… not that there’s anything wrong with that.
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/10/rowling-outs-du.html
Yeah, a british elderly guy who spent a lot of time with kids in his room waving ‘wands’ around
Big Surprise he’s gay.
Well, this shows that some interpretation discussed in the past in The Chronicle of Higher Education was perhaps neither over the top nor off-base.
…And RK Rowling ended the announcement by saying “writers, start your fanfics” knowing fully that there were already dozens of Dumbledore/Gilldewart slashfics out there…
That definitely could take the wind out of the sails of some while bolstering the cases of others. I would find a fanfic competition continuing the Potter universe interesting especially as JK Rowling has put forward her views on where the big three wound up in life after defeating Voldemort.
Ugh, I thought that end chapter was sooo cheesy, absolutly ruined the book in my opinion, it was real sickly sweet stuff that is far beneath what shed written before
Normally I ignore the posted comments below blog entries like this one, but I found the sweetest gem of ignorance. I present it now for your amusement.
Marie Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 10:40 PM EST
Alex–
Your adolescent tone does little to advance your cause.Obviously, Potter’s fan base really is as obnoxiously vile as some of the articles I’ve read but tended to ignore as mere sour grapes.
And folks, a homosexual is by definition incapable of paternalism. Paternalism requires a female.
If theres one thing I can’t tolerate its intolerance
Seriously though Im all for gay rights and I believe that there is nothing inherently better about being raised by a man and a woman than being raised by two men or two women.
i myself have no problem with this revelation, in fact, i think it is good that JKR brought this up as a way of promoting diversity and fighting intolerance (in addition to the whole “muggles vs. pure-bloods” allegory).
however, i think it is unfortunate because it will just serve as one more piece of ammunition for the hard-line fundamentalists who have fought against the series because of its dealings with “dark powers” or whatever.
in the end dumbledore’s sexuality hold’s no bearing over who he was to harry, or what he did for him. in fact, i would wager a guess that JKR is the only person besides dumbledore himself (and perhaps grindelwald) who was aware of his orientation.
haha, i find your intolerance for intolerance to be tolerable
You don’t read much fanfic, do you?
Seriously, a lot of (well, some) people got the references, and the rest of us slapped our foreheads when we heard.
I’ve since seen two reactions from gay posters on this. The first, and probably more common, is “Oh great. Another ‘gay’ charachter that’s effectively a eunuch.” The second is, “Great! Now millions of children will find out that a character whom they love is gay.”
actually, i meant within the potter universe, no one besides dumbledore himself and perhaps grindelwald were aware of it. and if they were, it was certainly of no relevance anyway.
and no, i don’t read any fanfic. i like to keep my knowledge of that world based on the official sources, while formulating my own ideas of what went on that was not discussed.
Ah, then you might not be aware of “slash” or “Shipping”, which is fiction putting two characters (usually two males) into romantic or erotic situations. I haven’t read any, but I’m sure there are plenty of Dumbledore/whomever stories out there.
I am loathe to throw in on this conversation, as it can turn into a power keg. However, I do want to share my thoughts.
I find it odd that JKR chose to share this verbally and not in the book. I think it is important that if this is something that has defined Dumbledore’s character in her mind that she share it…just something about the vehicle and timing seems odd.
With that being said, I hope this information doesn’t change people’s thinking about this wonderful character or now go back and re-read everything looking for hints…or worse, things that can no be interpreted in a slanted light.
In the end for me, Dumbledore’s sexuality to me is as important as his religion, who he voted for or his favorite color: I don’t care. He is a cherished and wonderful character and this information won’t change my opinion of him. It is interesting information as background and I find it slightly horrifying that so much is being made of it. It truly is much ado about nothing. Perhaps in the end this is why she didn’t share it in the book…the book would have become about that piece of information instead of the plot.
