Dumbledore ~ Stultified, Bothered, and Bewildered

[rattlesnakeroot]

A new piece of an interview with J.K. Rowling has been released on Harry: A History. In it, JKR talks about Dumbledore's relationship with Grindelwald and the negative effects on his future life.
Of course some might point out that the relationship had a positive effect on Dumbledore, bringing him back to his senses, and convincing him to stay on

Comments

[drinkingcocoa]

I just posted on my own LJ about why Dumbledore might have chosen celibacy. Ah, the Olympics.

http://drinkingcocoa.livejournal.com/52284.html

I'll check out the HPN link when I have a chance. Thanks!

[mary_j_59]

Actually, though I often don't understand how Rowling sees her own work, I can see where she is coming from here. He may or may not be emotionally crippled (how I'd interpret "stultified"), but he is certainly morally crippled. I cannot see the kindness you see in him. He is not kind to Harry - not really. He's extremely cruel and manipulative to Severus. I don't see that he has any real, trusting relationships or friendships with anyone in canon, not even Minerva McGonagall.

But the thing that really gets me about this? Rowling's idea that he was crippled by love. I don't think that's how human beings work. Yes, if you've had a bad relationship, you might be wary of entering another; I can see that. But - one bad relationship in your youth keeps you from being intimate with anyone, ever, for more than 100 years? Surely not. You can learn from your mistakes without being crippled by them, even if they do hold you back a bit.

Just my two cents.

[rattlesnakeroot]

Yes, I could understand him being stultified from obsessing over the Deathly Hallows, but not because he loved Grindelwald.

[aredwitch]

Maybe she meant stunted or stagnated. I have always felt she needed a good thesaurus.

[rattlesnakeroot]

Me too! That is an odd choice of words, I think.

[kamion]

quote:
his first foray into the world of emotion is catastrophic and I think that would forevermore stun that part of his life and leave it stultified and he would be, what he becomes

Oh please what a bullshit, if there is anything emotional flexible and resiliant it's a 18 year old with love hurts.
they may think they will never love again eand never find true love after the first break-up but when they are grown up in a healthy enviroment they bounce back with in a week.

It more likely that young Albie was emotional stultified
by someone who was emotional far more important at a far more delicate age, nl a demanding overbearing mother, who lived a life of pretenting to be someone she was not at all.
I think that the remarks Aunt Muriel made about Kendra Dumbledore cut more wood then the revelations JKR made in an intervieuw.
If Dumbledore after a 100 year still was stultified he was a potential basketcase long before Grindelwald entered the stage.

[rattlesnakeroot]

Yes! I was thinking the same thing about Kendra! Would Dumbledore have wanted to leave home so much if he hadn't had such a mother? And obviously, when there is a troubled/handicapped child at home, the other children don't get as much attention, so to me those are all things that may have led to Dumbledore's longing to be away somewhere else. It's alot like Neville's problems with his family and his Gran.

Grindelwald may have taken advantage of Dumbledore, but he was not the root cause of Dumbledore's problems.

I find JKR's remarks shocking and baffling on many different levels.

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[anonymous]

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