My $.02 on the Dumbledore thing
Oct. 20th, 2007 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsFinally articulated my thoughts well enough in a comment to be able to top post. My reaction to the whole Dumbledore thing? "Yeah, so, and...?"
I don't think JK is making crap up to stay in the public eye, because she doesn't need to do anything to stay in the public eye, she's JKbloodlyRowling and is going to be notorious for a very long time just for that.
I don't think JK didn't bring it up out of cowardice, because if she was afraid of the concept, she wouldn't have mentioned it at all.
I don't think JK brought it up now that she wouldn't have to "deal" with it now that the story is over. It's technically not over until the movies, which slightly change canon, are done, and she seems to have made the point in the movies.
I don't think it was homophobic of JK to make him old or kill him off. That's what happens to people who live for a long time, they get old. And a hefty chunk of the cast was snuffed, including the hero.
I do think that the reason it didn't come up in the books is quite simple and has nothing to do with marketing or homophobia or fear or anything else:
I think it didn't come up because the stories were told completely from Harry's point of view and Harry didn't give a rat's ass who the people around him were attracted to. The only ones we know about are the romantic relationships that Harry directly witnessed and which affected his life: Hagrid, Snape, Lupin, Cho, Hermoine, Ron.
The list of orientations we don't know is a hell of a lot longer, and we don't know them because they didn't affect the story. Whatever Harry didn't see or stumble over is not part of the plot. That's why we didn't know about Dumbledore and why we still don't know the orientations of:
- Quirrel
- Lockhart
- McGonigal
- Flitwick
- Hooch
- Sprout
- Fred and George (never mentioned romantic partners of either gender)
- Charlie Weasley, ditto (Bill we know about. Charlie, not so much)
- Lee Jordan
- Sirius. (Yes, I know that JK broke up the Lupin/Sirius pair that fandom was so fond of, but did she ever mention any other romantic partner for the other side of that? No.)
- that substitute teacher who kept taking over for Hagrid
- whathisface who subbed the last year of DADA before Snape took over
- Fleur's little sister
- Dudley Dursley
- Crabbe or Goyle
Etc., etc., etc.
-
For all we know, McGonigal, Sprout, and Hooch were having torrid lesbian three-ways every Friday. Harry didn't care, so JK didn't put it into the story that Harry tells.
I don't think JK is making crap up to stay in the public eye, because she doesn't need to do anything to stay in the public eye, she's JKbloodlyRowling and is going to be notorious for a very long time just for that.
I don't think JK didn't bring it up out of cowardice, because if she was afraid of the concept, she wouldn't have mentioned it at all.
I don't think JK brought it up now that she wouldn't have to "deal" with it now that the story is over. It's technically not over until the movies, which slightly change canon, are done, and she seems to have made the point in the movies.
I don't think it was homophobic of JK to make him old or kill him off. That's what happens to people who live for a long time, they get old. And a hefty chunk of the cast was snuffed, including the hero.
I do think that the reason it didn't come up in the books is quite simple and has nothing to do with marketing or homophobia or fear or anything else:
I think it didn't come up because the stories were told completely from Harry's point of view and Harry didn't give a rat's ass who the people around him were attracted to. The only ones we know about are the romantic relationships that Harry directly witnessed and which affected his life: Hagrid, Snape, Lupin, Cho, Hermoine, Ron.
The list of orientations we don't know is a hell of a lot longer, and we don't know them because they didn't affect the story. Whatever Harry didn't see or stumble over is not part of the plot. That's why we didn't know about Dumbledore and why we still don't know the orientations of:
- Quirrel
- Lockhart
- McGonigal
- Flitwick
- Hooch
- Sprout
- Fred and George (never mentioned romantic partners of either gender)
- Charlie Weasley, ditto (Bill we know about. Charlie, not so much)
- Lee Jordan
- Sirius. (Yes, I know that JK broke up the Lupin/Sirius pair that fandom was so fond of, but did she ever mention any other romantic partner for the other side of that? No.)
- that substitute teacher who kept taking over for Hagrid
- whathisface who subbed the last year of DADA before Snape took over
- Fleur's little sister
- Dudley Dursley
- Crabbe or Goyle
Etc., etc., etc.
-
For all we know, McGonigal, Sprout, and Hooch were having torrid lesbian three-ways every Friday. Harry didn't care, so JK didn't put it into the story that Harry tells.
