Book 3, Ep. 5 | Werewolves: A Metaphor?
Material Girls
Rehak Hannah
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2021
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Greetings, Witches!
Our last two episode on Animal Studies and Disability Studies laid the groundwork for this week's episode all about how to read Remus Lupin and his Lycanthropy. In an ebook released on Pottermore, J.K. Rowling stated that she meant Lupin's werewolf condition to be a metaphor for AIDS. This week we look at the way that metaphors of illness circulate ideologies about those who are ill - implying certain truths about their worthiness, deviance, and threat to society. We discuss specifically the history of AIDS and its metaphors, and examine how reading Lupin as a character with AIDS reinforces rather than challenges dangerous narratives about queer and disabled folks.
Be sure to follow Witch, Please on Twitter and Instagram @ohwitchplease and let us know what you think of the episode through a review on Apple Podcasts. As always, you can join our Patreon for exclusive content including bonus interviews, Q&As, Watch Alongs and more — our tiers range from $2-$13!
Resources:
How She Read by Chantal Gibson
Illness as Metaphor + AIDS and its Metaphors by Susan Sontag
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Witch Please, a fortnightly podcast about the Harry Potter world. |
| 0:15.5 | I'm Hannah McGregor, and I'm Marcel Cosman, and even though we're recording right in |
| 0:21.6 | the thick of grading, aka every professor's least favorite time of year, I propose we |
| 0:28.1 | start off today's episode by thinking sun-shiny thoughts in the sorting chat. Hannah, I want |
| 0:36.1 | to talk about summer, and specifically, I want you to tell me about your favorite tasty |
| 0:42.7 | summer treats. Oh, okay. Marcel, I'm so glad you asked because there is a thing that I have |
| 0:51.4 | been just thinking of and longing for as I like mentally project myself forward to an imaginary |
| 0:59.4 | summer when the weather is beautiful, and it's my like I'm taking time off, and we're all |
| 1:07.4 | vaccinated, and life is good, and that image is the concession stand at Jericho Beach. |
| 1:17.2 | Okay, tell me about this. Jericho Beach is one of the beaches in Vancouver. I say one of the |
| 1:21.6 | beaches because we have many. Yes, the city is amazing. Jericho Beach is my favorite beach. It's |
| 1:29.7 | like a little further off the beaten path, so it tends to feel a little less busy. One time I was |
| 1:35.0 | swimming there, and a seal swam by? Shut up! Just like, I was just like, that's cool, and also |
| 1:44.0 | scary. Wow. But the best thing about Jericho Beach is the concession stand because the concession |
| 1:51.7 | stand has both veggie dogs and vegan ice cream. Oh, it rolls. That's the most Vancouver thing I've |
| 2:02.3 | ever heard. It absolutely rolls. It's so Vancouver, and there is nothing more satisfying. It's |
| 2:09.1 | quite a bike ride from me. It's over an hour bike ride to get from where I live to Jericho Beach. |
| 2:15.0 | So it's like hot day, like long sweaty bike ride, and then you get there, and you like strip down |
| 2:22.3 | to your bathing suit and go for a swim in the cold ocean, and then have a veggie dog and a scoop |
| 2:28.0 | of vegan ice cream. Like literally name a better thing to do. You can't because that's the best. |
| 2:34.4 | Wonderful. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. What about you? What are your favorite summer treats? Oh gosh. |
| 2:44.4 | So I think I've talked about this on the podcast before. I'm not typically a person who enjoys |
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