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

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 170122

houyhnhnm:
> 
> What Rowling said is that Lupin is a "damaged person, 
> literally and metaphorically. [....] His being a werewolf 
> is really a metaphor for people's reactions to illness 
> and disability."
> 
> I have a problem with Lupin as a metaphor for people 
> in the real world fighting discrimination because of 
> illness or disability.  If that is what she really meant 
> to say, then I believe her thinking is confused, because 
> what people with illness or disability are fighting is 
> something that is wholly within the minds of their 
> persecutors.  It is nothing in themselves.  With 
> werewolves it is what they really are that causes 
> other wizards to fear them.

Dung:
Did she ever clarify *whose* reaction she was referring to? Society's 
reactions to people with illnesses and disabilities, or on an 
individual level, how disabled people react to their own illness or 
disability?

Lupin cultivates an image of meekness, harmlessness, of being slow to 
anger, of being a responsible adult (unlike Sirius), of being at 
peace with his past (feeling sorry for the werewolf who bit him, so 
unlike Snape), of being a good teacher and a good example.

This very gentle, passive image that he tries to project (which is 
contradicted by him forgetting his potion, flying out to the shack, 
hiding information from DD etc etc) is almost certainly a 
psychological reaction to the terror he feels about becoming a fully-
fledged monster once a month. 

"If I make myself as unthreatening as possible in everyday life, if I 
dress shabbily, I don't anger people, if I don't have a go at my 
friends even when I think they're wrong, if I can even be polite and 
calm with *Snape* of all people, then surely I'm doing my bit to show 
that werewolves can be trusted to be a functioning part of society."
 
Um no, sorry. It's no good *pretending* to be a responsible member of 
society, you have to walk the walk too.

As 71-hour Ahmed says in "Jingo", by Terry Pratchett:
"Be generous, Sir Samuel. *Truly* treat all men equally. Allow 
Klatchians the right to be scheming bastards, hmm?"

Dungrollin.