Some canon related WOMBAT wonderings/ werewolves and RL equivalent

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 170273

> > Alla:
> > 
> > First of all I must say I was blinking when I saw the question 
that 
> > even suggests that some decision of Ministry can have good effect 
on 
> > everyday WW life,
> 
> Pippin:
> Honestly, it cracks me up every time someone suggests that JKR is
> some kind of anarchist. If it wasn't for government assistance, 
> there wouldn't be any Harry Potter books. She's said it was the 
> only thing that made it possible for her to raise her daughter 
> and write.
> 
>  She's *not* against the nanny state or everything it does, IMO,
> she just thinks it does a miserable job in some respects. <SNIP>


Alla:

Um, Okay. By the way I do not think that JKR is some kind of 
anarchist exactly, LOL. Our disagreement is the question of degrees. 
You  seem to think she thinks state power in the books does miserable 
job in some aspects, I think - in many aspects.

I *to some extent* think that she subscribes to idea that unjust 
authority can be gotten rid of by people, but I do not think that she 
thinks that no authority at all is good. IMO of course.


> zgirnius:
> I also think he might have told his old friends about the small 
> matter of a hidden chamber and great honking SNAKE in it, if there 
> had been a reconciliation.
> 

Alla:

With this I reluctantly agree. Yes, it is hard to imagine for me that 
even if Salasar came back very ill, he would not have told them about 
Snakey.


> > >>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.  <SNIP> 

Alla:

Or give them the potion.


Betsy Hp:
> 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.  <SNIP>


Alla:

Except with the potion.





Betsy Hp:
<SNIP>
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.
<SNIP>


Alla:

That's *one* werewolf, one. The one who positions himself closer to 
his victim when he is fully in control of his mental state. So, no, 
still  IMO sounds  more like evil human that takes advantage of his 
illness to me than a monster.



Betsy Hp: 
> 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.
<SNIP>


Alla:

But there is a medication, if not cure yet in JKR's world, that's IMO 
a huge difference from folklore already.



Betsy Hp:
> 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. 
<SNIP>


Alla:

Well, sure, without medication and **once a month* and not always 
seriously eat you, but he is dangerous, once a month and without 
medication. I would withold word monster for now.


Betsy Hp: 
> 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.

Alla:

What massive risk if medication is taken? Yeah, I know Lupin did not 
take it that night, but what massive risk if medication is taken?

See I just now realized something. We  had been having all those 
discussions on prejudice and tolerance in the books for the longest 
time and it just seems to me that we just have fundamentaly different 
ideas of what it means for JKR to show prejudice and tolerance, etc.


To me it is a fight against evil to take a stand against ideology of 
pureblood supremacists, started by Salasar Slytherin, NOT prejudice 
against them.

To me showing that sick people ( yes, I believe werewolves can be 
compared to RW illnesses closely enough, NOT exactly of course - I 
explained before how they can be compared IMO, so won't repeat here) 
with chronic and once a month dangerous diseases can live normal 
lives *with precautions and medications* IS indeed author taking a 
stand against prejudice.

Oh, and of course I am talking about werewolves in general, not just 
Lupin situation.

IMO,

Alla