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If we carry through on the racism/blood prejudice equivalency...
was James Potter a racist of the worst order?
Think back to the Snape's Worst Memory scene. Remember when Lily asks James just what Severus ever did to him? The reply from James was, "it's more the fact that he exists if you know what I mean. . ." Most people, IMO, interpret that to mean the bully's "natural" prey instinct had kicked in, but what if we are going to carry through on the claim that anti-Muggle and Muggleborn prejudice is equivalent to racism.
These boys were born in 1960, and it was not until 1967 that Loving v. Virginia struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the US. Ahhh, you say, stop trying to apply American standards and baggage to Brits. So let's look at Rowling's model: Anti-miscegenation laws were enforced in Nazi Germany. They were also enforced in South Africa between 1949 and 1985. So....was Snape's existence the result of a violation of the law? How many half-bloods did we see in the Marauder era? And even if it's not illegal, was it considered shameful by a large segment of the Wizarding population? No, it wasn't by Harry's time, but mores change. Is that part of what James meant when he said it was that Severus existed? He added "if you know what I mean", which is the nod-nod, wink-wink of a racist, roughly equivalent to the loaded statements characters in Seinfeld used to make about homosexuals, always followed up with the tag line: "Not that there's anything wrong with that." (nod, nod, wink, wink). It's also the shrug and eye-roll that accompanies many whites' comments about Native Americans, with the apparent idea that they can imply the most outrageously racist things, and it doesn't count because they trail off towards the end. But their buddies all know what they meant, so they're covered either way.
I can almost hear the howls of outrage. ;-) You idiot, they say, he was married to LILY, the ultimate poster child for Muggle-borns. But...
How many friends did James Potter have who were not pureblood? I mean friends, as opposed to hangers-on or sycophants. We know he was married to Lily, obviously. Which means that he made an exception for his own behavior, not uncommon at all for bigots. And yes, he "befriended" Lupin the werewolf in school. But how much did he do after school, when Lupin was not a dorm-mate and, later, a prefect in a position to choose between admiring them or blowing the whistle on Sirius and him? Rowling said in her interviews post-DH that James was independently wealthy, which allowed James and Sirius not to worry about having jobs, so they could "work" for the Order full-time. Note that she does not include Lupin in James' largesse, which according to her extended to James' wife and Sirius, who just happened to be pure-blooded.
These boys were born in 1960, and it was not until 1967 that Loving v. Virginia struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the US. Ahhh, you say, stop trying to apply American standards and baggage to Brits. So let's look at Rowling's model: Anti-miscegenation laws were enforced in Nazi Germany. They were also enforced in South Africa between 1949 and 1985. So....was Snape's existence the result of a violation of the law? How many half-bloods did we see in the Marauder era? And even if it's not illegal, was it considered shameful by a large segment of the Wizarding population? No, it wasn't by Harry's time, but mores change. Is that part of what James meant when he said it was that Severus existed? He added "if you know what I mean", which is the nod-nod, wink-wink of a racist, roughly equivalent to the loaded statements characters in Seinfeld used to make about homosexuals, always followed up with the tag line: "Not that there's anything wrong with that." (nod, nod, wink, wink). It's also the shrug and eye-roll that accompanies many whites' comments about Native Americans, with the apparent idea that they can imply the most outrageously racist things, and it doesn't count because they trail off towards the end. But their buddies all know what they meant, so they're covered either way.
I can almost hear the howls of outrage. ;-) You idiot, they say, he was married to LILY, the ultimate poster child for Muggle-borns. But...
How many friends did James Potter have who were not pureblood? I mean friends, as opposed to hangers-on or sycophants. We know he was married to Lily, obviously. Which means that he made an exception for his own behavior, not uncommon at all for bigots. And yes, he "befriended" Lupin the werewolf in school. But how much did he do after school, when Lupin was not a dorm-mate and, later, a prefect in a position to choose between admiring them or blowing the whistle on Sirius and him? Rowling said in her interviews post-DH that James was independently wealthy, which allowed James and Sirius not to worry about having jobs, so they could "work" for the Order full-time. Note that she does not include Lupin in James' largesse, which according to her extended to James' wife and Sirius, who just happened to be pure-blooded.
