Werewolves and RL equivalents

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 170278

> >>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:
Well, no, not according to general mythology.  There is no potion 
there (and that's what I was talking about above).  I think in the 
general mythology there is no cure or preventative.  The werewolf is 
pretty much doomed.

> >>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:
True.  But JKR made the potion awfully finicky.  It's hard to make 
(and possibly expensive? I might be slipping into fanon there) and 
you have to take it consecutively for a certain amount of time 
(though I'm not sure the time's been specified).  And I believe the 
potion loses potency if not treated just so.  And if you miss one 
dose you're back to being a mindless, hunger driven, incredibly 
dangerous monster.  

So, while she could have, JKR chose to not make it easy for Lupin.  
The monster is still there and not very easily caged.  As Lupin 
demonstrates by failing to keep himself caged while at Hogwarts, both 
as a student and a professor.

> >>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:
Right, Fenrir has no qualms about his particular tastes.  He's the 
pedophile that revels in it, brags about it, teaches his views to 
others.  Whereas Lupin is the guy who's disgusted with himself when 
he wakes up out of his "mindless lust" phase. Like I said, JKR does 
introduce a sliding scale.  Lupin isn't into biting when the monster 
isn't in control.  Plus there's the sympathy factor in the fact that 
Lupin himself was a victim of Fenrir's monsterous side. 

But they're both equally monsterous when the moon is full.  Once 
they've turned it doesn't matter if it's Fenrir or Lupin coming 
through your door.  Either one is out for your blood.

> >>Betsy Hp: 
> > <snip>
> > 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:
It is, I agree.  And I suspect it's a sort of modernizing of the 
myth.  Because today we can medicate the type of imbalances in 
someone's brain chemistry that leads to violent outbreaks that I 
think the werewolf myth probably sprang from.  At least, we can a 
little bit.  (I think this is all fairly new medical stuff -- 
speaking as an absolute lay person here.)  At the very least there's 
chemical castration.  But, just like Lupin's potion, it's dependent 
on the person actually *taking* the stuff.

But if the werewolf doesn't want to take his potion (Fenrir) or 
something comes up and the werewolf forgets to take it (Lupin) you've 
still got that monster on the loose.  IOWs the potion (and the 
medication) cage the beast, but the beast is still there.  And it's a 
beast that attacks outwardly.  It seeks out victims, it doesn't 
victimize its host.  Which is not common with RL illness, I think.

> >>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:
Why?  I mean, I think this is getting nit-picky (I fully acknowledge 
that <g>) but how is a werewolf, when it *is* a mindless, non-
medicated werewolf, not a monster?

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > 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?

Betsy Hp:
The massive risk that the medication *isn't* taken.  That the guy has 
an argument with his girlfriend or finds out his mom is dying and he 
forgets.  Or the risk that the pharmacy screwed up and gave him skele-
grow instead.  Or the risk that pharmacutical factory had a momentary 
blip that caused important ingredient X to not be included in this 
particular batch.

The risk that the cage isn't strong enough.  The risk that the beast, 
the mindless, hunger driven beast, is out.

> >>Alla:
> 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.

Betsy Hp:
I tend to agree. <g>  Which is weird, I admit.

> >>Alla:
> 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.

Betsy Hp:
I think we fundamentally agree here.  I'm not for the pureblood 
ideology.  I think I can see where it's coming from, what started it, 
etc., but that doesn't mean I agree with it or think it doesn't need 
to be shot down. (And I do tend to cut Salazar a break, but that's 
because the history strikes me as a tad too pat.  I don't know that 
canon will end up backing me, but he's too convenient a scapegoat for 
me to accept too easily.)

Oh, and I also don't think that just because a character's standing 
*against* the Deatheaters that they're practically perfect in every 
way. (Only Ms. Poppins gets away with that. <g>)

> >>Alla:
> 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.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
The reason I disagree with the above is that fearing werewolves is 
*not* prejudice.  Not in JKR's world.  A werewolf can and will eat 
you or infect you.  That is how it is.  If you're lucky, said 
werewolf will be medicated, if not you (*you* not the werewolf) are 
screwed.  And that just doesn't jive with any RL illnesses I know 
of.  So fearing a werewolf is actually *practical* in a way that it 
isn't with your neighbor in a wheelchair or with AIDs.

It's not prejudice to say werewolves are monsters.  They are, as per 
JKR's canon.  She didn't have to do it that way.  JKR could easily 
have had Lupin turn into a wolf that mimics his own personality.  
*Then* I'd buy the idea that those parents expressing shock and 
horror that this sweet and mild-mannered werewolf being loose on 
school grounds were being prejudiced.  Instead, JKR shows that their 
fears are correct.  A non-medicated werewolf (which Lupin was) can 
kill; their children *were* at risk.  

It's JKR's world, she could have written it differently.  That she 
didn't is interesting to me, and makes it impossible for me to buy 
the "werewolf" = "Real Life illness of your choice".  

Betsy Hp (*finally* took the WOMBAT test -- yay me!)