It shouldn't matter, but it does

[eumelia]

About the whole "Dumbledore is Gay" thing.

It shouldn't matter that Dumbledore was Gay, it doesn't in fact, have any bearing on the Harry Potter plot, because the story isn't about Dumbldore.
What it does have bearing on, is JK Rowling's credibility and integrity as an Author.

For a woman who wrote a seven book story arc in which we encounter allegories and metaphors to real world prejudice, which she has said are "wrong", she doesn't seem to think that ones sexuality is as essential to ones identity as, say... being a Werewolf or a Metamorphmagus? And even is she is trying to say, in a very roundabout way, that ones sexuality has no bearing on who they are when they interact with other people, she makes certain that in the Wizarding world ones Blood Status (Pureblood, Mudblood, Blood Traitor) is very important. That ones Humanity makes them inherently superior to non-Humans (Goblins and House-Elves are inferior, and Werewolves are greatly discriminated against).

It really could be that JKR didn't think sexuality and Dumbeldore's relationships didn't have anything to do with his choices, except you know, she spent a great deal of the seventh book describing in excruciating detail, Dumbledore's childhood, adolescence and the fact that Dumbeldore and Grindlewald were "close friends". JKR, outside the plot and after the fact said in answering a question that Dumbledore was gay and that his love for Grindlewald blinded him and was "tragic" and "unrequited".
The only thing, and I mean it, the only thing JKR needed to do in order to prevent that question from being asked AND giving us the information would be this sentence, somewhere, somehow in Dumbledore's history - "Albus was in love with Gellert, but sadly it was not to be".

Would that have ruined her sales? Perhaps. But I would have appreciated a whole lot more an author.

And the biggest thing that ticks me off. Lupin was read as Gay, Tonks was read as Gay, JKR knew this... so what does she do? She pairs them up and kill them off.
Together!

Aaaargh, my fannish frustration known no bounds!

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.

Comments

[avgboojie.livejournal.com]

Oh, sexuality definitely has effects on identity and all the rest in Rowling's writing - as long as it's a heterosexual one. Hetero characters are bound to have all sorts of love affairs mentioned either in detail or in fleeting (well, except the ones who don't have any personal life at all, and actually no character either, like, say, McGonagall.)

But I disagree with you on the "all was needed was one sentence" bit. Writing doesn't work that way, certainly not writing about a socially problematic issue such as homosexuality. It would have taken some building and elaborating. Not much, but certainly more than one sentence.

And oh, it wouldn't have ruined the sales. I'd hazard a guess that sales would have ROCKETED once the rumor was out that Rowling has outed one of her major characters.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

But I disagree with you on the "all was needed was one sentence" bit. Writing doesn't work that way, certainly not writing about a socially problematic issue such as homosexuality. It would have taken some building and elaborating. Not much, but certainly more than one sentence.

Mmmm, I see what you mean and that is true. But as you said, just a little bit would have been a whole lot fairer and more honest to the character than the Q&A that she held.

[avgboojie.livejournal.com]

Curses. Now I just can't help but wonder what it actually WAS that Dumbledore would see in the mirror of Erised...

Oh, by the way, about Tonks and Lupin - I've never read them as gay, neither of them. Just as non-conventional people. And non-conventional people don't necessarily have to be gay... :-)

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Curious indeed...

That's cool, different people - different brains :-) And right you are non-conventional don't necessarily have to be gay... One the most non-conformist people I know is Straight.

Lupin's Lycanthorpy always seemed like code to me, so he was always the gay one, plus the fact that he and Sirius were living together all the time... though that you can blame on my slash-tinted goggles :). Tonks was just tom-boyish to me until the sixth book where JKR seemed to foist her onto Lupin and it just seemed to fit with the Lavender wedding thing.

[cue-revolution.livejournal.com]

hey have you watched the movie Bubble? maybe you mentioned it but missed it since i don't check livejournal often?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I have seen it, and thought it was a mediocre, if fun movie. Did you see it? What did you think?

A better movie by the same writer/director team is "Walking on Water".

Have you seen it?

[mythomaniac.livejournal.com]

Rage on, my friend, it's offensive beyond belief. As to putting it in the story, two words: RITA. SKEETER.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Now a character who is slanderous is fine, it's a part of the plot and I expected Rita Skeeter to say things that would be terrible and, as I said, slanderous (the allusion to pedophilia).
If she really believed in Harry discovering the Truth of Dumbledore's history she should have put it in somehow as a fact, no more, no less. Especially seeing as a huge bunch of the book was focused on Dumbledore's history and how much Harry resented not knowing things about his mentor.