Werewolves and RL equivalents

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 170282

lizzyben:

> Yes, I agree, in the Wizarding World, it's *rational* 
> to be afraid of werewolves. They are dangerous, & do 
> kill people. It might even be rational to discriminate 
> against them. That's why I don't understand JKR's 
> statement that werewolves are a metaphor for a 
> disability. Wouldn't this lead to the conclusion 
> that people w/disabilities *should* be discriminated 
> against? Is she saying that people w/a disease *are* 
> a threat to the community? Because I don't believe that, 
> and I bet JKR doesn't believe that, but that seems to 
> be the underlying message of the metaphor as she's 
> created it. So what, exactly, was JKR doing there? 
> It's a paradox.

houyhnhnm:

As Dung pointed out, Rowling's statement can be taken 
two ways.  The more I think about it, the more I am 
inclined to think that by  "His being a werewolf is 
really a metaphor for people's reactions to illness 
and disability," she meant people's reactions to *their own* 
illness and disability.  I can certainly think of real 
life examples in my own acquaintance, people who were 
over-protected as children because of diabetes or 
epilepsy and who grew up compensating by becoming 
excessive risk takers, in a couple of cases with tragic results.

Lupin is compensating for the terrible beast that 
erupts out of him every month and over which he has 
no control.  He does it by completely denying his 
*normal* *human* agression.  He can't get angry.  He 
can't stand up for anything.  Of course, this misguided 
attempt does not in any way lessen the severity of his 
transformations.  All it does is make him a less 
authentic human being.  Agression takes a dishonest, 
passive form with Lupin.

In this way, too, he is like Snape.  Both men have 
learned to fear something which is a natural part of 
being human, agression in the case of Lupin, anger on 
the part of Snape, and both have chosen maladaptive 
ways of dealing it.  Both have shut down their emotions 
and shut themselves off from human relationships.

If you look at Rowling's words this way (and I am 
more and more inclined to do so), then the paradox 
disappears.  It is fandom, not Rowling, that has 
made Lupin a poster boy for political correctness.  
She's bigger than than that. (Or so I think on Tuesdays 
and Thursdays.)