J.K. Rowling has revealed to her legion of adoring fans that Hogwarts Headmaster and the embodiment of good motives, Albus Dumbledore, is in fact gay. For those of you who have read the books, this won't come as much of a surprise (I think), but that's not what interests me in this discussion.
What interests me is the amount of control that Rowling maintains over the Harry Potter universe after the series is completed and written. She did not include any overt reveal involving Dumbledore's homosexuality in the novels, I imagine deliberately, but there are things to make you wonder. Why do that if you are going to come out and say it later? Let people argue over it, that's part of the fun of reading.
For example, I believe that Jonah in Knocked Up is a closeted homosexual (this link is not work-friendly). That can't necessarily be right or wrong, right? If Judd Apatow came to my house and said, Sorry Chris, but Jonah is straight, what would that mean? I would still think he is gay. Shouldn't Rowling leave these kinds of questions to readers if she has not addressed them in the books? There were times in the HP novels when I thought several different characters might be gay, including Dumbledore. Now Rowling has come out and said, yes, Albus is gay, this whole time, aren't you shocked? Should authors be doing this after the fact?
10 comments:
I raised a similar point, though not nearly as well thought out, with my wife. As an author what control do you have over the characters outside of your books? To me this is the "Star Warification" of HP. She is trying to control and dictate the HP universe. In a few short years we'll be having HP comics and HP universe games...bah.
Here is a great response from one of my library friends:
"duh! my faggy friends were burning up the phone lines to tell me. one said: turns out dumbledore isnt a wizard..hes a fairy!
and his boyfriend said: no wonder they called him headmaster!"
considering harry potter, this press release may not be a big deal. or about the gay character in knocked up.
but what if Shakespeare made a press release that declared hamlet had actually raped Gertrude? or is gay. Or that he is not only mad in craft but just plain mad.
Anger I think would be the primary response. Fuck you Shakespeare! How dare you! Hamlet does not belong to Shakespeare. He belongs to us. And we, the reader, the actor, we are the ones to give the press releases, we have the right to make those assumptions about the closed books.
amazingly, i still agree with what i posted on pandas in response to big al's initial mention.
the text is closed. she is a hack for trying to slip this one in on us. if she had any authorial felicity, she'd have found a way to get albus to say "i'm gay" and have it occur in a manner fitting to the story. for now, jk is not an author, she's a celebrity.
"what if Shakespeare made a press release that declared hamlet had actually raped Gertrude? or is gay. Or that he is not only mad in craft but just plain mad."
So rapists, gays and the criminally insane all reside in the same camp?
i don't think Rowling is a hack. i want to differentiate my opinion of lbj. i like rowling, the books, and i think she has a talent for what she does.
azf and i have been talking about this a bit now, and i know what i think and why it bugs me. i don't care that JK said it in her Q&A, or if she envisioned albus as gay, or considers him gay or what.
what bugs me is, really, that now that i know he is gay, I very much wish it was in the books. as i said in my post, dumbledore is the embodiment of the good side. his motives are pure all the time. having him be an openly homosexual character as well would have been bold and shown strength in the face of homophobia. that's what bugs me. i wish rowling had made him gay in the series because too many people are assholes, and if this would have helped some youngsters get away from the bigotry of homophobia, that would be serving the purpose better than saying it a year after the last book came out.
that's it.
amber! yikes!
No, those examples that I cite from hamlet do reside in a camp but not the camp of racists gays and madmen. rather in the camp of mixed interpretations and contradictory readings. in this camp Kenneth Branaugh's Hamlet and Mel Gibsons hamlet are having a duel to the death with flutes.
Also i shouldn't wonder that had Rowling brought Dumbledore out of the closet in the books, walmart would have boycotted it as walmart is want to do.
actually I have an amendment to make. and a confession of my biases. not toward gays, but toward miss rowling.
in an interview Don Delillo
explained that he believed Murrey J Siskind was the villain, the antagonist of White noise.
I didn't have any problem with this and in fact liked that he said it and incorporated it into my reading of white noise.
I am sorry for all the fuss but yes i am a hypocrite and no i wont ever read harry potter
Duel to the death with flutes. HA.
You show me a criminally insane homosexual rapist and I'll show you Carrot Top.
I don't get it. Does Dumbledores sex life have anything to do with the books? Does it make any difference in any way if he is gay or straight? If not, I don't see any reason to even talk about. All it does is show that people still consider there to be some defining difference in who some one is based off sexuality. Would this be a story if she came out and said he was straight?
Post a Comment