It's 1:00, Saturday morning. I'm climbing into bed. Phone rings. I choose to ignore it.
Phone rings again. Fearing an emergency, I pick it up.
Ryan: Hey man. What are you doing?
Me: Sleeping.
Ryan: Don't tell me Abilene is so boring that you're already in bed at 1:00.
Me: Actually, it is.
Ryan has some bad literary news for me, which is "worth getting out of bed for." He instructs me to hasten to my laptop and pull up Yahoo. I drowsily comply. "Read the first story."
Rowling outs one of her characters
And there it is. Dumbledore. Gay.
I field yet another late night call about 10 minutes later. The Christian-Rowling-reading world is in disarray. For some reason, I'm not losing sleep over the matter, but I have a question or two. Help me, folks. I want some thoughts.
Why feel the need to offer such an arguably shocking statement? Certainly attention and money can be ruled out, right? I mean, you're the wealthiest woman in your whole freaking country, and I'm sure you're never lacking in fanmail or interview requests.
Why do we all need to know Dumbledore's sexual orientation? What bearing has it on the story? If she wished us to know of his preference, why not make it slightly more overt in the text?
What happens to the text when the author adds commentary like this? Is it a bit controlling of Rowling to make sure we know what she intended with Dumbledore's character?
I'm not really even concerned with the moral debate of sexual orientation here.
Paul, Kristina, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the matter if you're reading this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Seriously, my response was nearly identical to the one you've described here. I don't understand the need for such a PC statement and it seems she should have just put it IN THE TEXT if it was that important to her. I honestly laughed because our reactions were so similar.
When I heard, I shrugged and said, "figures." I really had no problem with the fact that she made this statement.
I believe Rowling said it in response to a question she was asked in an interview, and she claims she had no other choice but to answer in a completely honest way - I forget what the question was exactly (something about Dumbledore's love life). In any case, it doesn't appear that she was expecting such a large reaction, nor do I think it really matters at this point. I just shrug my shoulders and go with it.
Biblically.
Post a Comment