Dumbledore again
Now that I've had a chance to catch my breath, here are my much calmer thoughts on Jo's most recent revelation:
I think this is awesome. And I completely understand why she couldn't be explicit about it in the books or in interviews before the series was completed. After all, these books are/were an industry and the bottom line is that a lot of people's paychecks rode on how well the series did. Being controversial for the sake of being controversial is not good business.
If Jo had made this announcement before now, it would have been a Statement, and it would have taken focus off of what the stories are meant to be about. These books are about Harry and his journey. Dumbledore's sexual preferences are not a part of that, nor should they be. Harry, bless him, is a rather unobservant and self-involved teenager who probably never guessed or knew that his hero was a gay man until long after the fact.
The thing that I really love about this is the statement Jo is indirectly making by it: The greatest and most powerful and respected wizard of the 20th century was a gay man. Just because Harry didn't know it doesn't mean no one knew it, especially after Rita Skeeter's "biography". And NO ONE CARED about that. It was not mentioned as a significant part of the controversy surrounding Dumbledore's character.
I also love the implication of what the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald must have been like. Two teenage boys and one intensely passionate summer, cut short by the double heartbreak of Ariana's death and Grindelwald's abandonment, followed by how long it took for Dumbledore to at last reluctantly confront the man he had loved. I *really* want to know about that final confrontation now, even more than I did before.
I think this is awesome. And I completely understand why she couldn't be explicit about it in the books or in interviews before the series was completed. After all, these books are/were an industry and the bottom line is that a lot of people's paychecks rode on how well the series did. Being controversial for the sake of being controversial is not good business.
If Jo had made this announcement before now, it would have been a Statement, and it would have taken focus off of what the stories are meant to be about. These books are about Harry and his journey. Dumbledore's sexual preferences are not a part of that, nor should they be. Harry, bless him, is a rather unobservant and self-involved teenager who probably never guessed or knew that his hero was a gay man until long after the fact.
The thing that I really love about this is the statement Jo is indirectly making by it: The greatest and most powerful and respected wizard of the 20th century was a gay man. Just because Harry didn't know it doesn't mean no one knew it, especially after Rita Skeeter's "biography". And NO ONE CARED about that. It was not mentioned as a significant part of the controversy surrounding Dumbledore's character.
I also love the implication of what the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald must have been like. Two teenage boys and one intensely passionate summer, cut short by the double heartbreak of Ariana's death and Grindelwald's abandonment, followed by how long it took for Dumbledore to at last reluctantly confront the man he had loved. I *really* want to know about that final confrontation now, even more than I did before.