[HPforGrownups] Re: Werewolves and RL equivalents

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 170285

Betsy Hp:
> 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. <SNIP>

Alla:
Um, they are dangerous once a month only. Once a month. And why 
would JKR make Lupin turn into sweet wolf? That is what makes it 
harder for people around him, does it not?

He IS just as sick as any other werewolf and he can eat or kill you 
when on full moon.

Except he really, really really does not **want to** eat or kill you 
when there is not a full moon ( That is of course unless you 
subcribe to Evil Lupin, which I do not).

Oh, and despite him really really not wanting to eat or kill you, he 
forgot to take his medication. Yep, he did. Here WW, try to show 
compassion and tolerance to person like that, here is the challenge 
to you.

Magpie:
I think we're all getting mixed up because the word "werewolf" is sometimes
used to mean Lupin and sometimes used to mean the monster--the very
not!Lupin monster that Lupin turns into under the full moon without
medication.

There's nothing prejudicial about being afraid of that creature. You'd be
insane not to be (unless you were a transformed animal yourself at the
time). I think Lupin would be the first person to encourage you to be
afraid of it, because he doesn't want to kill anybody in that state, and he
can't control himself in it. Yeah, it's great that Sirius was there, but I
don't even think he would have been happy with just that precaution. Being
afraid of it wouldn't be like snubbing Lupin. If you ran away from his
transformed savage self it's not like Lupin would say, "Hey, what was up
last night? Why'd you run the other way when you saw me on the street?" The
transformed wolf isn't "him."

Being prejudiced against Lupin the person is wrong. He suffers from the
disease as well. Both Lupin and Fenrir turn into something deadly once a
month. Fenrir, the human, uses this deadly thing to evil ends. Lupin makes
the opposite choice and tries to protect everyone from controlling the
deadly thing--through wolfsbane or locking himself up. Most of the time
Lupin and Fenrir are humans, with all the potential for good and evil of
which humans are capable.

Disliking Fenrir, of course, makes sense because he's dangerous as a human
too. But both he and Lupin are perfectly human most of the time. It's just
their presence means you could potentially be in the presence of this
deadly thing once a month. They have a certain connection to a dark
creature.

One cool thing that I like about these two--and I mean this really in a
literary sense so I hope nobody takes this as something it isn't--but
Fenrir is totally Lupin's shadow, meaning he's everything Lupin defines
himself against and denies in himself, and therefore pops out for being
repressed. Lupin is all about being pleasant and distancing himself from
the monster he becomes. (And when I say monster I mean the transformed
un-medicated werewolf, obviously, which is a monster by definition, not
Lupin the whole person--also, just a note to Betsy, but werewolves did
classically turn into wolves, not furry people. That's Hollywood--I think
they also invented the silver bullet idea, and certainly that poem).

Fenrir is of course the exact opposite. As a human he tries to be more like
a wolf, not less. Instead of taking steps to protect people he takes steps
to hurt them--specifically to hurt people who piss him off, exactly what
Remus "I neither like nor dislike Snape" Lupin would try not to do. (While
he might have killed Peter as a man, I don't think he'd ever have wanted to
intentionally kill him as a werewolf--that would be crossing a line to
Fenrir-land Lupin would not want to cross.) Lupin is an exceptionally good
teacher whose personality is particularly sensitive and good for children.
Fenrir's an eater of children. 

Total opposites--and yet, still a Shadow, because darn it if the werewolf
(meaning the monster, the un-wolfsbaned transformed werewolf) that's most
often run around Hogwarts hasn't been Fenrir when the sun is shining but
Lupin. And not 100% because it's an accident, imo. I know some people
disagree, but I've always thought it was a consistent part of Lupin's
character--as a kid, of course, he did choose to join his friends outside,
so that wasn't a mistake. But in PoA there's that great battle with Snape
where Lupin's all "I'll drink the Potion later." That's the one time we see
him with the Potion and faced with Snape's pushing he's intentionally blase
about it and refusing to drink it when he's told.

houyhnhnm:
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.

Magpie:
It's one of the things I like about Lupin.:-)

-m (agreeing that there just isn't any direct analogy that isn't insulting
to either people with chronic illnesses or Lupin