters that I like in books are usually similar. Not surprising, obviously, because just like in real life, there are certain characteristics that I like or find intriguing in a person and therefore, I just end up finding similar people to like in the books I read or the various TV shows, movies and anime that I watch.
Check it - Methos of Highlander, Severus Snape, Erik aka Phantom of the Opera, Himura Kenshin aka the Hitokiri Battousai, Darth Vader....they're not always easy to compartmentalize as "good guys" or "bad guys." (After that classic scene in Empire Strikes Back, I could never look at Vader the same way again) They've got complex history and motivations and umpteen untold stories in them that makes you wanna get in their heads and figure them out.
Even the heroes that I like tend to get their own complex shades. Aragorn's not your standard Boy Scout. Neither is Harry Potter. And I freely admit to cheering on the dark-edged Luke Skywalker in the Dark Empire comic book series, way back in the heydays before I completely gave up on the emerging idiocy that was the Expanded Universe of Star Wars books and comics.
And then, there are times when my brain comes up with a serious doozy of an idea where I find myself finding the oddest parallels in the oddest places.
Like Phantom of the Opera, as written by Susan Kay and the fics that slash Harry Potter and Severus Snape. For those who've never read THIS version of the classic Gaston Leroux tale, please, I beg you. Run to the nearest bookstore and read. Forget the version Frederick Forsythe did - that was cheap. THIS books - Phantom, by Susan Kay is a hauntingly brilliant expansion and retelling of the Phantom tale, tracing his life from his abusive, tormented childhood, to his time with the gypsies all the way to the tragedy of his first love (not Christine), the horrors of the Persian court and finally, back to Paris, where he built (not designed, alas!) the Paris Opera House as his opulent tomb. Trust me. You won't regret it.
As characters, Erik - the Phantom as portrayed by Susan Kay and Severus Snape, as he appears both canon AND fanon, share surprisingly similar physical characteristics. They're both tall and thin, have the ability to appear imposing, forbidding, stern and even frightening. The ability to move with a certain grace, magnificently stalk their chosen territory (Erik in the Opera House's underground and endless corridors; Snape in Hogwarts' dungeons and hallways) and oh yeah, that flair for the dramatic. They are both physically unattractive - Erik is, of course, horrifically deformed. However, in his white mask, Erik cuts a striking figure and Snape definitely does as well.
They are both smart, intelligent, witty men with vocabularies that cause the rest of us poor mere mortals scampering for the nearest dictionary and scholarly interests that would make the rest of us feel poorly uneducated by comparison. Erik is hailed as a genius in many fields besides music which include architecture, science, engineering and yeah....he's a master magician. We can argue about the real meaning of Severus as "Potions Master" - is this his title as schoolmaster or a label he's literally earned through hard study. But we can't deny that the man's got brains and lots of 'em. They also have lethal tempers and the ability to hold grudges on a geological timescale.
Severus was a Death Eater - whether by his own hand or by his arts, I believe he has dealt death to people. We just don't know what the score is. Erik used to be an assassin in the Persian Court - skilled in the art of strangling his victims using the Punjab lasso.
And the most distinct thing about them both, whether we're talking fanon Severus, canon Severus or Erik in his own myriad incarnations on stage and screen - is their voices. It's the characteristic we remember best. Erik's voice stops people in their tracks and he weaves true magic when he sings. Snape's voice is also memorable - he may not sing but he's got a way with the snarking that's unforgettable.
And if you write Severus as falling for any of the Hogwarts students - Harry, Draco and Hermione are the most common - you've got yourself a Christine to Snape's Erik.
More later.
ETA:
This is later.
Essentially, Christine's got the damsel in the distress role. Beauty to Erik's Beast. She's immature, dreamy, very fey and is the classic lost lamb, wandering around bereft of the only strong and stable figure in her life - her father. That's her fatal flaw - she's unable to face reality on her own two feet. She's got the talent but without her father to cheer her on, she hasn't got the drive, the will to succeed.
Your/My Spirit and Your/My Voice, in one combine....
Erik starts off as her Angel of Music - a father figure. It's later that the relationship takes on a different and far more uncomfortable angle for Christine. It's easy for Erik to care for her as a child but he also sees her as a woman to desire, despite the fact he knows damn well he's old enough to be her father, that he's hideous, that's he's a dangerous, lethal sonuvabitch. And that, the realization that she is not a child but a grown woman who must face her own desires, scares the hell out of her.
In Susan Kay's version of the story, she makes her choice...and it's not quite the choice you see her make on stage and screen. In the end, she grows up, finds her love, only to lose him again. And that's when she becomes a better character, instead of the hapless child-woman she's been, pushed around by all the men around her.
Now, of the three students Snape's usually paired with - Draco, Hermione and Harry - I'm going to pick Harry out for this. One, I haven't read enough of the other pairings to get a feel for the fanfic trends there and two, hell I like the Snarry. Oddly enough, both Draco (maybe this is the Dungeons influence talking) and Hermione strike me as able to keep up with Snape on an even keel. Obviously, they have their own vulnerabilites but I can't speak for them (anyone want to try?) so I'll stick to what I know best.
