Timeline/Ill Lupin/Competent Hagrid?/Betty Bowers

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 34100

Wow!  This discussion board has been active lately!  Let me 
string together a few comments, on various topics, that I have:

Penny & Bryce <pennylin at s...> asked:
> I can't figure out how you're calculating a marriage date
> [for James and Lily] soon after leaving Hogwarts. 
>...I don't recall anything in canon to support it.

Many people here believe that James and Lily got married very young.  
This isn't exactly based on canon; it's from an interview with JKR, 
around the time GoF came out, where she gave Snape's age as "35 or 
36."  We also know that CoS is set in 1992-1993 (because Nearly 
Headless Nick has his 500th Deathday then, and his cake says he died 
in 1492.)  So, if Snape was "35 or 36" in GOF he would have been born 
around 1960.  We know that James,and Lily were in the same school year 
as Snape, so they would also have been born sometime around 1960.  
Harry is 11 in 1991, so he was born in 1980, which would make his 
parents only around 20 when he was born. 

By the way, I always thought of 20 as very young to be married with a 
child, but based on what JKR said in the recent TV special "Harry 
Potter and Me", her own mother was about 20 when JKR was born.  So, 
being twenty when you have a child probably sounds just about right to 
JKR.  


On to other topics:


Concerning Hagrid and his competence or lack thereof:

Here is my take on Hagrid's character.  Hagrid is obviously supposed 
to be very compassionate and loving.  This is why Dumbledore would 
trust Hagrid "with his life."  However, Hagrid also is very childlike 
-- emotional, impulsive, unable to see the consequences of his 
actions. I think this is supposed to be out of Hagrid's control -- 
he's not selfish or inconsiderate; he's just not capable of acting any 
other way.  As others here have said, he's somehow "stuck in time", 
and has not truly matured.  Maybe this is because he's part giant; 
maybe his intelligence is fairly low; I'm not sure.  But, I'm certain 
it's not supposed to be his fault.  (My husband has an interesting 
question -- "How long do giants live?  Maybe Hagrid hasn't grown up 
*yet*.")  So, I have to forgive Hagrid his flaws. 

Whoever said that Hagrid sympathesizes with big, monstrous creatures 
because Hagrid himself looks scary but is actually kind, I think 
you've hit tne nail on the head.  Hagrid seems to think "Everyone has 
it in for big, scary looking creatures like Norbert, Agagog, and...  
me."  It will be interesting to see if the full giants, when they show 
up, have also somehow been misunderstood. 

Now, about Lupin:

Several people asked whether Lupin was protecting Harry from Sirius 
Black on the Hogwarts' Express.  One big question was "Could Black get 
on the train?  Why would anyone think Harry was in danger on the 
train?"  Well, I'm not sure if Lupin was there to protect Harry or 
not.  But, it's clear that someone in authority was very worried about 
Black getting on the train.  That was why the Deemntors searched it; 
they were making sure Black wasn't there.  Lupin even tells the 
dementor something like "None of us is hiding Black under our cloaks. 
Go."  

I think that JKR is indeed using lycanthropy as a metaphor for 
real-world illness, and discrimination against disabled people.  
According to the recent "Harry Potter and Me" interview, JKR's mom 
died of MS, at the fairly young age of 45.  I wonder if JKR likewise 
envisions Lupin as dying young -- Lupin is so ill that it's hard to 
see how he could live a normal human life expectancy, let alone a 
normal wizard one.

However, the way of Lupin is treated doesn't make me think of MS; it 
makes me think of AIDS.  I have no idea if JKR had AIDS in mind, but 
the way the wizarding world responds to lycanthropy (ostracism, fear 
of contagion, and equation of lycanthropy with immorality) is very 
much like how AIDS is often viewed in the real world.  Interestingly, 
one of Lupin's outward symptoms -- being very thin -- fits AIDS but 
not MS.  (Exhaustion fits MS and AIDS both, and many other illnesses.) 

Another question about Lupin -- when do you think he is contagious?  
Do you think that in the Potterverse, werewolves are only contagious 
in wolf form?  Or are they contagious all month?  Can kissing or other 
contact spread lycanthropy?  This would certainly be a big hinderance 
is forming romantic relationships.  (Alas for my Lupin fantasies! 
Sigh!)


Lasty, Pastafor5 said in response to the article at 
http://www.bettybowers.com/harrypotter.html :
> Please tell me that was a joke! ... I suggest that betty bowers get 
> her mind out of the gutter.

Yes, it's a joke.  The BettyBowers site is a parody of the religious 
right.  It's 'affiliated' with several other similar parody sites, as 
I recall.  Unfortunately, the BettyBowers site was redesigned 
recently, and it's less obviously a parody (and less funny, if you ask 
me) than it was before. 

-- Judy