The fact we are talking about it and it has been deemed ‘newsworthy’ is fascinating and slightly disappointing given my assumption about where society regarding a person’s sexuality.
yea, i agree with the points you made.
my dad is a big fan of the series, but is also, how should i say, not so tolerant of homosexuality. i’m curious to hear what he thinks about all this, and how it will change his views on the series. it shouldn’t change his like/dislike for it, but knowing his opinions, it probably will.
It makes perfect sense to me. It’s a children’s (or, at this point in the story, a young adult’s) book. Unless sexuality is part of the story, and it isn’t here, it’s very wise to tread very lightly.
In a way it does affect the story. Its just another reason behind Dumbledore’s care of minorities or those without power. Like half-breeds and mudbloods. He is in one of those minorities so I’m sure that it changed his world view (for the better).
I’m probably looking too closely at this but whatever. I’m just happy that there is a another positive portrayal of a gay character in literature. Who cares if this is more fodder for fundamentalist christian nutjobs. They weren’t going to read the books anyway.
I have to confess that this whole thing sounds like something she came up with on the spot… somebody asked her the question, and she decided pretty much on the fly that this would be an interesting way to stir the pot and poke some of her enemies in the eye…
It never got mentioned in the book, and isn’t really relevent or approapriate to discuss sexual orientation too deeply in a “childrens” book, so why bring it up now?
Thoughts?
— Dismal the outsider
I’d disagree try imagining a romantic scene between Dumbledore and a woman it just doesn’t work. It seems like he was written that way all along.
My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. <ovation.>… Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair… <laughter>. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, “Dumbledore’s gay!” <laughter> If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!
There’s the official statement.
Here’s my response:
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She’s such a poor writer that the people hired to read the books and adapt the films totally missed that he was gay and wrote in a school aged crush on a girl.
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She thinks it’s impossible for a gay man to appreciate a woman’s attractiveness. Or impossible that Dumbledore might “Play Straight” with his young protege because some level of mutual understanding was important there. Sure he could have made a point to emphasis his homosexuality with a “well there was this boy I knew” but those of us who work with children (and Harry is a child until the last book) know that sometimes you have to “hold back” so you can focus on the bigger picture.
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There is no plot significance to his “gayness”. It’s not relevant to any part of the book and did not need to be commented on “officially”.
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I have no problem with a relatively asexual Dumbldore simply because he’s an old fart. He’s ancient, really, so I always figured he had his “fun” back when he was in school. Actually, part of how I understood and “read” Dumbledore has been invalidated by JKR for no apparent reason other than she could.
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I think JKR is starting to feel irrelevant and this revelation is simply an attempt to get back in the spotlight. She’s got no more books to pimp, the ending is done, the epilogue written, she hasn’t left much room for squels. She’s done. But now that she’s set the precident that she’ll drop more “hidden treasures” she’s back in the forefront.
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I’ve nothing against gay characters. My usual beef is when their gayness is played off in ways which are horribly cliche, or reinforce the worst stereotypes. I never felt good about Willow on Buffy tVS “going gay” as the result of a bad break up. It always forced to me and seemed anathema to how I understand homosexualty to work. I could be wrong as I’m not gay myself, and can only judge the accuracy of a portrayal through my understanding of gay friends.
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And last but certainly not least:
Why the frak does it seem that every close, mutual respect male/male relationship in the Potter verse has to be a homosexual one?!? What the hell? The Remus/Sirius ship is practically canon. Now we take Dumbledore and Grindewald and apparently they have to be gay too because they’re dear friends, they’re close, and I guess they want to have sweaty mansex.
I call malarcky.
I had plenty of male friends in highschool, and since, where we were close, we hung out alot, we gabbed on the phone (or would have IM’d if the tech existsed), we swapped notes when we were bored in class (mostly mocking the class, not romantic at any rate), and believe it or not I wanted desperately to make out with none of them. Those feelings were exclusive to girls like the fiery red headed girl who sat behind me in my junior year physics class. She was a dancer, a singer, and sadly had a boyfriend who could break me like toothpick.
But according to Rowling, I was suppressing my gay love for my friends.
What the frak ever.
/rant off.
Rorlins