Thanks, JK, for not answering the question and still managing to go deep into TMI territory: according to J. K. Rowlingand who should know better?her entirely fictitious character Albus Dumbledore is gay. Rowling revealed this factoid during a reading at Carnegie Hall Friday evening, in response to a fan who asked if Dumbledore had ever found true love. “I always saw Dumbledore as gay,” Rowling replied. So we still don’t know if the guy ever found true love, but now we have to deal with the mental image of Albus making whoopee at some wizardly lemon party. I daresay most people, gay or straight, could have lived without knowing that. (Although the slashfic community is going to be all over this like a sopping wet Cloak of Invisibility. Or Visibility. Whatever.)
I’m no scholar of the Harry Potter books (still haven’t read the seventh, for example), but I don’t recall hearing anything about the sex life of any other adult figure in the series, and I’m fine with that. Dumbledore’s orientation could have remained a subject of speculation, like Ricky Martin’s or Professor McGonagall’s. Telling us he’s gay doesn’t really advance the story or expand the character, and once you know about the sex life of this ancient, bearded patriarch you can’t un-know it. Sort of like that “lemon party” link above.
17 comments
She did answer the question:
“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….”
It makes sense if you’re a fan and know who Grindelwald is.
I am not really surprised. Thanks to Ian McKellen I think of Gandalf as gay now also, and Dumbledore always seemed to be a cheap knockoff.
In case you had not noticed, Mr. Atoz, there are a number of adult characters in the books who are married. I believe we can safely infer their presumed sexual orientation. I imagine you are going to complain about how knowing this is “TMI”.
Jvon: The Ian McKellen comparison is exactly right.
Berry, I still haven’t read the seventh book. My impression from the comments on a couple of other sites was that Rowling was going beyond the information in the text, but I could be wrong.
Flea & Jvon, I think the Ian McKellan/Gandalf comparison is a good one, mostly because Sir Ian isn’t Gandalf. He played the part excellently, but Sir Ian is a real person with his own emotional life, and Gandalf is a mythic and basically asexual character. Dumbledore strikes me as similar. Giving him an orientation and, presumably, a sex life might be more realistic, but realism isn’t a dominant feature of the series and in this case it seemed like a misstep.
Authors do — in fact, should — know things about their characters that never find their way into print. If she had said, “Yes, when he was a young man he loved a girl who was killed at the hands of [whothehellever -- I don't read these things],” would you still have thought of it as TMI?
Mr Atoz – if/when you read book 7, it totally makes sense. Sorry if I accidentally spoiled it for you!
In general, I know a lot of people believe she just pulled it out of her backside for publicity, but JK’s been doing interviews and question sessions with fans, revealing unprinted info about the characters for years. She’s got boxes full of background on all her characters (seemingly petty info but meaningful to fans). To me this is one such snippet, I’m not surprised at all.
I was actually more surprised to find out Snape is straight.
Yeah Flea! And does the man ever wash his hair?
I agree authors must know things about character that don’t find their way into stories; how else to judge their motives, intentions, and so forth? I don’t blame her for saying he is gay, and I’m not surprised either. He was kind of a strange man who kept to himself, wasn’t he? So this helps explain why that is.
Gandalf was a different sort of character as far as literature goes, but the public perception of him (thanks to the movies coming out around the same time) is certainly tied to Dumbledore. Not surprising that one story (even the casting in the movie made from it) might influence the other. I got the feeling reading the later Rowling books that she was writing with an eye to how it would be handled on screen later. Also got the feeling she wasn’t very good at it and should have left it to the screenwriters.
I thought the way the whole Snape thing was resolved was pretty good. But yeah, not a very likeable character. Not even after everything is explained, I don’t think.
So… gay men are strange and keep to themselves?
Hagrid is straight, btw.
Speaking of gay men, has anyone else noticed Daniel Radcliffe’s angry ass?
How come “angry ass” does not merit a text link ad? I think there is an untapped market there.
Re: gay men — sure, if they are living somewhere where homosexuality is not accepted. What else would they do but keep to themselves? There didn’t seem to be much room in the Harry Potter universe to take on homosexual relationships. Even the heterosexual ones were very much glossed over.
You have a point about Hagrid, I suppose, but he was a giant (half-giant?) so his dating options were pretty limited.
Oh and yes, Daniel Radcliffe’s angry ass is seared — seared — into my memory. Thank you for that.
Re: gay men sure, if they are living somewhere where homosexuality is not accepted.
This is called “projection”. Neither JK Rowling – the author and creator of the Potter universe – nor her audience have a problem with it. You do.
This are kids books, btw. But feel free to write an adult version where gay wizards can be free!
I wasn’t engaging in projection, but you are engaging in amateur psychology. And poorly, at that.
Oh come on. This article actually offended me somewhat – I little expected to see this kind of bias on a site I’ve always considered reasonably liberal. The characters are real and have backstories for JK Rowling, even the parts of their lives that don’t make it into the books. She has every right to have a gay character – gay people do exist, and there’s no legit reason to perpetuate intolerance by leaving them out of books – and she only revealed this apparently horrifying tidbit because of a fan’s direct question. I mean, if her answer to “did Dumbledore ever find love?” was “yes, with Gellert Grindelwald (a man)”, that might confuse people but would still make the point that he was gay. It’s no worse than for her to answer that question with “yes, with (X young lady)” were he straight.
Honestly, I wasn’t that affected by the information. I just recall thinking “Oh, that makes sense” and moving on. Because it’s not a big deal for a character to be gay. Especially when it’s not an integral part of the story.
Sorry, ranting a little – the negative reaction against Rowling for writing a gay character and revealing his orientation in response to a direct question … it’s really been bothering me. She did nothing remotely wrong.