JKR outs Dumbledore!

[vicki]

In her appearance at Carnegie Hall yesterday, JKR confirmed that Dumbledore is gay (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_en_ot/books_harry_potter;_ylt=Auadxt1D2mw8WlxsW4jJTxes0N UE)!

I can already hear the noise of fanfic writers' keyboards from across the globe. :)

[Smurrey]

I always liked the idea of he and Minerva carrying on a torrid affair. Too bad. Why is it that the Professors cannot, or is it do not, marry?

Shauna

[vicki]

I seem to recall that JKR dropped some vague hints about professors' personal lives in a chat, but she didn't say much, other than they usually just lived at Hogwarts during the school year.

I never saw D'dore and McG as a pair, for some reason. They didn't strike me as having much chemistry. There were some theories floating around about Madame Rosmerta that I used to wonder about, however.

There have been some follow-up stories about how some people are really glad JKR outed him and some people are peeved about it. I saw in one story where JKR said something about the series being a long argument for tolerance, and the revelation fits very well into that argument, I think.

[Smurrey]

I remember when Willow came out, the creator (who's name escapes me at the moment,) said much the same. I would like to say that I don't mind having this information about the character, after all Rowling is their creator, she can do as she likes. But for some reason now that it is over I'm less open to "changes" in their world as I know it. I suppose the difference is, it was always this way, I just didn't see it.

[Elizabeth Chase]

My only quibble is that there's really no indication in the books that Dumbles is gay. We really, really needed more of a hint than his plum velvet suit when he visits little Tom's orphanage! :rolleyes: Some readers did pick up the AD/GG vibes but I sure didn't!

[Jennifer]

I would like to say that of course, JKR has the control over her characters and they are what she says they are and there's no quibbling there but I see this latest "revelation" as not that important. Does it change Dumblydore for me? No. I never saw him as someone interested in the mundane affairs of the world. He had bigger fish to fry. And it's hard to practice tolerance for a character's preferences when they are not even known within his life! So reveal on JKR! But get us that encyclopedic mass of backstory you have alluded to so often! That would be something to chew on!
Jen D.

[vicki]

She said she'd be doing some sort of reference-book with a lot of background that never went into the books. I wonder if she'll do that for charity like she did those two little books she put out a few years ago.

[Carlina]

PUBLICITY!!! PUBLICITY!!!

It still changes nothing for me. I like the books and like Dumbledore's character much. I guess it explains his hesitation to deal with Grindelwald. However, I find it interesting she outed him after the fact....There's an interesting point...

[Jennifer]

Hi guys,
I was interested in the background of JKR's revelation and went to one of my fave HP sites "HogwartsProfessor.com" to get more of an overview. The writer of this site is a wonderful man named John Granger and he is well-known for his writing in the HP community. A good friend was at the event and she gave him a lot more background than the newspapers. It seems that JKR's remark was sort of an off-hand remark, not delivered as a "big piece of news," just a throwaway remark. I don't want to downplay anything but it seemed more like just a matter-of-fact sort of comment. She reacted with such surprise to the audience response that it was clear that she had no idea anyone would make any deal of Dumbledore's preferences. But do go and read the entire thing for yourselves. I was downcast, thinking JKR was just out to garner a bit more publicity but the eye-witness report gave me more background and perspective.
Jen D.

[Elizabeth Chase]

The question was whether Dumbles had found love. It wasn't necessary for Jo to out him; she could have just answered 'yes'; instead she said she'd always thought of him as gay.

I'm sure she had no idea it would be such a big deal. Already HP Yahoo groups are being shut down by upset mod/owners. :( Well, one that I know of for sure.

What's really giving me a hard time is the necessity for her to tell us things in interviews that she didn't show us in seven books. Thank god, LRK doesn't do that!!:)

[vicki]

She's never spent much time in the US--maybe she just wasn't recalling how conservative the culture can be (very generally speaking) about certain lifestyle issues.

Shutting down an HP discussion group over such a disclosure is completely ridiculous. What on earth was the rationale for that?

JKR is sort of between a rock and a hard place. During her post HP7-release chat, she said she was going to answer a lot of questions in the chat and then basically be done with it, as she just couldn't possibly answer *all* the questions people had about it--otherwise, she'd never have time for anything else. That's sort of what the chat was for (although she does intend to do some gap-filling later on with the anticipated reference-book). But it must be hard to remain completely silent in the face of all the ardent little fans who pepper her with questions everywhere she goes.

I'm looking forward to the gap-filling reference book, but I'd rather not find out much more until then.

[vicki]

Here's an interesting commentary (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/arts/29conn.html) on JKR's disclosure from the NY Times.

[Jennifer]

Vicki,
That was a refreshing article that summed up what I felt and did it about a million times better. There's something slightly unnerving about this whole incident and I was glad there is a critic out there who could say "so what?" Thanks for keeping us less nimble surfers in the loop!
Jen D.

[kitmarlowescot2]

My two favorite reactions to the news that JRK outed Dumbledore is this from David Thewlis who plays Lupin, "The funny thing when Alfonso Cuaron directed 'The Prisoner of Azkaban,' the first film that I appear in, he had the idea that Lupin was gay and he described my character like a 'gay junkie.' And of course Lupin turns out not to be gay because he marries Tonks and has children."
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_16092.aspx

And by one of my favorite authors Poppy Z. Brite, I want to "jump on the bandwagon" too, so I'm announcing that Trevor and Zach in Drawing Blood, Andrew, Jay, Tran, Luke, Soren, and several more characters whose names I can't remember right now in Exquisite Corpse, Jared, Benny, and Frank in The Lazarus Heart, and Rickey and G-man in The Value of X and the Liquor books are gay. (I didn't include any characters from Lost Souls since most of the characters in that one seem to be of the Frank Booth orientation: "I'll **** anything that MOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES!!!") I'll be happy to organize a press conference if anyone wishes to discuss these shocking revelations.

Not to mention to what happened to poor Neil Gaiman A couple of odd FAQ mails came in accusing me of either lying or "jumping on the bandwagon"when I mentioned the other gay Neverwhere character. So I thought I'd point them to http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2003/06/questions-answered-neverwhere.asp. (Odd, because they didn't actually seem to be from readers of my stuff, but seemed to be from people who'd been led here from some sites where people were arguing about other things.) (Shrugs.)
, for his book Neverwhere. Lol