Harry Potter Fan Fiction Author's Dream Come True

Wow.

J.K. Rowling outs Hogwarts character - Yahoo! News

Can't say I guessed that one, but it actually makes so much sense in context when you think about it.

Damn you beat me to it, I was on my here to write a dumbledore comes out the closet thread.

I suppose looking back on the books, it does sort of make sense, but meh.

Personally, this was like a slap in the face. I guess I'm a bit of an Elphias Doge when it comes to Dumbledore. But how can we treat this as a fact? Just 'cuz she said it? It was never in the books, therefore it is not part of the story. I don't know if it's just me, but it doesn't feel true whatsoever. In my opinion, only what is written is true when it comes to stories.

Dumbledore is a wise man, and his eccentricities have always been the kind I fully understood, housing some of those qualities and views myself. For JKR to say this about such a great man...it feels as if she is an outsider to the story, a person at school who looks down upon its readers, saying "That book's gay."

If anything, I revere JKR by a greatly lesser amount for this, especially if this were her idea from the very beginning, and she hadn't found a way to fit it in. I mean, we'd just read about Dumbledore's past, and how rough he's had it, how everything fits together. And now she comes in acting like Rita Skeeter.

I say that this was a bad decision for her. If she had included this in the book, it may not have been so bad as that, but to say it months after people finished it? JKR has just gone down a notch on the pedestal I've raised her onto for the last seven years.

... You beat me to it. Ugh.

I laughed at first, a little surprised though. Oh well.

You will not believe how many complaints of this has shown up in the Yahoo! Aswers section, today.

I think it's fine. Though now I sort of wonder if he was a pedophile...

I think he's a bit cooler for being gay, to be honest. >.>

The people who are whining about this corrupting the series, though, need to shut it. I've read people's responses saying that this has made the series less innocent, and that parents won't want to buy it, yada yada. He never did anything that would offend homophobes, did he? Not that I can tell. So why bother to complain about his sexuality. :/

Daily Mail Article: Another story

I was completely amazed by what I read in my Daily Mail this weekend that I simply had to come online at work and hunt down this article, and read up all about this fuss over one particular charcter in a series of children's books. The level of fuss and outrage I was hearing about was not, as I expected, level to yet another church sex scandal or even as much as compared some politically correct outrage about a silly gollywog doll, but a beloved child book character merely suggested as being 'gay'? Many people have reacted towards this as badly as if JK Rowling said that Dumbledore was an old paedophile that attacked thousands of students during his time as headmaster. All this outrage on him being gay however? Oh come on, he's a fictional character.

The only thing that JK Rowling said was that she only thought of Dumbledore being gay herself. There was nothing in any of the books saying that Dumbledore was gay, nor was there any suggestive material that could possibly offend homophobes or homosexuals alike. I have been an avid reader of Harry Potter for quite a number of years, since I was going to school myself and when I first picked up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Year 7 at Secondary school, all the way up to the Deathly Hallows during my lunchbreaks at work. Not once was there any homosexual content. Heterosexual maybe, with teenage love interests and kissing (Cho Chang and Harry, anyone?) but homosexual? Not a jot. Funny how no one whines about that and yet some are rabid over what JK Rowling thinks. Quite frankly, it's her books and her character, she can write (and say) what she damn well pleases. If some bigots don't like that, then well. They have to get over that the world doesn't revolve around them and their religious beliefs, no matter how important they think it is to them.

As awesome as Dumbledore is, he is purely a fictional character, and the amount of fuss these religious nutjobs have been kicking up quite frankly, disgusts me. I read some delightful quotes in the Daily Mail over this, and I'm disappointed by these fanatics going bonkers over a child's character. They were vocal enough about black magic and devilry fears in some extreme religious areas, but the homosexuality stuff about beloved Dumbledore has really gotten them going.

One website received over 3,000 postings in a day - typical was the message: "I am a christian who supported these books as they brought the joy of reading back to sooooo many kids and adults.

"Now, I will make sure I throw away all the copies I have, and no one in my family will ever read that trash again. What a huge disappointment and great loss for so many kids who could have enjoyed these books.

"She just ensured that many, many, more people will not buy these books.

"Not only has she destroyed a great hero, but she has tarnished the entire series."

On-line reaction from some former fans has been vitriolic. Melissa Anelli, of The Leaky Cauldron Web site, said: "My inbox is full of people who wish to let me know that I'm scum for supporting this 'outing,; that J.K. Rowling should go back to the devil who spawned her, etc.

"It's really disgusting. We're trying to simply ignore it."

The revelation came during a question and answer session at Carnegie Hall. Rowling was asked: "Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?"

She answered: "My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay."

And afterwards she added: "I know that it was a positive thing that I said it, for at least one person, because one man 'came out' at Carnegie Hall. I'm not kidding."

Industry commentators noted that the outing came too late to affect publication of the seventh and final episode in the series Harry Potter and the All Hallows, which sold over 12m in the US alone.

They have sold over 335 million books in all.

But Harry Potter has been a bigger success on screen, with with five films so far grossing $4.47 billion - £2.3 billion - making it the biggest movie franchise ever.

Mmm, delightful. Lots of Christian love and understanding there. Before people respond to me, however, I understand that not every Christian is like that, and quite possibly a great many enjoyed reading the books themselves and are respectable members in this very forum itself. I have nothing against these people, you nor their/your beliefs, but my anger and disgust is directed at these childish, hateful, tiny-minded fundamentalist bigots that are so vocal about a children's book, despite that the author has gotten many children back into the delights of storybooks and reading once again in our increasingly technological age.

My disgust reached critical levels when I realized just how much hatred and hysteria was being generated towards a character in a children's book when, at the same time, after doing a little research, there has been much silence from these very vocal, moralistic people concerning the Catholic Church and it's sex scandals throughout the years, with many cases of religious sex attacks on children (as far as I understood, sex attacks on children were significantly far more damaging than a storybook with a... a *gasps* homosexual fictional character)

Personally, I don't think she "outed" Dumbledore at all. He already was who he was. All she did was correct some misconceptions about him. His gayness, as is usually the case, is not the main thing about him. It's minor. Should she not comment on a character she has created and loves because it might cause some kind of controversery? I think she's beyond wanting to sell more books, she's already loaded from the books, the movies and everything else. Harry Potter's finished and done with for now, and this little bit of information doesn't make a difference.

So ya boo and sucks to you for the bible fundies, and hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for both Dumbledore and JK Rowling for getting a generation of children back into the interests and delights of the reading world, where JK Rowling and her works are, at least to me, as delightful and enchanting as the works of Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and Jacqueline Wilson were when I was a very young child myself (and that wasn't so very long ago in the late 80's/early 90's!)