Lupin quotes was Re: Never again

[naamagatus]

Pippin (previously):
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.

Naama (previosly):
Aren't you jumping here from favorite book to favorite character? 
<snip>

Pippin:
But I wonder if Nabakov felt that way? He had to spend an awful
lot of time in Humbert's head.

Naama:
Wait. You used Lolita to demonstrate something about JKR. How did we 
end up talking about Nabokov? 
As for JKR, we do know that she distinguishes between characters she 
likes *as people* and characters she enjoys writing. Being as 
thorough as she is, I assume she spent quite some time in Snape's 
head. However, it did not make her any more inclined to like him than 
many of her readers do (it's funny how she is always surprised that 
people like him as much as they do). 


Naama (previously):
JKR lists Lupin as a favorite character with Harry, DD and
Hagrid - in contexts that make it clear that she *likes* them *as
people* (she speaks differently of her enjoyment in writing
Snape).
Quoted from http://www.jkrowling.com, "About Me" section of
FAQ (answering "who is your favorite character?"):

"I love: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Ginny,
Fred, George and Lupin. I love writing (though would not
necessarily want to meet) Snape."

Therefore, Lupin is as much likely to be revealed as evil as
Harry, Hagrid, Ron etc.


Pippin:
I know she's said she'd like to meet Lupin, and I think you're
right, he's a normal person in the sense that Harry etc are and
Snape isn't. But under some circumstances, normal people can
do terrible things, and Voldemort is expert at manipulating
people to do them -- *and* at keeping them from backing out
once they realize what they've done.

<snip>

Lupin may not be a fairy tale villain, but that doesn't make him
incapable of evil, IMO.


Naama:

I'm not arguing at all against normal people being capable of evil - 
in the real world or in the Potterverse. Nor am I arguing against a 
Lupin-like person in the real world succumbing to evil. There are 
plenty of examples. 

What I am saying is that JKR couldn't love (a word she uses) Lupin, 
if, in her head, she knew he had betrayed his best friends and their 
baby son. She wouldn't include him in a list of favorite characters, 
or describe him as a wonderful teacher etc. 


Naama