Snape - a werewolf bigot?? Was: Say it isn't so Lupin!!!

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 170112

> colebiancardi:
> > Perhaps it isn't bigotry, but a deep concern for not 
> > creating new werewolves, because according to lore, 
> > werewolves also kill humans, not just bite them.
> > [...]
> > I know what JKR has compared Lupin's werewolfishness 
> > to a disease, but I also look to the lore behind 
> > werewolves as well, which JKR has drawn from. 

> houyhnhnm:
> This is exactly what makes me uncomfortable with the 
> idea that Lupin represents people with disabilities or 
> chronic diseases.  Parents in the real world who do not 
> want their children attending school with another child 
> who is, say, HIV positive *would* be acting out of pure 
> predjudice because there is no rational basis for their 
> fear.  But a werewolf is a different matter.  Werewolves 
> really are dangerous.  To the argument that Rowling can't 
> have Lupin be a traitor because it would send a bad message 
> about people with disabilities, I would say it seems to me 
> that she has already done that.  There may be anti-werewolf
> *bigotry* in the WW, but Rowling has not shown it to be
> groundless.  On the contrary. <snip>

Jen:  Why paint Dumbledore as being a progressive for letting Lupin 
attend Hogwarts if that's all there is to the matter?  Lupin needn't 
bother living among the werewolves and tring to influence them if 
there's no good that can come of them as a group.  As Snape implies, 
there does exist a possibility for werewolves integrating into the 
WW: "He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin...a 
*tame* werewolf -"  ('Servant of Lord Voldemort)  Snape doesn't sound 
like he believes in the concept but the idea apparently exists in 
Potterverse.

I'm not sure how JKR means to present werewolves, what the comparison 
is in the real world (I see no comparison myself), but she does seem 
to be saying their danger is not the whole of their being, that if 
the possibility exists to bring people who have been bitten into the 
fold of mainstream society to live and work, there's hope for them. 

Jen