Is there anything in the HP world that bothers you?

[Neotoma73 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 56534

In a message dated 4/29/2003 10:36:48 PM Eastern Standard Time, "The Fox" <the_fox01 at hotmail.com> writes:

> I don't get that the werewolf thing is an allegory for 
> racism, actually. She handles the racism pretty handily with 
> the pureblood/mudblood issue; I see lycanthropy=AIDS, quite > frankly.  Anyone else?

Lycanthropy = AIDS is one way of looking at it, but I've always throught of it as Lycanthropy = mental disease.

Lycanthropy is difficult to control, even with proper medication (Wolfsbane), and can cause the suffer to be violent with himself and others. Unfortunately, this sounds a lot like some of the severe mental problems, eg. bipolar diorder, schizotypic disorder, and outright schizophrenia.  

Heck, even Ron's reaction upon finding out Lupin's a werewolf is within the bounds of reactions to finding out someone has a mental problem -- there is a big stigma against them, and people get very uncomfortable and behave badly towards them.

Lupin's just lucky that his anti-psychotic medication is so effective, and doesn't seem to have much in the way of side-effects beyond tasting disgusting.

AnneL