Lupin as a metaphor (was: DD and the rat)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 115996


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Renee" 
<R.Vink2 at c...> wrote:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sherry Gomes" 
> <sherriola at e...> wrote:
> > Pippin said
> > 
> > But Lupin was a Gryffindor, who, IMO, ended up on 
Voldemort's  side only because he began to feel that outside 
Hogwarts there  was no useful place for him in the light.
> 
> Renee:
> 
> Lupin was a member of the first Order of the Phoenix. To me, 
this  qualifies as a "useful place in the light".<<

We don't know what happened in the first Order of the Phoenix, 
but we know in the second one,  Lupin felt there wasn't much he 
could do to let people know about Voldemort's return.

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the 
community," said Lupin. "It's an occupational hazard of being a 
werewolf."

My speculative theory is that Lupin's business for the Order now 
and  previously involves other werewolves. Having been 
insulated from the worst of werewolf discrimination as a 
Hogwarts student, he was shocked to discover how poorly they 
were being treated, and it radicalized him. It made him an enemy 
of the Ministry, and the Order in those days seems to have been 
working with the Ministry pretty closely.  

We don't know if the other Marauders were still able to stay with 
Lupin during his transformations...if not, he would have been 
plunged back into the full horror of them, so he would be under a 
lot of pressure from that too.

Sherry:
> > Pippin, you build a compelling case for ESE Lupin.  I hope 
you are  wrong.  I admit this is a very personal bias on my part.  
As a disabled person, I can't tell you how many times I've been 
told, that if I had enough  faith I'd be healed, or that I or my 
parents must have done some terrible thing for me
to be blind.  i've had people tell me that till they got to know 
 me, they thought I was developmentally disabled, though they 
did not use  such a clean politically correct term.  People talk to 
me as if I'm a child, or  as if I am also deaf and mute.  People 
think I am incompetent, though I  have worked successfully for 
many years.  People either think I am super human  or only
part human, the other part some freak of nature or God.  Over the
 generations, disabled people have been looked at with 
suspicion  and fear, especially people who are developmentally 
disabled.  Now, I'm not saying that disabled people are all 
wonderful either; I've known some  pretty scummy disabled 
people and some down right criminals.  But to me, to have 
 Lupin bee truly ESE, would be confirming all the stereotypes the 
WW has about his kind.  I see Lupin as the representative 
almost disabled person in  the cast, and I'd really hate to have 
the WW opinion of him proved correct.  
> It would feel like a confirmation of many, many people's beliefs 
about all  people with disabilities.

> Renee: 
> Sherry, I don't know what value you attach to the judgment of 
> someone who rarely posts on this list, but I'm with you here. 
> 
> As Pippin pointed out herself, JKR has stated that Lupin is a 
 metaphor for the way people react to illness and disability. I'd 
 like to add there's a very personal quality to this statement. 
JKR's own mother suffered from multiple sclerosis, a crippling, 
incurable  disease that is often fatal - Mrs. Rowling died of it 
when she was  45 years old. <snip> 
> Not surprislingly, JKR supports the MS Society of Scotland. 
> 

> Renee again:
> ESE!Lupin would also cross out the plea for a change of 
attitude  towards people who, like JKR's mother, suffer from an 
incurable,  crippling and socially impairing disease through no 
fault of their  own. And what message would it be to say: If you're 
being treated  badly because of your illness, you're bound to go 
bad? <snip>
> Plotwise, the ESE!Lupin theory is very ingenious. But the HP 
books  can be read on more levels. Given JKR's personal 
involvement with  illness and disability, the theory is complete 
and utter rubbish on  the metaphorical level. To me, this means 
it won't happen in the  plot either.<

Pippin:
 Sherry and Renee, your posts were very moving. I am aware of 
JKR's mother's illness -- my own sister suffers from  MS.  And I 
agree with your premise. If the theory meant the book had to end 
as you describe, with werewolves worse off than they were, or 
the courage with which Lupin *appears* to endure his condition 
discredited, it would be rubbish. 

I don't think it does. Harry is the hero, and he will make it his 
business to see that doesn't happen. He will not only say that 
it's unfair to make one person, good or bad, the representative of 
an entire class of people, he'll prove it. 

I don't know how JKR will resolve the story, but I remember an 
Agatha Christie novel where the detective found himself in a 
similar situation. The murderer turned out to be the director of an 
Institute who had developed a wonderful and humane treatment 
for mental illness (this was back in the snake-pit era). 

If he were exposed, his institute would lose its funding, his 
treatment method would be discredited, and many innocent 
people would suffer. The detective had to find a way to stop the 
murderer without that happening. 

I think  JKR is sensitive enough and Harry is ingenious and 
brave enough to resolve this, even if it means, say, that his 
beloved godfather has to go down in WW history as the traitor. 

Pippin