Lupin/Detective Mysteries

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 32389

Elizabeth Dalton wrote:

> It's another common "plot hole" that we love to hate: why doesn't 
Lupin
> transform until the moon breaks through the clouds?
> 
<snip> The
> consensus of my non-HP-reading fantasy/horror experts was that 
perhaps Lupin
> wouldn't transform if he didn't see the moon/get exposed to rays of 
moonlight,
> but that the urge to go look at the moon when it is full would be 
irresistable,
> due to his curse. The potion lets him just succumb to this urge, 
look out the
> window, then take a nap as a wolf with a sane human mind. Chaining 
him up in a
> windowless dungeon might work, too, but being denied moonlight at 
the full moon
> (especially repeatedly) might drive him insane. 

Hmmm.  I like this theory in theory, but I do have one problem.  In 
PoA, we're told that the Shrieking Shack has boarded-up windows.  I 
would assume these windows were boarded up when Lupin used it to 
transform; otherwise the residents would know it was haunted not by 
ghosts but by a werewolf, and Lupin-wolf could have broken out.  So 
if the windows are boarded up, that means that whenever he has not 
had his potion, he transforms even if he doesn't look at the moon or 
isn't touched by its light.  It also means that he doesn't go insane 
if he is prevented from seeing the full moon by being in the 
Shrieking Shack, no?

Elizabeth again:

> the entertainment in
> those first two books was in how they solved the puzzle, not in 
being held in
> suspense as to whether or not they would solve it.
> 
> Some of us (besides me) like murder mysteries, I imagine. Just 
think about the
> level of formula. There will be a body. There will be a killer. The 
killer will
> be caught. Yet, we still read these things, and (some of us) enjoy 
them quite a
> bit. The enjoyment comes in watching the author show us, cleverly 
(we hope)
> *how* the killer will be caught. 

Maybe you've put your finger on my fundamental problem with PS/SS and 
CoS and all mystery novels -- since there's no real suspense, you 
need brilliant clues and lots of misdirection to keep things 
interesting, I guess.  

I'm listening to PS/SS again because, to tell you all the truth, I 
never really understood it.  I just can't figure out what the heck 
Snape is doing regarding the stone.  Snape is bullying Quirrel for 
what reason exactly?  All the teachers provide an impenetrable 
obstacle to protect the stone, only the obstacles are so simple that 
Quirrell, the kids, and Dumbledore can negotiate them fairly easily.  
So I guess if PS/SS isn't a suspense tale, and it isn't a clever 
mystery, then why did I enjoy it at all?  I'm still trying to figure 
that out.

Cindy