Lupin is Ever So Evil, Part One -- The Prank (LONG)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 130308

Nora:
> You might study up on it, since JKR's universe is rather
essentialist.   That's the only way I can make sense of reading 
the whole "Choices  *show* what we are, far more than our 
abilities" statement.  As well as  JKR's recent comments about 
Harry vs. Neville as Prophecy Boy: 
> 
> "Would a Neville bearing the lightning scar have been as successful
at  evading Voldemort as Harry has been? Would Neville have had the 
 qualities that have enabled Harry to remain strong and sane
throughout  all of his many ordeals? Although Dumbledore does not
say as much, he does not believe so: he believes Voldemort did indeed 
choose the boy  most likely to be able to topple him, for Harry's 
survival has not depended wholly or even mainly upon his scar."
> 
> Innate qualities that Harry has and Neville doesn't; that's
textbook  essentialism.
> 

Pippin:
The important word for me in the quote is "remain" -- Harry
remained strong and sane under conditions in which Neville's
strength and sanity would have crumbled. However, as
Neville has not been forced to undergo those ordeals, his
strength and sanity are intact-- he is in Gryffindor
after all.

Therefore,  strength and sanity can not be essentials, and
Harry has some other quality which enabled him to preserve
his strength and sanity. One might imagine that if Neville
had been subjected to Harry's life, he might have died,
or become like Riddle to survive.


What is open is to what extent strength and sanity 
can be restored once they are damaged. Since Dumbledore
believes in second chances, I don't see how he can be
an essentialist, but maybe I am missing something.

Ron and Hagrid are the essentialists, if you ask me.
'Poisonous toadstools don't change their spots',
'Bad blood--that's what it is'.
Harry is wavering -- he was raised to be an essentialist,
the Dursleys are nothing if not that-- but Dumbledore
is swaying his ideas.

Nora:
> The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that JKR
thinks  of her characters with Character in mind.  This is not to say
that  people are necessarily completely static, but that they are born
with  abilities and tendencies and their choices express what they
are.  
Something like ESE!Lupin is based on a very different read of what 
Lupin actually *is*, which is something yet to be settled in the 
 books.  I'll still take my cautious bet against, and if I happen to
be  right I will very much enjoy reading your rethinking of the themes
of  the series, Pippin :)

Pippin:
It will be like having a whole new set of books to read! <g> But
Lupin, good or bad, seems to be about a refusal to choose. There 
never was a character so set on having his cake and eating it.

Pippin