Werewolves and RL equivalents (was:Re: Snape - a werewolf bigot?...)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 170272

> >>Jasmyn:
> > I was referring to being a werewolf on that one, not AIDS!  AIDS 
> > can be 'controlled' to a much higher degree and is not easily    
> > spread. With lycanthropy, you miss ONE wolvesbane potion and you 
> > are so dangerous to society that people have to shoot you with a 
> > silver bullet just to put you down. <SNIP>

> >>Alla:
> Oh, people *have to*?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
As per popular werewolf mythology, yeah.  What makes werewolves so 
very, very dangerous is that they're so very, very hard to stop.  You 
pretty much have to kill them.  And with a very specific sort of 
weapon.  Of course, that's just the common mythology and JKR can have 
her werewolves follow whatever rules she wants.  (That she has them 
look so similar to actual wolves is an example of her deviating from 
more common tropes, I believe.)

But that's what makes Lupin's lycanthropy so hard to wrestle with, 
IMO.  She could have done whatever she wanted but JKR *kept* the 
mindlessly driven to infect or kill the nearest available human part 
of being a werewolf.  Which makes it impossible, IMO, to compare 
being a werewolf with having AIDs or having a disability.  Unless you 
want to suggest that folks who have AIDs or with disabilites 
routinely ravage the countryside trying to make other people be just 
like them.  Or, you know, dead.

Which means the closest we can get with real life comparisons, IMO, 
is to turn to what the werewolf myth is generally linked to: 
destructive sexual predators.  (Wolves are commonly linked to sexual 
lust in fairy tales and folklore.)  Lupin never really gave off a 
strong "sexual predator" vibe to me (though I did laugh at the "have 
some chocolate little boy" jokes, I'll admit <g>), but Fenrir, hunter 
of small children, very much did.  And after being introduced to this 
werewolf, *within* JKR's created world, who *did* specifically hunt 
down children, who did create "packs" to help him get more children 
to raise to act and think like him, it's very hard for me to seperate 
JKR's werewolves from pedophiles.

And in that sense Lupin becomes both victim and aggressor.  Lupin is 
the way he is (a werewolf) because he was attacked as a young boy.  
But, once a month, he becomes the very monster who once victimized 
him, as much a danger to those around him as Fenrir.  When the full 
moon is out and there's no medication to be had, Lupin and Fenrir are 
*exactly* alike.  That's the horror.  It's the reason werewolf 
stories tend to end tragically, with the werewolf begging to be 
killed.

Honestly, IMO, it can lead to the same sort of discussions I've had 
with friends about pedophiles.  Is there seriously no possibility of 
rehabilitation for *any* pedophile?  Should they all be marked out 
and seperated or is there a line between "definitely dangerous, will 
hunt a child down" and "perfectly harmless while on his meds and 
absolutely trustworthy about taking them"?  And if there is such a 
line, how do we find it?  And is the danger in missing that line 
worth the risk for the sake of the milder sort?  IOWs, should Lupin 
and Fenrir be treated in the same manner since, under the moonlight 
they're the exact same beast?

Because JKR made Lupin a monster.  Not someone with a disturbing 
condition that public hysteria has *painted* a monster. Once a month 
Lupin is an actual "I will seriously eat you" monster.  He's not a 
disobedient bunny rabbit, he's a full out werewolf. 

And yeah, if he lived in my neighborhood I'm not sure I'd sign a 
petition to drive him out.  But I would note where he lived, I'd be 
pretty darn paranoid about me and mine being inside on full moon 
nights, and I'd stock up on silver bullets.  Because the risk *is* 
massive.  Very much *not* like having a neighbor with AIDs or in a 
wheelchair.

For Lupin's sake, especially if he's not a traitor or evil, I hope 
JKR gives her world a definitive cure, making the whole discussion 
moot.

Betsy Hp (most of my werewolf information comes from movies, just as 
a caveat in case I got something completely wrong <g>)