Let me make it clear: Harry's NOT literally Christine. Despite the fact that in a lot of the bad fiction out there, he usually lands the "ingenue, poor little me, lost and abused (usually sexually)" role, he's STILL not insipid as Christine Daae tends to be in the classic Phantom tale. Susan Kay does a better job of making her more "rounded" but Christine's still no Harry Potter.
But there are similarities in their situation. Harry is on the edge of adulthood - not quite a child anymore but not yet a man either. Unlike Christine, who doesn't WANT to grow up, Harry knows he has to but he does resent the fact that he doesn't have the chance to BE the child that he is the way that his peers are. Until the fifth book, even Draco gets to be the spoiled teenaged snarky brat that he is - it's only in the arrest of Lucius Malfoy that he's realizing he's not always going to get his own way and Daddy's not always going to be there. Harry doesn't have that luxury. Every time he thinks he can just forget about Voldemort, it smacks him upside the head again.
Harry, like Christine, is also manipulated by the adults around him, especially Dumbledore. Don't get me wrong - I don't buy the evil!WTFareyouthinking!Dumbledore but it's still, essentially manipulation, no matter how well-intentioned it is.
However, as tough as a kid he is, there's still this vulnerability about Harry that raises the protective instincts of the adults around him and no, I'm not counting canon Snape here. There's Arthur and Molly Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Hagrid, Minerva McGonagall and of course, Dumbledore. They've not managed to protect Harry from everything but they do try, in their own ways.
Canon Snape is an enigma. You can argue that he does this out of duty to Dumbledore, out of a wizard's debt, hell, even the mere fact that Harry's still a student under his care as a teacher. But I can't see Canon Snape feeling anything for Harry other than loathing (yet!). The most we'll likely see in actual canon is a mutual respect.
Fan fiction's a different thing though and Snape makes a very, very good Erik for Harry's Christine. There's a ton of bad fiction that tries to echo this kind of theme but misses the mark. On the other hand, there's a lot of good fiction that "ages up" Harry or "matures him" so that the age/experience contrast isn't so stark and disturbing. It can be done and done well - like with 'Femme's fics (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme), Sushi's fics (Civil War) and Lamardeuse's "A Taste of Liberty."
The Harry in Lamardeuse's fic reminds me of what Christine should have been though. Her Snape is also very Erik-like, sans the impulse to bring down an effing chandelier on everyone's head. But this is a happier tale than Phantom is.
But the most Phantom-like of the Snarry fics I've read is Telanu's Tea Series. Erik's initial revulsion at himself and his "unholy desire" for a young, nubile girl old enough to be his daughter is echoed in Snape's horror at realizing he's infatuated with a young boy old enough to be his son. After the initial denial, there's that obsession, that ruthless protectiveness and just as Erik caves in by finally singing to Christine as the "Angel of Music," Snape gives in to his desires by kissing Harry on that balcony in the second of Telanu's Tea Series.
And Harry's fascination with Snape is very much like Christine's with Erik's. Christine takes longer to come to terms with the physical aspect of their relationship - Erik's disfigurement and his past fill her with horror. Harry hurdles first his shock at the fact that he's attracted to men, well, one man in particular and good gods, Snape, of all people. After that, he's the one who seduces Snape in his sixth year.
There's the hiding and lies - just as Christine eventually starts deceiving her castmates and her suitor Raoul about Erik, Harry does the same thing....with Sirius as a less romantic substitute for Raoul. Whether Sirius looks on Harry in a romantic or paternal sense, he still gets that "rival" role for Harry's affections and Snape, just like Erik, is insanely jealous of that.
Just like Christine, Harry's got a long way to go in sorting out his feelings for Snape. Is this simply lust? Desire? Love...the "sort of that thrills and excites but dares not name" (paraphrasing Raoul)?
It took Erik's sanity snapping and murderous acts to convince Christine of her choice. But at the end, just as she finally wants to stay with Erik, out of love and not out of pity, she loses him to death. I just hope that the Tea Series Harry doesn't face the same kind of situation in this tale - though I don't doubt that pain and angst and loss may be in his future. I think, however, that Harry's reactions will be a hell of a lot more spectacular and destructive than Christine's.
There. And now I'd better hop back to the fluffier side of the Snarry fence.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2004-02-03 02:47 pm (UTC)*cheers*
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Date: 2004-02-03 03:21 pm (UTC)He's exceptionally talented at Potions, able to brew the Wolfsbane which is canonically described as difficult; he became skilled at Dark Arts at a young age and likely is still powerful; he's an Occlumens/Legilimens, strong enough to keep the Dark Lord out of his head. Snape is one powerful wizard in three different areas -- the Erik parallels are definitely there! *g*
I love Susan Kay's novel; it's a marvelous, in-depth look at one of the most intriguing characters of horror literature, and I love how she fleshes him out and makes him sympathetic. And in terms of the HP parallel, I can so see Dumbledore in the stonemason's role.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-03 04:34 pm (UTC)And yeah, I can see Dumbledore in the stonemason's role - flat out perfect.