Evil!Lupin explains it all for you

[annemehr <annemehr@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49992

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999 <foxmoth at q...>" 
<foxmoth at q...> wrote:

<snip>
 
> Maria:
> > everyone seems to excuse Lupin anyway, except Pippin, who 
> apparently can't be moved (sorry, Pippin... I >don't say it in a 
> mean way :) )<<
> 
> Not at all ;-)
> 
> Well, Maria  made me think about why I am being so stubborn 
> here. When I first read PoA, I liked Lupin just as much as Harry 
> does  until I got to that confession. It really disturbed me. It is
> so full of self-hate. I do not like self-hating characters.
> 
> I'm afraid I don't read the confession as a Damascus moment. I 
> read it as the whinging of a perpetual guilt-tripper.

Okay -- here we get to the point!  What makes you see it as 
*perpetual* self hate?  And why must it be either that or a "Damascus 
moment"(a moment where one's entire life is changed)?  I saw the 
confession rather as Lupin's first adult reaction to getting loose as 
a werewolf and nearly biting someone.  As a teenager, he says, there 
were near misses, but you know how teenagers are: "well, nothing 
happened," they'll say.  Now an incident happens in his maturity that 
echoes what he did with the Marauders (the werewolf and the secret of 
the animagi) and he sees all his rationalizations for what they were.

It happens.  People do wrong, and then realize how wrong they were.  
This usually does come with some self-loathing, but it doesn't have to 
be permanent.  Lupin can and will forgive himself, learn the lesson, 
and then get on with joining the fight against Voldemort.


> I don't believe Snape can hate other people as much as he does 
> and not hurt himself. I can't believe  Lupin can hate himself as he 
> does and not hurt other people. That would be a lie, and if it is 
> not Lupin's lie then it is Rowling's lie and I shall be disappointed 
> in her.

I'm with you on Snape -- he's making himself miserable.  But from what 
I read all through PoA, Lupin is very concerned about other people, 
and quite kind to them.  A man full of hatred for himself could never 
know just what to do to help Neville with his fear of Snape, for 
instance.  And I *have* read you original Evil Lupin post, and it does 
look SOOOO possible, but I don't think it will turn out to be true.  I 
*hope* it won't turn out to be true!  ;)

 But  I think she may have been thinking of more than 
> Ancient Rome when she named Lupin.
> 
> I don't know if people  remember dear, sweet, nice, gentle, kindly 
>  Uncle Remus, the former slave whose tales are full of 
> subversion, but who, as depicted in the stories of Joel Chandler 
> Harris, harbored not a particle of resentment against the child of 
> privilege. Nowadays, that is considered a damaging stereotype  
> because it sets an impossible standard of nobility. But  I'll close 
> with one of his proverbs. He said something like this: You can 
> hide the fire. But what you gonna do with the smoke?
> 
> Pippin
> whose Ever So Evil Lupin theory was first posted at #39362 and  
> will probably have to revise it severely in late June.

Oh, yeah.  This group will be positvely strewn with the wreckage of 
theories and pieces of theories after June 21st.  And if we have to 
wait as long for Book 6, we'll do it all over again!  :D

Annemehr
who's never read Uncle Remus, but doesn't see any smoke that 
neccessarily leads back to Evil Lupin, although she admits that she 
never will until she chokes on it!