Dumbledore Brave, Brilliant; Why Not Gay?

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/Reuters: Dumbledore Brave, Brilliant; Why Not Gay: Rowling
By REUTERS
Published: October 23, 2007

TORONTO (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter series made her the first billionaire author, said on Tuesday she was surprised at the fuss surrounding her announcement the boy wizard's head teacher, Albus Dumbledore, was gay. "It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men," Rowling told a news conference in Toronto, where she is attending an authors' festival.

Rowling, a mother-of-three, made the surprise revelation in New York on Friday, during her first U.S. tour in seven years. She said Dumbledore was once infatuated with the winsome wizard Gellert Grindelwald, but the two became rivals when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark than the good arts. Dumbledore went on to destroy Grindelwald.

Reaction has been mainly supportive on fans' Web sites, such as The Leaky Cauldron (www.leakynews.com), where news of Dumbledore's outing has drawn more than 3,000 comments.

Rowling declined to say whether her "outing" of Dumbledore might alienate those who disapprove of homosexuality. "He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him," she said.

Rowling said she made no revelations about Dumbledore's sexuality before Friday, because she had never before been asked directly. "People wanted so much information in advance of the story, that just to keep my sanity and keep my eye on my own plot, I did not give masses away ahead of time," she said....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-arts-rowling.html?_r=1&oref=login

[tularetom]

1. Um, people, he's a ficitonal character, doesn't really exist

so who gives a shit if he's "gay" or not. In fact since there really is no Dumbledore, he's not gay, he's not straight, he's not anything except a figment of Ms Rowling's imagination. The stories are great but this argument ain't worth getting in a snit about.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. But if Dumbledore can be gay that means that the headmaster

of MY kid's school of wizardry might be gay!

:silly:

( we neea a "oh, the horror of it all!" smiley)

[Waya]

4. Have to agree.......

...I'm sorry - I read Harry Potter (not all of them yet, but still) - my kids read Harry Potter (yea, they are young adults) - I know smaller children who read Harry Potter - and not once has the question crossed my mind as to Dumbledore's sexual orientation. And none of the kids I know who read Harry Potter have asked about this - so, is this really an issue?

[Taverner]

2. What many critics just don't understand is that writers develop their characters beyond the story

Chances are J.K. Rowling, when devising Dumbledore created him right down to his favorite flavor of ice cream and exactly what correction his glasses were. That's essential in writing, otherwise you run into continuity problems.

As for "why gay" - well Harry Potter is about people. Doing magic is merely the hook. And guess what, gays are people. Not just people, but a large segment of the population.

So why not gay?

[Briar]

5. He's old, too

older than Menzies Campbell! The old are an even more marginalised group in our society. Outing him as gay is one thing, but I give her marks for allowing an unapologetic wrinklie into the centre of her tale.

[DinahMoeHum]

6. As if I actually gave a shit. . .

:evilfrown:

[Igel]

7. "He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him," she said.

I know a bunch of people that don't really agree with that--the author puts things on paper, what gets put on paper may or may not have much to do with what the author intended. And the reader has the final say.

Ok, I think that's often a crock, an excuse for bad students to do shoddy scholarship ("bad students" includes more than one tenured professor).

Sometimes it's not a crock.

In this case, his orientation is pretty much irrelevant. It crossed my mind that perhaps he was enamored of Grindelwald, but it wasn't important. Backstory's important, but only for the author. I once read a long-winded debate on whether Pushkin's Eugene Onegin was gay. Upshot: Not relevant, whatever dear Pushkin may have thought.