The Lionising, the Wizard and the Closet

[desperance]

Hmph. So Rowling says Dumbledore is gay. After all the books and all the reviews are written, after all the fuss is over, she trots this out.

Two things. If this is the case, it really shouldn't need saying, surely? It should have become evident, it should be at least inherent if not explicit somewhere in that vasty text. If it's not there to be read or interpreted, then it's not material and it really doesn't need saying. It either matters, or it doesn't; if it matters it needs to be there, and if it doesn't matter then who needs to know? Etc. That old phrase "show, don't tell" comes bubbling to mind; if she has to out him after the series is finished, then she hasn't done it right.

Also, I'm unimpressed by her choosing to do it now, at this cold dead end of all the hoo-ha. While the books were still happening, it might have been significant, even if only of a creative failure; now it feels both morbidly cautious and somewhat cynical, as though a final poke at the cooling ashes might ignite just a little more media glow.

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

What's in her head about the character's...erm...backstory is just that - in her head. If it's not in the book, it doesn't count. And as you say, if she has to tell us afterwards then she's messed it up. What does this add to man or beast? Nothing.

Come to think of it, were there any gay characters in the books? Is she just saying this now in order to safeguard her right-on credentials, or in a cynical attempt at brand extension?

BTW: Rowling was never exactly the mistress of subtext. She could write an enjoyable yarn, but needed judicious editing in the later years but no-one dared to say "YAWN" to some of the padding.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

She could write an enjoyable yarn, but needed judicious editing in the later years

Yup. I was actively bored by the last one I read (number four, perhaps? I was in Taiwan, out of reading matter and raiding my hostess's shelves; happily she had an English reading habit, because my Mandarin, well, no...).

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

The fourth one was the lowest point. The later ones were better (although the last one was evidently rushed and suffered greatly from an excess of exposition).