Monday, October 22, 2007

Rowling Outs Dumbledore...

The writing and blog worlds are blowing up with the news that Dumbledore, the mentor and awesome wizard in the smashingly successful Harry Potter films is - pause for the drama - gay.
Wow.

The great thing about the Potter books is even though the series is "complete," Rowling still has the opportunity to reveal or add anything she wants to the lives of the characters without having to slog away at the computer for hours on end. Indeed, she appears to be quite pleased that she can share whatever Potter thought that comes to mind without worrying about revealing plots or giving too much away. But did she this time?

My thoughts went not to the character she outed, nor to looking through my collection for any indication of Dumbledore's orientation, but to the minority of Potter haters that have been looking for a reason to burn the Potter books.

The whole witchcraft and sorcery argument got old and even the Vatican weighed in with some saying the books are evil and others hold them up as an example of good versus evil. Now those who hate Potter and gays have an AHA! moment.

Why reveal it? I ask. Why hide it? I ask again. Why give the books more controversy or give people new reasons to attack one of the greatest fantasy series of our generation?

I guess part of the reason is that well it's the truth - duh. If that's Rowling's vision who am I to question it? I'm a fan & believe whole-heartedly in a writer's vision and maintaining the truth of that vision.

The crass commercial side of me also realizes this an awesome marketing opportunity. A whole target community for HP merchandise! The other good thing is in order to burn the books, someone has to buy them. Cha-Ching. I wish I owned stock in Scholastic...

Rowling maintains that her books are about tolerance. In her magical world, a boy of mixed parentage can be the savior of all that good and precious. In her world it matters not you're breeding but your heart, talent and skill. In her world black and white stand side by side, race noted only for description. In her world the greatest wizard of all time was known as the greatest wizard of all time, not the gay, greatest wizard of all time. Right on.

Thoughts?

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