Lupin as metaphor (was SHIP and RL experiences)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 137033

> Sherry Gomes
> > I've always thought Remus was meant to represent disability in 
> > general...Many people still consider those of us with 
> > disabilities to be monsters of a sort, scary and not quite
> > human or not quite as good as able bodied people. 
<snip>
> > it's why I'm particularly partial to Remus and would like
> > to see him happy and learning to live with and accept his 
> > condition in the end, not necessarily to do anything heroic,
> > but just learning to live with peace and some happiness.
> 
> Rebecca:
> Hear hear!! I would love to see Remus Lupin "live happily ever 
> after". And not because he's a tragic figure but because he's 
> so gentle and thoughtful, and I've adored him since he was 
> introduced in POA - long before we discovered his 'furry 
> little problem'.
> 
> I truly hope that JKR doesn't kill him off.


Pippin:
Jo has weighed in on the subject of Lupin as metaphor:

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2002/110
2-fraser-scotsman.html

He's a damaged person, literally and metaphorically. I think 
it's important  for children to know that adults, too, have their 
problems, that they struggle.  His being a werewolf is a metaphor 
for people's reactions to illness and disability.
----
I think it's important that Jo says it's the reactions to the
condition that are the point of her metaphor, not  the condition
itself.

Jo goes on to say that there's much more backstory
to her characters than she can put in the books. I can see Lupin
being bisexual, but only as another facet of his deeply divided 
character, not as a statement about accepting different forms of 
sexuality. Not that they shouldn't be accepted, I'm just afraid  
Lupin is not going to end up as a character readers admire.

The smoking wand  is the disappearance of Fenrir. Last we
saw, he was stupefied. He didn't escape with Snape, and yet he
seems to be still at large; at least, if he'd been captured, I can't
imagine Rufus Scrimgeour not bringing it up as he tries to
persuade Harry to help the Ministry.

I'm afraid someone in the castle must have rescued Fenny.
 Dear, dear, who'd do a thing like that? 

Pippin