ANTIVIRUS - humble attempt of building a ship

[Shanoah Alkire]

No: HPFGUIDX 129218

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Mira <anurim at y...> wrote:
> --- festuco <vuurdame at x...> wrote:
> 
> > Gerry
> > Sloth is lazyness. Knowing you should make an
> > effort, but not
> > bothering to do so, out of unwillingness, not lack
> > of ability. 
> > 
> > Remus has weaknesses. He is a very friendly
> > character who wants to be
> > liked, and who lives in extremely difficult
> > circumstances. He is also
> > very loyal. Sloth, no. 
> 
> It's hard for me too to accept this, Gerry, but
> Shanoah Alkire was partly right. I completely agree
> with you that sleeping on the train is not a sign of
> sloth, and I like what you say that Lupin kept his
> mouth shut about Sirius because he was not completely
> sure that his former friend was guilty. Still, he
> didn't try to convince himself, one way or another.
> And he did forget to take his potion, which is almost
> intolerable, irrespective to his state of mind at the
> time. I am not trying to judge Lupin's behavior, but
> it is still true that he put people in grave danger
> with the above attitudes.
> 

Calling it "sleeping on the job" was actually going a bit far, and I
really see that more as that JKR was aiming at having your first
impression of Lupin be him asleep on the train. It certainly was the
first thing that caught my eye when matching up teachers to the deadly
sins...

And I agree he had reasons for most of what I mentioned. That, really,
is how the whole cycle starts. You justify why you can't do something
right now, and put it out of your mind, and the reasons grow as you
continue to put it off, until events either force you take action, or
the time for action passes.

He has had far more hardship in his life then anyone should. He
probably always was somewhat inclined to slack off a bit, and it,
unfortunately, is very easy to get into that type of vicious cycle
under those circumstances.

> So, yes, Lupin is an extraordinary person, but he does
> like his comfort a little too much and at the very
> least, he doesn't really stand up for his beliefs. I
> am not criticising him by writing this, only trying to
> understand him better and like him as he is, not as we
> would like him to be.
> 

Exactly. And it is important to remember that he has his virtues as
well. He is a good teacher, has a good mischevous streak, and
obviously inspired enough loyalty in his friends for them to become
unregistered animagi. And he's certainly not Ever-So-Evil. He's just
Loony Loopy Lazy[1] Lupin...

[1]"Then they saw a silvery-white orb
 hanging in the air in front of Lupin, who said, "Riddikulus!" almost
 lazily."

(And if I had to pick which character in the books I'm most like, both
for good and bad, it'd probably be Lupin)

It's also worth mentioning that Sloth wasn't always one of the seven
sins. It used to be Tristia, translated as either sadness or despair.
The more I think about it, I think JKR used both as themes in PoA.

Oh, and as far as Sirius goes, don't fogret the sloth on the part of
the ministry, which didn't bother to give Sirius a trial or chance to
defend himself. Then 12 years of despair in Azkaban followed.

You probably ought to add in Aunt Marges distribe about laziness to
the list of examples, too.