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My union voted to agree to two-day-a-month furloughs for an entire year. There's absolutely nothing nice to say about this: I think it was a superlatively dumb move to make without any concessions or conditions, like reduced layoffs or decreased student fees, or maybe even the execs forgoing their car allowances for a while. I don't want to
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There's no factual evidence to say exactly when he learned. Simply because Lupin does not name his werewolf attacker in PoA, doesn't mean he is unaware that it was Greyback who bit him.
Greyback was under the command of Voldemort during the First War, Snape mentions that he was also one of those who believed the Dark Lord dead in Chapter 2 of HBP.
Greyback is well known, his methods are not secret (Voldemort threatening to unleash Greyback on the children of his enemies) and Lupin would have been aware of all this many years prior to HBP. I didn't get any sort feeling from Lupin that he'd only recently put two-and-two together concerning Greyback. It is a revelation to Harry, certainly, but not to Lupin.
His physical reaction to talking about Greyback is understandable, Lupin has been in close contact with the maniac for months now, perhaps even living with him. . .
What I'm suggesting is that Lupin was the victim, as a child, of a violent, intentional assault, which is *analogous* to a child being violently molested.
Hm. Well, Greyback is most certainly a molester in human form, his threats toward Hermione make it obvious. I just don't equate being bitten by a big dog to sexual assault. We know that Greyback has committed truly atrocious acts in his human form (I'm sure many of them involve molestation), but in werewolf form he is merely a rabid wolf. There's isn't a human brain in his head once he transforms, there's no thought process accept to hunt for prey. I'm sure being bitten is frightening and hurts terribly, but Lupin was not one of those children who were robbed from their parents and taken to join Greyback's clan. Those children are the ones who have suffered most, but Lupin was never taken from his parents or assaulted by Greyback.
I'm firmly on the side that JKR's version of Lycanthropy is a disease, perhaps in the vein of AIDS. . .
She's made comments concerning this:
"His being a werewolf is really a metaphor for people's reactions to illness and disability."
"I was also playing with that [intolerance] when I created Professor Lupin having a contagious disease. . ."
The parallels with AIDS or any other debilitating illness are strongly present in the books. Even Lycanthropy itself has been altered to more resemble a disease, the added sickness that Lupin feels before and after the full moon, etc. I think Greyback as a sexual predator is an anomaly amongst the species, JKR's werewolfism is contagious disease and it's Greyback who has been giving everyone a bad name.
If the werewolf who attacked him is a hapless victim too, something like himself, that's one thing. If he's a monster who specializes in children, that's another. And I didn't say "rape." I meant "bite." To bite a child, as Lupin well knows, is tantamount to ruining that child's life forever. Could he ever forgive himself if he bit his own child? Of course not. That is why that child is better off without him. He thinks.
Reading back over "The Bribe", I still get the feeling that Lupin is more afraid of passing on his disease by genetics then actually "bitting" of his child.
"My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it -- how can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child?"
Lupin believes Teddy will already be a werewolf, that the disease will be passed on, he keeps bringing up the "shame" of being an outcast and having to drag his family through a world of intolerance. I'm sure there is some fear of forgetting to take his medicine and biting his wife or son, but I still believe the parallel here is contagious disease and not assault.
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I agree that spending time amongst the outcast werewolves was not a good idea, but since when has Dumbledore ever respected his spies personal problems? Snape had a much more difficult job then Lupin, I can't imagine what it felt like looking into the eyes of Voldemort knowing he was the one to kill Lily.
I think Lupin is more damaged then Sirius Black, but I wouldn't say he has Black's problem of arrested development.
Ok, I've got to stop now.
*my two sickles*
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Also, he definitely was assaulted by Greyback. Being bitten is a physical assault, and we know from Snape (and also later) that people can die from being attacked by a werewolf. Bill's wounds never fully heal, and he's a healthy adult. I can't see a little "oh-big-deal" nip going on. Does it matter if that assault was sexual?
Greyback's been giving everyone a bad name? It's Lupin who's unusual. He seems to have been the only werewolf ever to have been permitted to go to school. He says most steal and even kill to survive. Ron never says anything about Greyback and he doesn't want a werewolf anywhere near him. They're *all* dangerous. Even Lupin.
Yes, lycanthropy in Rowling is analogous to a disease like AIDS--sort of. And I've used that in my papers. There's no one-to-one correspondence here. But I have known a lot of survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and take it from me, the kind of emotional damage Lupin is displaying, especially the idea of being "poisonous" to his own children, is much more like an abuse survivor than anything else.
I'm not exactly saying "lycanthropy = pedophilia." There is the disease, and there is the way in which it is passed on. It's the difference between thinking you were given HIV accidentally or intentionally contaminated.
Dumbledore always asks sheer misery from the people who work with him. They always have to do the very thing that is most unthinkable. I wouldn't like to say "oh, so and so's job was harder." Lupin doesn't have to look into Voldemort's eyes and know that he killed Lily, true, but then, he didn't hand over the info that got Lily killed, did he?
