[the_old_crowd] Lupin quotes

[Monika Huebner]

>Pippin:
>Rowling has described Nabakov's Lolita as one of her favorite 
>books and  "a great and tragic love story", so she has no 
>problems with making an unsavory character  sympathetic.

Certainly not, but I'm very much afraid this will be Snape. ;-0 Still,
I hope she will come up with something different than a sappy, tragic
love story.

>She also stresses that Lupin has flaws and is damaged.

I surely don't have a problem with loving a flawed, damaged character.
Sirius certainly is, and that's what makes him so interesting in my
eyes. But Lupin's flaws aren't the flaws you would give to a
"villain", they are common human flaws that make a character more
real. "Saints" or any people who always behave well are utterly boring
to read about.

>> Professor Lupin, who appears in the third book, is one of my 
>favourite characters. He's a damaged person, literally and 
>metaphorically. I think it's important for children to know that 
>adults, too, have their problems, that they struggle. His being a 
>werewolf is a metaphor for people's reactions to illness and 
>disability<

Yes, of course he has a disability, but I still don't get why this
makes him a candidate for being ESE. She also said the following about
him in the Royal Albert Hall:

>| Lupin's failing is he likes to be liked. That's where he slips up - 
>|he's been disliked so often he's always pleased to have 
>|friends so cuts them an awful lot of slack.

This sounded like it was his "major" flaw. It's why he seemingly never
told James or Sirius off when they were at school, and of course it is
the reason why he can't bring himself to telling Dumbledore that
Sirius is an Animagus in PoA.

>She agrees that sometimes we need to  be suspicious of helpful 
>people
>
>http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2000/1000-cbc-rogers.ht
>m
>
>>Lauren: In all your books, the continuing theme is that people 
>are not what they appear to be. Sometimes they seem 
>dangerous, and are good. Sometimes helpful people are bad. It 
>looks like Harry is being taught to overlook first impressions and 
>to be suspicious of people. Do you think that's something kids 
>need to learn more than other generations?
>
>
>Rowling: You're right, this is a recurring theme in the books. 
>People are endlessly surprising. It's a very jaded person who 
>thinks they've seen every possible nuance of human nature. <

Okay, I know I'm repeating myself, but I still don't see why this
would make Lupin of all people ESE. 

>The latest web site update, which makes it clear that the 
>Lestranges were *sent* after the Longbottoms, gives a nice 
>boost to ESE!Lupin theory. Presumably, Voldemort's second in 
>command did the sending. It can't have been Peter, because he 
>was already presumed dead. It's unlikely to have been Lucius, 
>because  Voldemort criticizes him for not trying to find him. Of 
>course Voldie could have been lying, but why?

Lucius wasn't the only Death Eater at large at the time. I suppose
there were quite a few of them who would have wanted to know Voldy's
whereabouts. The idea that a baby had destroyed him must have been too
fantastic to many people. I'd rather think Barty Crouch might have
sent the Lestranges after the Longbottoms. He was caught and tried
together with them, but this isn't really a proof he was with them
when they were tortured. I understood that they did the torturing. Or
he was with them but had coaxed them to do it in the first place.
After all, he claimed himself to be Voldemort's "most faithful
servant". And it surely wasn't difficult to get the Lestranges to do
something to find Voldy, I rather got the impression that Bellatrix
and Tom were closer than Mr. Lestrange might have liked. <g>

Monika