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Harry Potter...for friends and fans alike
mvansand76:
Mods, hear me out, please, this DOES belong here... ;)
Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals
Headmaster of Hogwarts in "Harry Potter" series is gay, J.K. Rowling says
Readers had long speculated on the character's sexuality
Rowling: Dumbledore in love with, let down by his rival, Gellert Grindelwald
NEW YORK (AP) -- Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.
J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall. After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.
She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."
"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.
She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."
Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."
"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."
Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.
Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.
Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."
Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.
I've never read any other fanfic than BBM, but thought this would be fun to share! I bet the HP fandom is 1000 times the size of BBM!
SFEnnisSF:
Which one is Dumbledore again? Not really into the series but I saw a few of the movies...
Brown Eyes:
:D
I heard this today on the news! I quite like this development and actually can see what Rowling means about Grindelwald and Dumbledore. It's pretty cool that she's so willing to talk about or bring out that aspect of the story line.
--- Quote from: sfericsf on October 21, 2007, 11:41:18 pm ---Which one is Dumbledore again? Not really into the series but I saw a few of the movies...
--- End quote ---
Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the main characters throughout the series. And, at times he's quite a father-figure to Harry and he often definitely acts as Harry's protector. Dumbledore's known as the best (or at least one of the best) wizards of all time. In the movies, etc. he's the old wizard with the long white beard.
MaineWriter:
--- Quote from: sfericsf on October 21, 2007, 11:41:18 pm ---Which one is Dumbledore again? Not really into the series but I saw a few of the movies...
--- End quote ---
The Headmaster, the guy with the long white beard.
Leslie
MaineWriter:
More on the Dumbledore news...
Most fans applaud Rowling's "outing" of Dumbledore
Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:43pm EDT
By Solarina Ho
TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - The Muggle, or non-wizard, world is agog at author J.K. Rowling's bombshell announcement that one of the main characters in the Harry Potter books was gay.
By Monday afternoon, after a weekend of gossip about Rowling's "outing" of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, there were almost 6,000 comments on the issue on two popular Harry Potter Web sites, www.leakynews.com and www.mugglenet.com.
"Mostly people are happy that she has done this," said Melissa Anelli, webmistress of the Leaky Cauldron site, admitting that the site has seen a small subset of vocal readers unhappy at the revelation.
"I think it's great, I think the way she handled it was that this was just another fact about him, the same way that he's a teacher, he likes bowling, chamber music. And if more people were like that, we'd have less of a problem today."
Rowling unveiled her news in New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday, in answer to the question of whether Dumbledore -- a believer in the prevailing power of love -- had ever fallen in love himself.
"I always thought of Dumbledore as gay," she replied, explaining that Dumbledore fell in love with his brilliant friend Gellert Grindelwald, who later became a powerful dark wizard whom Dumbledore defeated.
In the book that describes their friendship, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", one character says the two "got on like a caldron on fire."
"To have one of the coolest, most respected wizards in history and mentor of Harry Potter as gay, is the bravest move JKR has ever made. I salute her," a fan identified as "Shain" wrote on the Leaky site.
"Deathly Hallows" was the final installment of the Harry Potter series, where an orphan child wizard is pitted against the evil Lord Voldemort.
The series has already courted controversy for its themes of witchcraft, and is on many banned lists.
Dr. Solomon Shapiro, a child and adolescent psychiatrist who heads the Gender and Sexual Orientation Service at Toronto's Hincks-Dellcrest Centre said the revelation could be positive for gays.
"There's a paucity of gay characters in literature, especially in children's literature, which reinforces a belief that being gay is unusual and not normal."
"Having a positive gay role model in a popular children's series can help thousands of young people who are gay, or think they might be gay, come to fully accept themselves as they are."
Rowling, who appears in Toronto on Tuesday, said her books were a plea for tolerance.
"The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry," Rowling said during the Carnegie event.
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