I had thought she said that James supported Lupin too, but maybe I misread it, or automatically assumed that Lupin was included when it wasn't explicitly stated. But either way, there must have some sort of falling out, or at least distancing between Lupin and the other Marauders after they left school, since Sirius so easily believed Lupin to be the traitor, and Lupin was apparently never considered for the position of secret-keeper though Sirius and Peter were.
I always wondered if it had something to do with the Shrieking Shack prank. Obviously Lupin didn't end his friendship with Sirius over it, but he must have been upset that he was used by his friend to carry out a stupid prank that would have gotten a human being killed or turned into a werewolf. Knowing how much he's suffered from his own lycanthropy, I'm sure that Lupin would have been devastated if he'd inflicted his curse on another person. And if James hadn't rescued Snape in time, that would probably have spelled Lupin's destruction as well. I don't know what the wizarding laws are regarding werewolves who attack people, but I would imagine a sentence in Azkaban at the least.
So yes, I think that Lupin would be pretty mad at Sirius, and since even years later in PoA, Sirius still isn't repentent about the prank, he might well be angry in return that Lupin is making a big deal about a mere prank--Snape didn't get hurt, after all. To him it might seem like Lupin is sticking up for Snivellus over his friends. They must have made up on the surface, but that might have driven a small wedge between Lupin and the others that gradually got wider with time. Maybe James and Sirius saw that they couldn't trust him to stand by them wholeheartedly, without reservation, and Lupin saw how little his "friends" (or at least Sirius) really valued him, if they'd risk his freedom and maybe his life to use him as a weapon against Snape in a stupid prank.
Or maybe it is just prejudice coming into play, and deep down, James and Sirius couldn't fully trust a werewolf and a half-blood (Lupin is both--a double strike against him).
Rowling made the statement about James supporting his buddy at Carnegie Hall (see http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2
This is in the reporter's summary of the event:
Jo related the fact that Remus Lupin, prior to the third book, was unemployable because he was a werewolf and upon his graduation from Hogwarts along with James and Lily, was supported by James using their own money.
However, that is not at all what she said. Rowling's actual quote follows:
Q: Harry often wondered about his parents lives before he died. What did Lily, James, Remus, Lupin and Sirius do after Hogwarts?
JKR: To take Remus first, Remus was unemployable. Poor Lupin, prior to Dumbledore taking him in, lead a really impoverished life because no one wanted to employ a werewolf. The other three were full-time members of the Order of the Phoenix. If you remember when Lily, James and co. were at school, the first war was raging. It never reached the heights that the second war reached, because the Ministry was never infiltrated to that extend but it was a very bad time, the same disappearances, the same deaths. So that's what they did, they left school. James has gold, enough to support Sirius and Lily. So I suppose they lived foff a private income. But they were full-time fighters, that's what they did, until Lily fell pregnant with Harry. So then they went into hiding.
BTW, in looking for the quote, I came across this interview: http://www.gazette-du-sorcier.com/J-K-R
So who knows what she's going to say when...
So you would think that James and/or Dumbledore could have found some way to help Lupin make a living without offending his pride. After all, presumably he was a full-time fighter, too. Or loan him the money to start his own business, which he could then pay back in installments. (Maybe a mail-order business run under a pseudonym, if he's afraid that no one will patronize a shop owned by a werewolf.)
And if Lupin was so unemployable because he's known to be a werewolf, how come none of the students or their parents know that he is one until after Snape spills the beans? Wouldn't word have gotten around the wizarding world by now? Just sloppy writing, I guess. Though it would have made sense, as someone on one of the other posts said, if Lupin always lost his jobs because he had to take too much time off from work near the full moon.
I *much* prefer your Lupin, who has some principles and backbone.
Do you think Rowling forgot she also had Sirius inherit money or was she emphasizing his fecklessness?
And really, I have to agree with Snape on this. James did not do it to rescue him...James did it to save his own arse, not to mention Sirius. James certainly didn't show any interest in even Remus post-Hogwarts.
Or maybe it is just prejudice coming into play, and deep down, James and Sirius couldn't fully trust a werewolf and a half-blood (Lupin is both--a double strike against him).
Either that, or James did not have to "tolerate" a half-blood werewolf anymore because the werewolf couldn't turn him in. Otherwise, if they were so rich, why couldn't James include Remus in his home as he did Sirius, who *could* have gone out and gotten a job. And, as noted above, Rowling specifically says Remus was improvished "because no one wanted to employ a werewolf". No one obviously including James and the other oh-so-pure Order members.