I Love Being Right
Bookworm - 16 Comments » - Posted on October, 22 at 2:14 pm
I was visiting Crystal’s blog today when I came upon a very interesting article that she had blogged about, which I have quoted below. Before you read it, I feel the urge to stick out my tongue, say ‘Nyah-nyah I told you so!’ and laugh:
[...] 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.” [...]
For all of the people out there who thought this slash/yaoi fangirl was reading too much into the relationship between Gellert and Albus – HAH! It’s so nice to be proven right every once in a while.
For most of the series all we knew was that Grindelwald was Dumbledore’s greatest foe and that the battle between the two and Grindelwald’s subsequent defeat was legendary. It is not until the seventh book that Harry discovers Grindelwald and Dumbledore were actually very good friends, that Albus shared some of Grindelwald’s beliefs initially, and that the relationship and closeness of these two caused a great tragedy that resulted in Aberforth becoming estranged from his older brother Albus. However, when hearing the story recounted it sounded to me as though Albus and Gellert loved each other, and not just as friends. This was evidenced by the fact that Dumbledore, although fighting against Grindelwald, never faced him directly until the very end, and the fact that he never spoke or thought ill of him. Later, when Voldemort finds Grindelwald’s cell Grindelwald does not give up the location of the wand since it would desecrate Dumbledore’s grave.
Of course everyone (you know who you are!) tried to shush me and proclaim that I was being a slash-happy fangirl.
As you can see, I did not read too much into the story, I merely read it correctly. Oi and Mayra, if you’re reading this, next time I “read something that isn’t there” between characters you might want to rethink it. 
I am a bit disgruntled to see however that some people are now trying to make Dumbledore into a pedophile due to his relationship with Harry. 
Now that is truly reaching. Just because Dumbledore was gay does not mean he automatically is a child molester.
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You know, I have never watched or read anything having to do with Harry Potter, but some many people are in love with it.
What I think is the saddest thing is that a) people are going to start insisting that Dumbledore was a pedophile, and b) that a lot of people will probably not allow their kids to have anything to do with Harry Potter now because *GASP* there’s a gay character. Personally I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but I can just imagine the outcry now.
Charity,
You raise an interesting point, and unfortunately, one that is sadly being expressed on some locations where this topic is being discussed.
I think it’s great that Rowling had no qualms about saying up front what, in my opinion, was something that was easy enough to infer. But yes, despite the fact that so many people “loved” Dumbledore (never a big fan of him myself) I suspect many will now find him to be a less than reputable character.
I’m also getting so tired of seeing all of the pedophile comments on every blog I visit that is talking about this!
It’s the biggest news everywhere now, it seems. I honestly am not surprised one bit. As far as people calling him a pedo, that’s just ridiculous.
Seriously, just because a person is gay doesn’t mean they are a chester. (That’s what I call child molestors). Nice close mindedness.
I have always been a great fan of Harry Potter and Dumbledore. And nothing, not even this, can change that.
I’m with ya. My only concern when I heard the news was how many people would jump to a pedophile idea…
Angela,
My sentiments exactly. “Nice close mindedness” indeed. I’ve even seen comments on some of the blogs talking about this, where people said “I liked” or “I used to like” Dumbledore before this happened. Some have tacked on a hasty, “not that there is anything wrong with being gay” on the end, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that was more of a CYA effort and not true sentiment.
Frankly I’m truly disappointed with the mentality that most people are expressing over this.
Jade,
To be brutally honest, I didn’t think of the pedophile idea until some bloggers started commenting on how Dumbledore could have molested Harry (and Tom Riddle) and erased their memories of it. Honestly!
My first thoughts were, in order: ‘Booyah! I was right. Now who’s reading too much into things suckers?! XD’ followed by ‘Damn, I hope people aren’t going to act like turds over this’, and lastly ‘So how are the bigots and detractors of the series going to act?’
I honestly did not think that anyone could jump to such outlandish conclusions. And I’m not even that big of a Dumbledore fan either.
I detest the thought that just because someone is gay they would be a pedophile. The statistical facts show most are men who consider themselves straight. If he was straight, would people be worried he’d have molested Hermione? It’s plan homophobia.
Tina,
Thank You. It is homophobia, plain and simple. I certainly never heard people speculating that Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Harry -anybody- was molest when everyone was under the impression that he was straight. No one went down that stupid path, but now suddenly because he’s gay even the people who called themselves fans are speculating this. Why? What changed? *shakes head*
This is supposed to be an enlightened time, a time of tolerance due to our education. Apparently it’s not.
We missed you at Mute Mondays. Have never read or watched HP. Is gay Dumbledore the character Gary Oldman plays? He rocks.
While I didn’t suspect Dumbledore of being gay when I read the series, looking back at some of the text, I can see that it was there.
I’m not especially pleased with how Rowling announced it. Some of us aren’t ready to discuss sexuality with our kids who are still too immature to understand. My 9 year old is very heavily into Harry Potter and I’m hoping he doesn’t hear this news from classmates. I’m not ready to explain homosexuality. We’re still working on understanding the basics of heterosexual relationships!
I also don’t understand how people make the leap from homosexual to pedophile. What does one have to do with the other?
Art,
One of these weeks I will not miss any of my weekly memes. One of these weeks.
Dumbledore is not the character that Gary Oldman plays I’m afraid. He plays Sirius Black. Dumbledore has been played by both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon.
Tee,
Exactly, it was there all along. I just think people didn’t see it or didn’t want to in some cases. In all honesty I didn’t think about it until the seventh book where it literally jumped out at me. After that, when I thought back it made sense to me. Of course everyone thought I read too much into it.
I can imagine it is going to be hard to explain sexuality to kids, but maybe in order to counter all of the prejudice of previous generations we have to begin explaining to children at least that love, unconditional love between two people is not dependent on gender.
How do they make a leap between homosexual and pedophile? Easy, homophobia.
Yea, I caught this news on CNN earlier in the week too. I can see both sides, but to be honest, this “revelation” adds nothing to the story nor does it take away any thing from the story.
What I find a little incredulious is the idea that two males could *not* have that kind of admiration/love for each other with out being gay. If you talk to anyone who has ever served in the military or been in a situation where a strong personal bond was formed between two people, you can see the same kind of love/admiration with out any kind of sexuality added to it at all.
When I read the book, I read it as dumbledor had found an equal in Grindwald and was enamored in that regard. There was never anything sexual in the book (other than the tension between ron and hermonie) nor should there be. Its a childrens story.
mcangeli,
I agree that this revelation doesn’t change anything in the story, it just adds a bit of great to know information really. JKR has been disclosing on her website all kinds of interesting tidbits for characters not mentioned or hardly mentioned in the story.
I do not recall saying that two men could not have close bonds and a deep admiration for each other without having to be “gay”. While reading book 7 I just couldn’t help but to read between the lines in this case. Since everyone thought I was insane I was inclined to believe that too. But hey, I wasn’t. Now that rocks.
When it came to sexual overtones/innuendo, I have to confess to seeing more of that between Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny. I didn’t pick up so much on sexual content between Dumbledore and Grindelwald as I did an emotional bond that went beyond platonic.