Remus Lupin boring? and Dorothy Sayers

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 127842


Alla:
I used to like Sirius SO much more than Remus, because 
indeed I  considered him a to be a boring character.  I 
still like Sirius very  much, but Remus is grown on me 
significantly in the "excitement  department". His 
"excitement" is more subtle than Sirius', but it is  
there , IMO.  Actually that will be a perfect excuse for 
me to dig up another one  of Elkins' posts, where she is 
wondering what parts of Remus  personality could make 
James and Sirius suspect him as spy. J  I suspect that 
Pippin got at least some of her inspiration for ESE! 
Lupin from that post. Apologies to Pippin if I am wrong. 
Elkins does  not go that far though.

Pippin:
No apologies required. One could hardly fail to be 
inspired by Elkins. However, while Elkins and I came to 
share a similarly jaundiced view of Lupin's virtues, the 
ESE!Lupin theory is based on opportunity not motive. 
Indeed motive is the weakest part of it -- there is 
nothing in Lupin's character, weak though it is, to 
suggest he would view the acts I've accused him of with 
anything but abhorrence. If it is not all a charade, as
I first thought, then one would expect ESE!Lupin to be 
deeply troubled by what he has done.

Trouble is, abhorrence never seems to have stopped Lupin 
from doing things he knew were wrong: allowing James and 
Sirius to have their way with Snape, endangering the 
lives of innocent villagers, and withholding information 
about Sirius and the Map from Dumbledore.

We are likely to remain in the dark about ESE!Lupin's 
motives for joining Voldemort until the final 
revelation, though I think we got a broad hint in OOP.

Is it really so hard to understand how Lupin could turn
away from DD?
Dumbledore, some listies complain, is not particular 
enough about who his allies are. Some would rather see 
Harry get even with Umbridge and Snape than with 
Voldemort, whose fearsome image in the WW seems to them 
vastly exaggerated...is it conceivable that this is how 
young Lupin might have felt? And there's no backing away 
from the Death Eaters once you find out their reputation 
for murder isn't an exaggeration after all...

But you have to drop the idea that only a sadistic creep 
can be a murderer and consider that murder might be 
done by a decent enough person with something to hide.
That may be where the work of Dorothy Sayers comes in. 
 (I recommend The Nine Tailors as a starting point. A locale 
almost as spooky as Hogwarts, and a death by no human hand.)

Pippin