Not so ESE:Lupin

[Justine]

No: HPFGUIDX 98769

> Pippin:
> Erm, your version of the quote seems to have been edited a tiny 
> bit. It goes like this:
> ****
> http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quickquotes/articles/2003/060
> 3-AlbertHall-FryRowling.htm
> 
> I was also playing with that when I created Professor
> Lupin who has a condition that is contagious of course and so 
> people are very frightened of him and I really like Professor Lupin, 
> the character, because he's somebody who also has his failing 
> he's such a great man and he's a wonderful teacher in fact I 
> would say that Lupin is the one time I've written a teacher I loved 
> really liked to have had because Professor McGonnagol is a very 
> good teacher but she can be quite scary at times, very
> strict. So Lupin's a wonderful teacher and a very nice man but he 
> has a failing and his failing is that he does like to be liked and 
> that's where he slips up because he has been disliked so often 
> that he's always so pleased to have friends so he cuts them and 
> awful lot of slack.
> **
> 
> I'm afraid she did say he was a nice man. Sorry. <veg> 
> 
> The lovable wolfy, driven by his need to please others, 
> displaying saintly forbearance toward his oppressors, slipping 
> up only in harmless or comical ways, is all too similar to the  
> "Uncle Tom" (not to mention "Uncle Remus") stereotype.  I'm 
> afraid that JKR may have a nasty surprise in store for those who 
> find it appealing.
> 
> http://faculty.uwb.edu/mgoldberg/courses/definitions/stereotype.htm


Justine:

Well, gee.  I concede that.  The Lexicon should really put some sort 
of disclaimer on that quote, then.  BUT!  In the real quote, she, 
besides saying he is a NICE man, says he is a GREAT man.  "SUCH a 
great man," actually.  Now, "great" is most definitely a synonym 
for "wonderful."  I realize "great" could also mean "powerful," and 
we've seen that Remus is a competent wizard and a fantastic teacher, 
but there's been no hint, as far as I can remember, that he is a 
very powerful wizard.  It doesn't say "great wizard" anyway.  It 
says "great man."  I guess that brings up a new question:  is Remus 
Lupin a powerful man?  As a werewolf, he isn't in the wizarding 
world.  In connection to Voldemort, he'd merely be a pawn.  In the 
Order, he headed the Advance Guard.  So he's powerful in some 
aspects of the Order, but so is Arthur, so is Shacklebot, so is 
Moody.  Each member of the Order is important to the Order.  I've 
concluded that--especially in the context of a quote talking about 
his wonderful teaching, how she'd love him as a teacher, and which 
mentions only one flaw--her use of the word "great" simply means 
that:  "great," a synonym of "wonderful."  

To end this, I'd like to quote my best friend and fellow Potterhead:
"i think the 'great man' is definitely strong...we know jkr doesn't 
choose her words loosely and even going with less factual reasoning: 
she seems very candid in this quote, she has a very distinctive 'coy 
voice' and it doesn't seem like she's doing a 'you just wait' thing 
here"

Justine
I really do admire your theory, Pippin, and will applaud you should 
it be correct.  I just don't buy it, though.  It's just that it 
involves SO much speculation... and I'm rather enamored of Remus.