Saturday, October 20, 2007

Out of a hat

J K Rowling has just revealed that her character Dumbledore, the late headmaster of Hogwarts was gay. Cue a host of slash fiction writing fanboys shouting "I called it!" The question is, why has she done it? Does it add or detract from the series? Now, if one rereads all seven books, it may illuminate some of the character interactions, but should that not come out from reading the books themselves? I don't doubt that Dumbledore's sexuality was decided on a decade ago when Rowling was formulating the characters. It's how a writer works. You discover a whole lot of background information about the character, which may never make it into the printed text, but helps you decide how he reacts in any particular situation.
Of course, it's really going to piss off the fundies.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought I'd check out your blog after seeing your comments on Marteen's Plaice and I find I can't escape that darn wizard. I have not read Harry Potter, I haven't seen the movies and yet somehow a lot of info about the whole thing has seeped into my brain by some sort of osmosis

Marteen said...

The Harry Potter books are very "pervasive" Cheeky Minx. A term I recently got from LK. From my biological training osmosis is a word I understand dear.

Deacon Barry said...

Thanks for visiting Cheeky Minx. I don't visit the subject of Pottermania terribly often, but this was too good to ignore.