Books
A New Way To Be Gay
by Tim Lien
Two weeks ago, J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) took a break from swimming in cash, to speak to rabid fans at Carnegie Hall. The audience’s shock turned to outright happy bedlam when Ms. Rowling answered a fan’s question about a prominent character’s love life. Her response: “Dumbledore is gay.” The CNN story, here.
My problem with this revelation has nothing to do with Dumbledore’s gayness—it has everything to do with our post-modern conception of literature. If I were to tell you that Hester Prynne was a lesbian, then you would politely ask me to open up The Scarlet Letter and prove it from the text. The text must speak for itself. Her lesbianism would be a fantastical personal projection upon her character if the text did not prove it out. Because the genre is fiction, Dumbledore is only Dumbledore between the covers of the book. He does not exist, except within the book and in Ms. Rowling’s mind. Dumbledore may be gay inside Rowling’s mind, but the character (as presented in the books) cannot be gay, unless words describe him as such. Rowling could have said something even more outlandish. She could have said, “Albus Dumbledore is really a fire-breathing, burrito-shaped alien underneath his character’s mask.” Well, ok, we’ll believe you, but it has no bearing on the character that we see written in the books. They are two separate entities—Rowling’s imagination and Rowling’s actual written words. Gay Dumbledore and Book Dumbledore are two separate characters.
Somebody needs to tell Ms. Rowling that Dumbledore is a fictional character.
Dorothy Sayers once received a letter from a lady wondering if one of her fictional characters was a Christian. Sayers simply dismissed the ladies’ concern and replied that his fictional status prevented her from caring whether he was or not.
It seems as if post-modern revisionism applies to any written work. So, regardless, of what you hear from the pulpit on Sunday, my entire sermon will really be about the perils of homosexual fire-breathing burrito-shaped wizard aliens. Just trust me on this one, it’s in my head.
Posted by Tim Lien at October 31, 2007 10:50 AM
I had a teacher once that said that it was impossible to say definitively unless you were ‘the other party’. I added ‘…or you have videotape…’ It appears we have another, shall we say, caveat….
Glad you & M are back safely. It would appear you are well rested. That’s always a good thing.
The thing that bothers me about this, as a lover of literature, is that Ms. Rowling has prostituted her work for thirty seconds of cheers from a group she will never see again. I have never read Ms. Rowling (and don’t expect to simply because of lack of time to read other books more important to me) but Tim is right. Since she didn’t mention his homosexuality, even if it was in her mind, it doesn’t exist. Nothing about him exists except the word picture in the novels, and selling out her art (or craft, as the case may be) for applause would be troublesome to anyone who professess standards about art. Is there nothing in our culture that is not available for sale, however cheaply, for political correctness?
By the way, if her “word picture” of Dumbledore is anywhere close to the picture Tim included, both in appearance and age; why would anyone in the audience think to ask about his “love life?”