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So, Is Dumbledore Gay?
For Christmas this year my youngest daughter, Keke, offered me a homemade, duct tape wallet in vibrant blue. “Mom” was written in zebra print, and inside was a hard-earned gift card for me to use at Barnes and Noble. Ah, very dangerous to let me go to a Barnes and Noble – gift card in hand. So hard to choose what to read next...and the little voice inside my head says, “why choose? You deserve it! Go on – buy the books, all of them!”
I was able to exercise my inner-adult and left my petulant temper-tantrum-throwing inner-child on the floor of the travel aisle. I walked out with just a few books. The Qu’ran, which is one of my goal reads this year, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (which I blogged about here: http://kaleidoscope-colored-life.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html), and my last minute decision, The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy – Hogwarts for Muggles.
I had meant to get something about publishing – but to be honest the query process had dragged me down, and I needed a break. I would find something suitably “career oriented” at the library to assuage any guilt that I might be nursing. Little did I realize how much the Ultimate Harry Potter would speak to me about writing.
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Let me first admit that I was a HUGE fan of Harry Potter. So much so that one year for home-schooling I decided to send my children to Hogwarts through their “correspondence course.” I made my children textbooks based on Harry’s school experience. In “Charms” we learned poetry. In “Potions” we learned chemistry. In “Care of Mystical Creatures” we studied the mythological beasts of legend and lore. We studied bats and went spelunking to see their native habitats. We learned about newts and frogs, and of course owls.
Image via Wikipedia On day one, packages from Daigon Ally showed up with the kids’ uniforms and wands. My four children were sorted into their rightful houses. Throughout the year they could earn colored marbles for doing well, and have them removed for being naughty. The child with the most marbles in his or her vase on our last day got the end-party thrown in their honor. It was magically fun. Each evening, the children put their work in their owl bags outside the front door, and in the morning they found the work corrected by Hagrid and Snape and McGonigal. Sometimes there were chocolate frogs or jellybeans in every flavor conceivable -- yes even vomit and snot. For me it was an exercise in creativity and possibility and it was a lot of fun.
Now with my children older – in the eye-ball rolling years – this particular kind of creativity is now longer a source of joy. I have turned back to my writing to create my various worlds and cultures. I am the creator. I know my characters, I know where they live, what their favorite color is, what they prefer to eat, and why they are motivated to do what they are doing. Even if I have not written it down, it’s there in the back of my mind guiding the conversations and the little annoying habits…It never ever occurred to me that this could be disputed.
According to the Ultimate Harry Potter, there is a debate out there though. This debate stems from a comment that J. K. Rowling made at Carnegie Hall one night back in 2007. The comment was, “Dumbledore was gay.” And the fans went out of their minds. There was anger, vitriol and infighting. Did J.K. Rowling have the right to make Dumbledore gay? She never said he was gay in his books – well not outright. One could go back and read into some of the things he had said and see that yes, this could have been an interpretation…hmmm.
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One reader wrote, “To insist on ownership (as she has done) and the right to define or re-define those characters as she sees fit after the fact, is to insist to an absolute control over the literary experience of her readers that she could not possibly have.” (p144) Intriguing isn’t it? Who should own the backgrounds of the characters if not the author? Who should define my characters if not for me? But this is what is being debated.
The book, The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy, is a compendium of essays written about philosophical questions, philosophers’ thoughts, and how they are expressed and revealed in the Harry Potter series. Who would guess that a book existed that explained Socrates, Plato and Aristotle through the notions of heroism, self-worth, destiny, etcetera of the characters in the Harry Potter books. It was a surprise to me that these things were debated, or for that matter that the rights of an author to have a background understanding of her characters was debatable. All very interesting.
I recommend this book – to be read in snippets – to fellow writers because it is thought provoking. I especially enjoyed the thoughts about the realms of motivation. It also percolated some ideas for plot twists and moral struggles. It might even give me a cocktail party conversation or two. Anyone interested in a debate about “choice versus ability” over cold butter-beer?
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The debate rages over who has the right to change or even comment about the author's intent. I could understand the discussions if the author was dead, but if alive? Good grief! Lee Child is under attack right now because he sold the Jack Reacher rights to Tom Cruise for his movie. Child says he thinks that Cruise will be right for the role - Child wrote the character, so he can say what he wants about it. As can Rowling about Harry Potter and the crew. I think we as readers may chat, critique, love or hate the authors - but we don't have the right to change what the author said or meant.
ReplyDeletePatti - That's crazy!
DeleteI have to admit that I am a fan of Janet Evanovish's By the Numbers series - for the first few books anyway. I was concerned when the new movie came out. I like the way I interpret the characters in my head. My daughter and I were both a little -ishy about the choice of actors. But Evanovich sold her rights, so it wasn't her fault - which in the end was relieving. Isn't it interesting that we cling to our interpretations like that?
You are absolutely right though - debate at will once the author can no longer speak. But while still alive and kicking, ultimately the author knows his/her own creation.