| I noticed the hints about Dumbledore's sexuality when I read the last book. J.K. Rowling has a way of creating mystery and provoking controversy, in part because she enjoys the resulting interpretations and speculation on the part of her readers. That's one of the things that makes it fun to read novels in general. But I am surprised that she confirmed that Dumbledore is gay. His sexuality just wasn't essential to the story in the first place, and I didn't think she would ever want to give the "secret" away.
You might say that sexuality in general doesn't play a big role in the Harry Potter novels. For one thing, they're children's books, and second of all, none of the characters' relationships plays more than a minor role in the story. It wouldn't matter whether Harry fell in love with Hermione, Ginny, Parvati, Luna, or anyone else. But that's partly because we take heterosexuality for granted. We take it for granted that most people fall in love and get married (Harry couldn't have been born if his parents hadn't been attracted to each other), so it's no big deal when the characters do that sort of thing. At most, it's merely interesting who chooses whom.
But when something deviates from the scheme of things we're used to, the earth shakes. Even if it only concerns a fictional character in a minor way.
It would have been very interesting if Rowling had spent more time exploring Dumbledore's feelings about Grindelwald. First the two of them fell in love in their youth, and then they became mortal enemies and finally had to have a big showdown. It's a shame that we only got a peripheral look at that, since 1) Rowling couldn't talk about steamy love affairs in her children's books, and 2) Rowling couldn't make it clear in the book that Dumbledore was gay because so many people would disapprove. It's too bad there isn't an "adult" version of the books that could deal with such mature themes. But that's a limitation we'll just have to live with.  |