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Seems he doesn't. From what Lupin says, werewolves don't commonly breed so Teddy is already "out of the books." When asked about whether Teddy became a werewolf, JKR didn't shoot it down with "it can't happen" but said that he was a metamorphmagus (or whatever it is).
Also, he definitely was assaulted by Greyback. Being bitten is a physical assault, and we know from Snape (and also later) that people can die from being attacked by a werewolf. Bill's wounds never fully heal, and he's a healthy adult. I can't see a little "oh-big-deal" nip going on. Does it matter if that assault was sexual?
I guess It only matters if your argument is pedophilia. I don't disagree that Greyback has committed all sorts of assaults, I merely point out that JKR sees Lupin's lycanthropy as disability/disease/intolerance and has never brought up him being attacked in a sexual way.
It's like when Lupin visits the newly made werewolf in OotP, his interaction with the man is the same as one giving comfort to someone who has just suffered a lasting disability.
I'm not "oh-big-dealing" it, It's a terrible thing to live with.
But Remus Lupin did not suffer in the same way as the children that Greyback took. Your argument is much more suited to them.
Greyback's been giving everyone a bad name? It's Lupin who's unusual. He seems to have been the only werewolf ever to have been permitted to go to school. He says most steal and even kill to survive. Ron never says anything about Greyback and he doesn't want a werewolf anywhere near him. They're *all* dangerous. Even Lupin.
Well there's "Hairy Snout, Human Heart" by an anonymous werewolf. I think there's more werewolves like Lupin, but they try and hide from the world. Who can blame them? With the amount of intolerance surrounding their kind.
JKR says that there are witches and wizards who are home-schooled, I'm thinking that most parents of young werewolves prefer to keep their children close.
Ron is just spouting old pureblood prejudices, I'm afraid he is sometimes like that. Remember his reaction to Hagrid being half-giant? Harry was like, "who cares!".
JKR playing with intolerance again.
12 times out of a year Werewolves are considered dangerous monsters (those who haven't taken Wolfsbane that is), but to judge them all by that is so very near-sighted of most of the wizarding community. 12 times a years! 353 days of being human, 12 days of monster. That's not a lot of monstrosity. . .
The wild werewolves are another matter, were they the children taken by Greyback? Lupin suggests that he leads them . . .
[Too long, had to cut into another comment]
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Yes, lycanthropy in Rowling is analogous to a disease like AIDS--sort of. And I've used that in my papers. There's no one-to-one correspondence here. But I have known a lot of survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and take it from me, the kind of emotional damage Lupin is displaying, especially the idea of being "poisonous" to his own children, is much more like an abuse survivor than anything else.
Lupin's emotional damage. Hm, well he did survive a war in which all his friends died. He survived a war in which said "friends" turned their backs on him and chose to believe him a Death Eater. He survived a life of extreme prejudice and loneliness and poverty. Even without the lycanthropy and sickness, he's been through hell and has had enough experiences to cause "emotional damage" of any sort. I mean, war alone . . .
I didn't get a sense that Lupin believes himself poisonous to the children at Hogwarts. The man was lovely, amazing teacher and so very kind. If it wasn't for the whole "shrieking shack" catastrophe, he probably would have stayed.
Cross that. Forgot about the curse Voldemort put on the DADA job. . . oh well.
Lupin was defiantly more reckless in his youth with the marauders, it sounds like he frequently put himself into a position where he could have bit someone. But he was a teenager, out having fun. . . Lupin should thank his lucky starts nothing happened.
I'm not exactly saying "lycanthropy = pedophilia." There is the disease, and there is the way in which it is passed on. It's the difference between thinking you were given HIV accidentally or intentionally contaminated.
Yes, but I don't see why that would make a difference to Lupin's relationship with Teddy. Would Lupin actually fear that he would intentionally give his son his disease? That he would turn into Greyback? I don't think Lupin is as mentally/emotionally damaged as that, he was a man who gave up his life for his son protection.
Dumbledore always asks sheer misery from the people who work with him. They always have to do the very thing that is most unthinkable. I wouldn't like to say "oh, so and so's job was harder."
I think the difference is that in the end . . Snape continued to work in a world that hated him universally and wished him dead for acts he did not commit. Lupin had love and friendship to support him, Snape had nothing but a manipulative picture frame.
Lupin doesn't have to look into Voldemort's eyes and know that he killed Lily, true, but then, he didn't hand over the info that got Lily killed, did he?
Eh. Wormtail was already going to sell off the Potters to save his own skin anyway. Both Lily and James were on Voldy's top hit list for defying him, if it wasn't for Snape's involvement . . . Harry would be dead to.
It's weird how Snape ends up being the linchpin to everything, even his mistakes. . .especially his mistakes.
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