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Interesting news, but such news lose much charm when not included in the novel. It would have been better if she had mentioned it in the novel (there was so much else about Dumbledore there!). Actually, from nowhere while reading Deathly Hallows, I got this idea. I wonder if she just made it up.
It appears like Rowling wanted to create some drama and excite HP fans out there. (Has the increasing rate in the stock of pointless HP fanfictions got any less?)
Hi all,
When all the hype about HP flooded my social network, I bought the first book to see what it was all about. I read the first 10 pages and the put the book down. You can understand that after being fully engrossed in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series I could not find any interest in HP.
As a child/teenager I had enjoyed many fantasy books (eg The Scatterling) and frankly in comparison I did not find HP topping those books (although they are not as well known)... Perhaps my extensive reading of fantasy books for young adults those many year ago have killed my openness to HP or perhaps I am passed the stage of teenage fantasy books....
Cactus
id say read past the first 10 pages. actually stick with it past the first half of the first book.... i hated it when i first flicked through it, back in 1999, but i ran out of things to do on a 22hr flight and it became my last resort, and im so glad it was - ive been hooked ever since and have been one of the embarassing few to buy the next issue the first day it was out and reading the whole book within 24hs (if i had nothing on)... the first half of the first book was and still is a bit of a disapointment... but you will regret it if you dont get to the third or fourth books - imho they go downhill from here also - but are still interesting as you want to find out what is behind the prophecy and find out why harry is 'invincible'...
Mommy, people say Dumbledore is gay. What's gay?
I personally have always thought that the Dumbledore character is loosely based on someone she knew--probably a teacher, professor or similar mentor (though obviously its a modified and idealized portrait). Perhaps the person she based him on is gay? Just speculation of course, but my sense is that, in any case, this wasn't some sort of spur of the moment attention getting device. I think this is something she's thought of as being a part of the character for a long time. I don't think it's at all unusual for authors to have all sorts of details about characters in their mind that aren't necessarily written into the story, especially when you've been writing a character for as long as Rowling has.
It could affect the child readers, but JKR is focusing on teenagers and adults as her books slowly reaching the end -- it's getting darker and darker in each book. But now that the series had ended (finally), I think JKR wouldn't let go easily. She wanted more people and the fans since the beginning to love the books as they loved it before, so she is finding some way to bring the enthusiasm of the fans to her books again. Some people who had read the ending - or should I say the epilogue - were disappointed. So she has to find a way to bring her fans to still cherish Harry Potter.
I just can't accept that she has to say Dumbledore is gay. It's pointless.
She cant destroy dumbledore's character.
She'z already made him too great to be tarnished.
I would not fall for it even if Jk turned into Rita Skeeter and wrote Harry potter and dumbledore's darkest secrets,( say book 8 or something).
I voted no, but simply as they are much too much overrated. I read the few first ones some years ago and enjoyed them, but I can't say it was great nor it was bad, but there's so much good literature, that alright is not enough.
Yeees
yes this is a really good ideaQuote:
Originally Posted by Petrarch's Love
I think the Harry Potter series is a best seller for a reason. It speaks on the battle between good and evil, losing loved ones, prejudice, battles against authority, and many other things. I do not understand why everyone is giving it so much flak on this site just because it is so popular. I do agree that alot of things that are considered "mainstream" are grossly overrated, but I do not think that this applies to the Harry Potter series. I do think it was unnessecary for the author to say Dumbledore was gay though.
The things that people often cite about Harry Potter as its qualities have been done better so many times before, which doesn't make it terrible, but certainly detracts from its status. Dealing with loss? Battles between good and evil? Consequences of actions? They're all tropes of fantasy literature that stretch back to the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Meanwhile, the plotting is incredibly weak - full of holes and Deus ex Machina that would put The Hardy Boys to shame.
None of those things makes it bad literature, of course. It's written for kids, and plenty of kids' books are full of cliches and daft plot devices. But it baffles me that adults should get anything from it other than a comforting sense of nostalgia for their own youth.
I didn't know even one person who was reading Harry Potter until the book started being hyped non-stop on the news. It's fascinating to see how easily people can be manipulated.
I'm a Harry Potter obsessee and I could go on forever about the books' good qualities, but I do have to agree with you on the sense that they are, in fact, overrated. Its just that the Potter books are so easily discussed. Rowling likes to put little clues and hidden meanings in her narrative, and I'm such an obsessive Potter fan because I like to try to find those clues. Also, you have to admit that Rowling's world is quite creative and she manages to make it seem believable no matter how fantastical the magic gets.
On the topic of Dumbledore being gay, I do not believe that it was a superfluous character trait; from the intimate way that I know Rowling knows her characters after all this time and the matter-of-fact way that she revealed the information, I think that it was just another characteristic of Albus that she did not feel was neccassary to include in the books. Remember, JKR only revealed that he was homosexual after being asked by a reader if he had ever loved anyone, and in order to answer that question she sort of had to, right?
What's the point? She can always say "no, Dumbledore is Dumbledore and he was in love with McGonagall when they first met". It would be fascinating! :D