<p>my Ds were like, well, Yeah…</p>
<p>I agree with WashDad here. I don’t care about Dumbledore’s sex life. Not at all. If I did, I wouldn’t have a preference for him to be gay or straight.<br>
But I don’t think it’s relevant what JK Rowling had in her mind as back story.</p>
<p>Now those who thought there was something there when they were reding, now that’s something else. However, even then, Rowling wasn’t decisive, which I think serves the books. </p>
<p>BTW: I thought Rowling’s epilogue was weak in the same way. I didn’t find her conclusions particularly convincing or illuminating. The story stopped where it stopped, and we didn’t get to watch the characters evolve. We also didn’t get to really know a sexual Dumbledore.</p>
<p>That’s just the way books work for me.</p>
<p>I agree with the epilogue. I agree we don’t need to know about D’s sex life. I don’t think it matters one way or another. I think the phenomena is interesting though - some books and TV series become more than just the text. They engender this whole following where people seem fixated on knowing more about the characters, telling more stories set in the universe, filling in all the backstory. She was asked about D. just as she’s asked constantly about the other characters. The epilogue was a sop to those fans who want to know how it all turned out, but it weakened the book IMO. I understand why she put it in though.</p>
<p>She’s talked about working a encyclopedia of the world she’s created that would include all that extra info that only she knows now.</p>
<p>I’d kind of suspected it. But more to the point, I’d like to know how knowing he is gay tells you any more about his sex life than knowing he is straight. Several people have made that comment, and I myself don’t feel i know anything about his “sex life” from JK’s comment. For all we know, he didn’t have one.</p>
<p>I thought she came out with the info because the next movie is being made and the writers were thinking of taking it in a direction that was inconsistent with the character as JKR conceived him. So she told them. Makes sense to me.</p>
<p>Exactly, garland. What is it in her response to that simple question by a fan that tells us ANYthing about his sex life? When my youngest D saw the headline online, her response was “it’s funny that that’s even news”. I agree with her that it’s interesting that the media (and apparently the general public!) were far more interested in that particular comment than in any of the others she’s answered at these Q&As. No one seemed to care about her saying that Harry became an auror, or that Neville and Luna did, indeed, end up together.</p>
<p>Well, to be fair, she had already said that Harry became an auror months ago, ditto for Neville and Luna.</p>
<p>1of42, my point was that neither of those revelations caused this kind of response.</p>
<p>True enough. In such a sex- and sexuality-obsessed (whether it’s love to talk about or hate to talk about) world, would you expect anything else? ;)</p>
<p>I agree with garland. I find it interesting that when someone talks about a person as being gay, people start saying “Well, why is his SEX life relevant”. Being gay is just a statement about what gender your romantic interest are. You can even be a gay virgin; in fact, I know of at least one high schooler in that category. </p>
<p>When a woman on this forum refers to their “Dear H…”, nobody responds by saying, well why is your SEX life relevant to the discussion. We recognize that our relationships with our spouses are a lot more than sexual.</p>
<p>Specific to the HP books, when we learn that Snape had a love interest in Harry’s mother, it is extremely relevant to the plot. Nobody says “Well, I am not interested in Snape’s SEX life”.</p>
<p>I guess it is still not possible in the US to just be matter of fact about someone being gay.</p>
<p>
Especially these days.</p>
<p>LOL! I said ‘more than’ not ‘other than’!</p>
<p>“Brokeback Castle” is definitely a “DNDCWRT” comment. (do not drink coffee while reading this)</p>
<p>Rowling visualized the entire story, characters and magical universe as a single integrated whole. Her writing was essentially an editing job. It is not critical to understanding the plot to know that Dumbledore was gay, but it is easier to understand his relationship in the book.</p>
<p>I do disagree with the idea that this was about D’s sex life. Just as with heterosexuals, I would assume it is entirely possible to fall in romantic love without any physicality involved.</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn’t have wanted to know about any of his girlfriends either, unless they were part of the plot of the books. I don’t like the after story is over grafting on.</p>
<p>Romantic life if sex life is not an appreciated term.</p>
<p>I have no desire to know about McGonigal’s romantic life; outside scope of text for me.</p>
<p>However, I do have this argument all the time with my mom. For her characters are people who have lives; for me they’re just characters who exist in the life of the text.</p>
<p>If hints of D’s affection came through in book, relevant. JKRowling decisively telling us who D is, not relevant to me in the way WashDad said. She does not “own” her characters any more than reader does.</p>
<p>I did not mean my comments as homophobic or anti finding out he’s gay. Dont want Rowling to say, “Oh by the way, Minerva had a husband killed in the Great War” either.</p>
<p>I love going to book readings, listening to writers discuss their works ont he radio, and seems the best writers have a vision of their characters as whole people,not just 2 dimensial letters on paper- that they have led lives leading up to what is in the book, that there are pasts that shape who they are in the novel</p>
<p>And when you hear some writers talk, they talk about how their characters take them in unexpected directions, and that they will try and have a character act a certain way, but it doesn’t fit, as they have this person fleshed out totally</p>
<p>“she does not own her characters”- what does that mean exactlly…</p>
<p>Think about Darth Vader, what happened to him very much shaped who he was, and there needed to be some idea of his past in order to create his future and drive his passions, anger, frustrations</p>
<p>i respect JKR for saying what she did, and sharing how the writing process works…we think its easy to do it, but its not</p>
<p>I just checked the exact quote (as reported on the “leaky cauldron” fan website). If you read the question and answer below, and if you remember the importance that Dumbledore attached to the power of love at several points in the Harry Potter books, you will realize that Dumbledore’s love interest is very relevant to the series:</p>
<p>Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?</p>
<p>My truthful answer to you… I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] … Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extend, but he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that’s how i always saw Dumbledore.</p>
<p>When Dumbledore talks about the power of love I always assumed he meant agape, not eros. </p>
<p>And love is the essence of his character, so it is sad that his foray into eros left him so hurt. But his hurt, his mistakes, are what humble him and set him to teaching and shepherding the young instead the public office of ministry of magic.</p>
<p>By the time we meet him, I think Dumbledore loves everyone who comes into his orbit, even Tom Riddle, and maybe even Voldemort who has so removed himself from love.</p>
<p>^I agree with you mythmom.</p>
<p>By the way did anyone hear the spiel on All Things Considered about Dumbledore being outed? It was very cute. (He doesn’t dress well enough to be gay.) <a href=“Is It Any Wonder Why Dumbledore Kept Closeted? : NPR”>Is It Any Wonder Why Dumbledore Kept Closeted? : NPR;
<p>Haha, drb - “Brokeback Castle!” That is hilarious. 
lol.</p>