Well, HP fandom is a particularly fun place to be right now. OR NOT.

[izhilzha]

This has been a wild week for Harry Potter fans, especially Christian ones.

Last week, J.K. Rowling spoke with MTV about the Christian imagery in the books, calling it "obvious," and Christian intellectuals and fans rejoiced at this confirmation of what we had long suspected and discussed

Comments

[feliciakw]

My reaction is . . . disappointment, I guess. This little tidbit of extra-canonical information does nothing to change the reading of the stories, as there's nothing in the books to indicate such a thing. My disappointment stems, I think, from the depiction that a person (in this case a young man) cannot be fascinated by another person (specificially, another young man) without there being some sort of sexual attraction attached. I didn't stricty draw anything from the relationship as depicted in the book other than they had the same intellectual passions. Maybe it did niggle in the back of my mind that there was something more; I honestly can't recall. But I read it more as Dumbledore being starved for a like-minded friend.

This information also feeds into the misconception that if an older person is single and has no romantic history, they must be homosexual, which isn't the case.

On the flip side, there's more to a person than his or her sexuality. This information shouldn't change how Dumbledore is perceived as a character overall, should it? He's still wise and loving and self-sacrificing and flawed. This extra-canonical information doesn't change that.

It's true: the books read no differently now, with this big "reveal"--or rather, pseudo-reveal, since it's not canon--than they did before.

I might be more upset by this revelation if I thought the books were strictly allegorical in nature, which I don't think they are.

[izhilzha]

Actually, I don't know that it does feed into the "fascination must be sexual" thing quite as much as you imply it does. JKR has given us, repeatedly and in many different shades throughout the books, friendships between people of the same (and of the opposite!) gender...sometimes based on something real, sometimes rather out of control (Peter in the Marauder's group, anyone?), sometimes hero-worship. It's one of the author's greatest strengths, this ability to glorify and realistically draw platonic and familial relationships.

It'll be sad if people let one extra-canonical comment make them forget this acchievement, but it's certainly not doing much to mess with my love of what she's pulled off. *shrug* YMMV, I suppose.

[feliciakw]

Actually, I don't know that it does feed into the "fascination must be sexual" thing quite as much as you imply it does.

Perhaps not. She does do a good job of developing friendships and even friendships that are mistaken for romance (specifically, the several times that Harry and Hermione's relationship is misconstrued throughout the books). But in this case, it's Dumbledore, who has lived a long, full life, and who "oddly" has never had a romance (that we the readers know of. We only know what Harry knows). If I had to place Dumbledore's admiration of Grindlewald into one of the categories you mention (friendship based on A) something real; B) out of control; C) hero-worship), I would have put it in the hero-worship category, based on what we're given in the book.

I'm probably not expressing myself very well, so I'll stop now. As you say, YMMV.

[fpb]

What ability? My viewpoint, speaking as a male, is that she gets nearly everything wrong. Her understanding of the male sex is primitive at best, and the relationships among the Marauders are caricatural (in real life, such a group of friends would not have tolerated anyone as stupid as Peter looks for a second, and would have been rather nasty to him into the bargain). As for Dumbledore, I said everything I want to say.

[izhilzha]

Well, if you're so annoyed with her portrayals (and I have 3 brothers and a father and have observed male friendships, and some of them *are* like the ones the Marauders display, even including Peter--just because your own experience doesn't envelop that particular dynamic doesn't mean it doesn't exist), why have you been a fan of the books?

I'm not really all that curious, but I fail to understand people who write fan fiction in a world that apparently they think is "done wrong."