Lupin quotes

[pippin_999]

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

Monika:
> 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.

Pippin:

That's just it.  Do the books really support the idea that there's a 
difference between "common human flaws" , the kind we can 
overlook or forgive,  in our friends at least,  and the flaws that 
make people choose to join Voldemort? Harry would like to think 
there is. He believes, like Malfoy, that there's a wrong sort, and 
you can tell who they are by how you feel about them. But, IMO, 
he's wrong. 


It's our choices,right? The question is not how much we love and 
sympathize with poor Lupin, but  what kind of person he chooses 
to be. He doesn't have to make the right choices just because 
good people like him, even if JKR is one of them. <g>


I  think Rowling is a sterner moralist than the anonymous 
quotester  (*not*  Burke) responsible for  "All that is necessary for 
the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." The good man 
who does nothing, in OOP, has ceased (or not yet learned) to be 
good.

Is there really a moral difference between dangling  Snape 
upside down because he's a weird little oddball, and dangling 
the Robertses upside down because they're Muggles? Lupin  
knew it was wrong, but he didn't want to go against the boys who 
were his friends and the height of cool. Couldn't there have been 
some DE's in the crowd at the World Cup who felt the same 
way?

We can't blame a fifteen year old for doing what's instinctive, 
following the crowd, instead of what's right. But JKR makes the 
point that even for a grown man,  listening to your conscience 
instead of the voice of the crowd takes courage that is not 
normal, that is rare and heroic. 


JKR:
> >> 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<<<

Monika:
> Yes, of course he has a disability, but I still don't get why this
makes him a candidate for being ESE. <

Pippin:
I'm just pointing out that JKR's descriptions of him as her favorite  
are usually accompanied by the caveat that he's not okay.  I think 
it's telling that she says the metaphor is with people's reactions, 
not disability itself.  Lots of people inthe books face disabilities 
and have to live with them--even Harry has his myopia. 

But people seem to react to Lupin in one of two 
ways: they shun him, or they cover up for him. In such an 
environment, it's got to be difficult for him to learn to make good 
choices, because the consequences are never appropriate. 



Pippin