Lupin as metaphor (was SHIP and RL experiences)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 137055

 
> Sherry now:
> 
> If a person had caused my blindness by malicious intent, I would
hardly consider joining that person in crimes against society and
helping that person evade capture and punishment, especially knowing 
he would attack other people and cause them to be disabled as well.


Pippin:
I'm sure you wouldn't, but unfortunately things like that do happen 
in real life. It's common enough to be given a name -- Stockholm
Syndrome. If Jo wants to be honest, she has to represent the full
range of human reaction, not just the ones that arouse sympathy.

We also have Lupin defending   James and Sirius because 'everyone 
thought they were the height of cool.' Now he's told us  that 
Fenrir is practically a hero to the other werewolves. Looks to me
like Jo had a reason for telling us Lupin's failing is that he cuts
his friends too much slack.


Sherry:
  I sincerely hope JKR does not end up with ESE Lupin because it
would  continue the negative stereotypes against werewolves, and 
by extension, since she says he represents disability, it would
continue the negative stereotypes against people with disabilities.  

Pippin:
That's why I think Jo was careful not to say that he represents people
with disabilities. He represents the way people *react* to disability.
People have treated him as if he were a monster and that does not
have a benign effect. It's rare, Dumbledore tells us,for anyone to be
as resistant as Harry is, to think only of wanting to defeat evil and
never of gaining power for yourself,  when you've known little
but abuse.

But even Harry, whom we're told is pure of heart, has
a righteous hatred for those who've abused him.  I think the books
represent that as a healthier attitude than thinking you have to be
so noble as never to feel such things. 

If Lupin did think that, if he thought that if he were truly human,
he would never hate, then what must he think of himself
for hating Umbridge, or being bitter about having to spy on 
his own people?

And we now have Bill, who has been bitten and is  also horribly 
disfigured. We can see that his own family are a little 
worried that it will have some effect on his personality, so I can
see him facing  the same kind of discrimination that Lupin does, and
becoming  an alternate target for reader sympathy.

Sherry:
  Besides, i can't bear to think of how Harry would feel if it ended
up being true!  his father's last remaining friend, a traitor.  

Pippin:
Ah, well, Jo's ruthless. She killed Sirius, she made Peter live
twelve years as a rat, James and Lily died knowing they must have 
been betrayed, why should Lupin fare any better?

Pippin