Dumbledore is gay!!!

[sigune]

YAAAAAAAAAYYYY! Dumbledore is gay!!!!

...I'm sorry, I should not perhaps be all whoopee about this, it's a bit childish... The thing is that Dumbledore is the one character in canon who has always given off a gay vibe to me. I have read slash with Snape, with Lupin, with Ron and Harry and Draco - just about everyone. But none of these characters ever seemed gay to me. Dumbledore did. He always did. Seriously. I'm not sure I can explain why, but it was just there.

Because I am into Queer Studies, and many of my favourite artists were/are gay, and I actually like to write about gay characters, it troubled me a little that I could never see that in Snape or Lupin or James or Sirius or whoever. I mean, it's sort of my job to detect that sort of thing. But Dumbledore... Ha! What a relief! Finally Rowling said something in an interview that makes me really, really happy. Happy because she did include a queer character, and supremely happy because I spotted it :D.

I wish I could refer you to a post or a comment as proof of my long-standing belief in Gaydore, but I'm afraid I no longer remember where to look for one. You'll just have to trust me to speak the truth :-).

Yay! Yaaaaayyy!!

*goes off to celebrate*

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/phistolemon_/]

I so second what you said.

I don't like how jkr is going out there, rambling about 'new canon' stuff.
the series ended, the last book is written, now let it be, but obviously
the woman can't let go otherwise she'd stop talking about it.

I haven't thought about dumbledore being gay. actually, I've never really thought
about his sexuality at all, nor have I tried to find out who might be gay in the series.
it's never been a topic to me... now jkr says dumbledore is gay. okay, but I have to admit I absolutely don't care (nor do I care about whatever jkr says).

cool for you though sigune that you were right :)

[todayiamadaisy]

but obviously the woman can't let go otherwise she'd stop talking about it

Is it just her, though? There's a huge demand for it, so it's also the audience who is not letting go; and it's such a wide audience too: adults, kids, hardcore fans, casual fans, even non-fans who just watch the news. As an author, she's in a unique position: no-one else deals with this sort of attention. Possibly Tolkien might but (a) he's dead and (b) Middle-earth was painted on a much bigger canvas so fans' interests are more widely dispersed. The Potterverse, though, is a small, intimate place, and her interviews simultaneously expand canon (with details of how she sees life outside the novels) and contract it (by trying to limit what interpretations the reader can make about the novels). It's quite interesting to watch, really.

[purpleygirl.livejournal.com]

Isn't it interesting to watch like a car crash is interesting, though!? ;P

(I agree with all your points, btw. I wish JKR would stop trying to expand on that bad-enough-as-it-is epilogue.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/phistolemon_/]

I think it's rather understandable for the audience not to let go so quickly.
jkr wrote the last book, she had been prepared, she knew it all, while we all had to wait and bite our fingernails. imo, she should not give in like that.
it's done, it's over, and although many fans still demand answers and ask questions she shouldn't just spill everything out. why not let them all guess? I'd rather think about it myself (well, of that what is left. she destroyed the story anyway, imo).

I just can't believe how everything went down like this :\
the last book, her comments about snape afterwards and now the random revelations about characters. wtf.

[sander123.livejournal.com]

"It's quite interesting to watch, really."

I try to make you my role-model and look at it with academic curiosity and detachment...

Thanks for the advice :)

[zefla.livejournal.com]

Yeah but people did that with Larry Nivens Ringworld and he wrote about 3 books off the back of what the audience said and also defended the Ringworld to scientists who didn't think it would work. Maybe she's trying that approach. The series is done- maybe focus on another character and see what falls out of the tree.

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

There's a huge demand for it, so it's also the audience who is not letting go; and it's such a wide audience

Exactly, it's not just her. Even if I decide not to read her interviews, I see ten posts on my f-list discussing how Dumbledore is gay. There's a huge demand for these answers and for the upcoming encyclopedia.

It's quite interesting to watch, really.

It is, it's very interesting! On the whole though, I feel that these answers limit canon more than they open it up - mostly because it tends to stick to her interpretation of her own books which is heavily slanted towards Harry. So if one asks a question about Harry's life or the people he loved one can generally get coherent answers, but when it comes to those characters she doesn't care about the answers rarely fit with the existing canon, making the fans go WTF? Where did that come from?

[todayiamadaisy]

I've been thinking about it, and what I think is happening is that Jo and (parts of) the audience are continuing the relationship they had between books. Between books, people would be trying to guess what was going to happen and Jo would give out little tidbits and hints and everyone had a great time. But that doesn't work now, because canon is closed and there's nothing more to guess.

(shrugs) This is weird, because I normally don't get involved in fandom stuff, I just ignore it. Basically, Jo's happy saying this stuff and I'm happy ignoring it... everyone wins! :-)