Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Et tu, Dumbledore?
Whoa, so, I am undoubtedly the last to pick up on this story, but apparently Dumbledore of HP fame is gay. I guess it's not particularly surprising when you think about it I suppose, but I was just yesterday priding myself on the ability to pick up on nuances like that in pop culture, so it is admittedly a tad embarrassing. Don't get me wrong, it's cool with me and it adds another layer of interest to the stories, but like J.K. herself I shudder to think of the terrible fanfic that is going to be propagated by this revelation. Also it is more than slightly disturbing to think of his relationship with Harry in relation to the classic English boarding school theme that the series is based on. I guess it could kind of be regarded as both a subversion of that and also as an explicification (is this a word? If it wasn't before, it is now. Eat my dust, Jacques Derrida) of the common subplots inherent in the English boarding school system. Anyway, is anyone else a little skeeved by this last point? But then, considering that for years my not-so-secret fondest hope was that Snape and Hermione would ride off into the sunset together, I am undoubtedly being a hypocrite of the first water in regards to the situation.
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That was my first thought when I heard too. "Eeee, gads! The fanfiction!
My first reaction was that it was simply more fuel for the conservative Christian anti-Harry Potter movement. Any of them she may have won over with the blatant Christian themes of the last book would have been repelled again, which is a bit sad (but no reason not to announce it -- she shouldn't hide something like that just to pander to one end of the spectrum).
I was also saddened because it meant I couldn't go back in time into a fictional realm and marry him. Sigh. Sniffle.
(Prev. post deleted for editing.)
Oh and yeah, although I completely trust D with harry, the whole boarding school setting *does* make me a petit bit uncomfy. Although if that's actually a worry, why wouldn't we have been worried about the female half of the population beforehand, if we're being completely fair? I guess that whole can of worms is just one reason he never came out of the closet. (Btw, don't you think JKR's posthumous outing of him was a bit below the belt in that light? Really?)
Bit of a related tangent -- on the one hand, jokes about harry and dumbledore's relationship in light of this *could* get a bit offensive (not that I didn't immediately put one up in my status myself), but to be fair, can you imagine the flack JKR would have gotten if he'd been straight and Hermione had been the "special" one, always having extra meetings in dumbledore's office? Can you imagine the late night talk-show jokes?
I guess what it comes down to is that anyone reading the books with a grain of sense and any ability to read character would trust Dumbledore with their kids if they trust anyone at all, and if they don't they didn't really get him. That said, I didn't see the [evil for the greater good, setting Harry up to die] side of his personality coming, but it is a book series, and you only see coming what JKR wants you to see.
/russian novel sized comment
I agree with you, Holly. I kind of think that if she was going to make that kind of revelation, though, it should have waited until some point in the future, when the books have had time to culturally "settle," if you will, a little of the hoopla has died down, some literary criticism has been done (because I have no doubt that in 10 or even five years there will be a boatload of it). Now everything done in the future that mentions the character will inevitably also make mention of his sexuality, relevance nonwithstanding. It kind of makes a character who is so multidimensional and has so much depth and puts a giant scarlet "G" on him so that that's the first thing people see, and that's a shame. Why doesn't she make some comments about the other characters' sex lives, too? What about McGonagall, for example? Or any of the other professors? Was Snape completely celibate his whole life? It's difficult to know which questions to answer and which to leave to the imagination.
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