Sunday 21 October 2007

Stirring the Possums

Rattling the cage, and setting the feline amongst the avians.

From Xinhua and multiple other sources:


Asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love," J.K. Rowling said Friday night that the beloved character was gay.
...
A 19-year-old fan from Colorado asked about the top wizard's love life. She always thought of Dumbledore "as gay," she said.

She explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards.

Refering to Dumbledore's feelings, Rowling said "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

That love, she said to raucous applause, was Dumbledore's "great tragedy."
That popping sound you hear is that of many Fundamentalists' heads imploding.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't say I'm thrilled with the author for making this announcement--it feels like a marketing ploy.
The "anything to do with magic / witches is evil!" fundies weren't thrilled with Happy Rotter in the first place. I read the first three or four, and my son has read them all. The lesson he got, though, was "Happy does something he shouldn't and then keeps secrets from the people who would help him. Keeping secrets means he's not in touble...he's in BIG trouble." I doubt that's what Rowlings meant to teach, but that's a good lesson.
--laserlight

Zoe Brain said...

Whenever I see some of the blatant "bearing false witness" engaged in by money-making enterprises like the "Concerned Women of America" and the "Americans for Truth", I think of some of my dearest friends who are not just Christian, but could even be classed as Fundamentalists.

It gives me a sense of perspective, so I don't automatically associate Fundamentalist Christianity with actual evil.

I know too many people who are Christians in fact, not just in name. People who try as hard as they can to be decent human beings, and not so convinced of their own piety that nothing they do can be wrong in their own eyes.

It can be difficult to remember this sometimes though.

Here's a quote on this very issue from Americans For Truth :
I have no objections to textbooks including the important invention or discovery of a homosexual or transgender person so long as their homosexuality or transgenderism is not mentioned.
Because then some might be misguided into seeing them as worthy human beings.
To mention it suggests that somehow their deviant sexual impulses are connected or relevant to their discovery, invention, or contribution to learning. And supporters of subversive sexuality know this. They know that associating the deviant sexual orientation or identity with something positive will irrationally transform society’s perception of the deviant sexuality.
Perfectly true. It makes demonising them far more difficult if they can be seen as people, not the spawn of Satan.
Concerned citizens must strenuously oppose the identification of the sexual orientation or sexual identity of figures discussed in textbooks.
That's called "lying by omission". Airbrushing History. Hiding facts that are inconvenient. Stalin would approve.

I urge believers to pray for them. They've lost their way. Just like many on the Left, they either believe that Worthy Ends justify Evil means, or their moral compasses have been so misaligned that they can't tell right from wrong any more. Fanatics.

Now I could do with a lot of help, I'm extremely fallible, and human. But their need is greater. And God knows, mine is great enough!

And if you think my comment about "money making enterprises" was off-mark, there's one infallible test of any political or religious site:

Do they allow public comments, or is the only way of communicating with them a donations button? Are they interested in what their supporters or opponents say, or do they just want the money?