More Dumbledore

I know, I KNOW, you don't particularly care about the Harry Potter stuff, once toting around the latest tome no longer guarantees you so hip it hurts status.

Just a quick thought though- Edward Rothstein has a really thought provoking essay on the whole Dumbledore is gay thing. Truly lovely and as is his wont it's almost theological in citing detailed sources and resources- you should read it if you care about these things.

Thing is Eddie, who are we kidding? JK is hinting at a prequel (poor dear's proposed mystery series must really not be going well, public posturing notwithstanding) and to keep public interest up she's got to start the buzz way in advance. As book series go though, you've got to give the woman credit for creating an entire generational hysteria around what was at one point thought to be mostly ripped off plot. Wonder who'll be reading any of this stuff in a decade.

As You Were....

To The Left, To The Left- Dumbledore is Queer, Did You Hear?

J.K. Rowling, in a brilliant marketing move/spectacular moment of *let's squeeze the last remaining drop of possible press potential out of this Potter kid before I disappear into the ether for good* announced that Albus Dumbledore, the head of the famed Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft was in fact about as straight as Elton John.

According to a piece in Newsweek, during a reading for a packed audience in Carnegie hall One fan asked whether Albus Dumbledore, the head of the famed Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, had ever loved anyone. Rowling smiled. "Dumbledore is gay, actually," replied Rowling as the audience erupted in surprise. She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort's predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonished fans, Rowling added. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy."

Or perhaps on the realization that pissing off the religious right was in fact building her audience in the creative left, Rowling decided the time was ripe to announce a gay character.

Ain't love grand?