Unrequited??

[elements]

A lot of other people have already said all the other stuff I might be saying here, and I am of the school that says Jo only gets to definitively label something as canon if she's written it into the books, and in any case in my mind Dumbledore and Grindelwald had a relationship in canon since the day I read book 7. I mean, my first reaction to the

Comments

[ursamajor]

I only saw the Newsweek article, so I'm guessing that's the more mainstream link being passed around? I didn't know about the other transcripts/links until you posted.

"Dumbledore is gay, actually," replied Rowling as the audience erupted in surprise. She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort's predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonished fans, Rowling added. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy."

[elements]

Yeah, as far as I can tell, that "unrequited" was entirely inserted by the journalist, and not at all what JKR actually said.

[ursamajor]

Er, meant to link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/50787 . But yeah, the article's definitely coloring the actual words in the transcript that way.

[elements]

Stupid, sloppy journalism, then. Feh. Thanks for the link.

[spare_change]

My problem, I guess, is that heterosexual love in the series is overwhelmingly presented as ennobling and redemptive. So for the one homosexual relationship to be so destructive that JKR compares it to Bellatrix's love for Voldemort doesn't really work for me.

I mean, your reading totally works. And it's beautifully written as well. And I agree with it. It just kind of stuns me as well, though, because it stands in such stark contradiction to the themes of the books.

[elements]

Oh, I am totally with you there. I am just a bit baffled by the leap from horribly let down to unrequited. Sloppy journalism, people

[spare_change]

Wow. This is one of the smartest things I've read about the whole issue, anywhere. I've been getting verbally eviscerated in various corners for suggesting that JKR's "revelation" was really not as progressive as it appeared, and what you wrote here helps to frame my discomfort perfectly.

*loves*

[elements]

... and you know, even if we extrapolate that other places in canon where JKR puts in a heavy queer subtext are indeed revealing her internal sense of those characters as queer, your point still stands, and that's just sad.

Remus & Sirius? Hurray, they got to be lovers for all of a bit of their young adulthoods and then one miserable year before Sirius's death? Feh. Being queer leads to unhappiness, children. Remus's attempts at and discomfort with the heteronormative life he then tries with Tonks are equally devoid of lasting happiness. Feh.

[elements]

Ah, shoot. Sometimes I forget not everyone on my flist is a rabid Harry Potter fan. Thanks for the reminder.

[elements]

True enough; I spoiler-cut it. I'm not bothering to hide the basics of what JKR said in public that are being reported by the media though - that's so all over the place by now that I can't imagine anyone avoiding it.

Yeah, the rabidity of fannishness of most of my flist is of the "rearrange rest of life due to arrival of new canon" mentality, which is beyond what most even very hardcore fans outside of an involved fandom community would ever do. I didn't dare go online until I'd finished the book, which was one big part of why I chose to spend a day of my vacation in England reading it right when it came out, but that's a rather freakishly strong level of devotion and not something I should assume all the HP lovers on my flist would have.

[smallness]

I just still can't get over why she outed the one who didn't necessarily trip my gaydar but insisted on putting the most obviously gay character into a character-assassinating marriage with another character who was REALLY COOL until the whole het thing.

Ahem. Not that I'm bitter about Remus or anything.

HI ERICA.

[elements]

Maybe at the next stop on her tour she will have another special moment with a questioner and reveal that Remus was bisexual. Yeah.

HI. I have all these tabs open to comment to you. :/