But let's get a better name for it than Dindlewald, shall we?

[amanuensis1]

Sometimes the internet is especially worth waking up to.

Bless her. I've been shipping Dumbledore/Grindlewald since I read DH. And now I'm wondering how many of us will still be so eager to say "Author interviews don't count," without adding, "...er, unless I want them to!" which has pretty much been my stance all along.

And this is one I wouldn't have expected to see revealed in the text, either, because it wouldn't have furthered the plot, it'd've stopped it cold. No place to put it. And that's saying something in a novel as scattered-structured as DH, whoof. Hard to admit that sort of revelation--a theme that ordinarily would have made me squee--would probably have had me yelling, "Shut up already about Dumbledore's effing history, woman! You've bored me to death with it already!"

Comments

[fourth_rose]

*g* Bless her indeed. I still stand by my "author interviews don't count" stance, though, because the Albus/Gellert was SO totally obvious in DH already - as far as I'm concerned, she did reveal it in the book. It was subtext, but it was, if there's such a thing, CAPSLOCK subtext ;))

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

There's just something about the way Harry notices the good-looking boys in text that should clue us in. 'M I right? :D

[eibbil-libbie.livejournal.com]

Yeah - that's a bit too close to Diddlewald for me. Course, that may be what they called it during pillow talk time... ;)

[marginaliana]

Diddlewald sounds unbelievably creepy as a term. Ugh, my brain!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*happily imagines AD/GG pillowtalk*

[bluestocking79.livejournal.com]

I hereby suggest that we call it Grumbledore. :D

I always read Dumbledore as gay, and as far as I'm concerned, the Albus/Gellert love in DH was not all that subtextual, but I never thought that JKR would dare to confirm it. I think this must be the first time I'm pleased by anything she'd said in interviews.

This is just crying out for a flood of new twisted, ambiguous-consent Snapledore fics, wherein Dumbledore uses Severus as a Gellert substitute and extracts full payment for Snape's desperate promise to do 'anything' in order to save Lily. Can't you just picture it? Lots of mindfuckery, manipulation, abuse of power...

[hb-princess.livejournal.com]

This is just crying out for a flood of new twisted, ambiguous-consent Snapledore fics, wherein Dumbledore uses Severus as a Gellert substitute and extracts full payment for Snape's desperate promise to do 'anything' in order to save Lily. Can't you just picture it? Lots of mindfuckery, manipulation, abuse of power...

*is goosebumpy and ded*

God, that's hot. There is not nearly enough ambiguous-consent Snapledore in this world.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

YES. Not only the AD/GG but the Snapledore! In fact, the adxss group on Yahoo is already brimming with happiness. ^_^

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Hi, um, you don't know me, but I've been lurking on your LJ for several years now, and I just wanted to say - I really don't understand why everyone is happy about JKR's 'revelation'. I'm furious about it, on several fronts. Firstly, my reaction is, wtf? She had the opportunity to put gay people IN THE BOOK, and instead she shoved this heteronormative, white middle class lifestyle down our throats and then tries to get the credit and the controversy anyway by rewriting it *after* everyone's already bought the books? No. It's the worst kind of hypocrisy. Secondly, it really smacks of her trying to control the canon. By presenting her reading - because that's all it is, Dumbledore is no more gay in the text than Harry is, which may be pretty gay, but it's still not definitive - as the legitimate, authoritative reading, she's delegitimizing other queer readings. Not only that, but she chose just about the worst character to present as gay, from a progressive point of view - the one who had one unfulfilled gay crush fifty years ago, and is now safely dead. That just doesn't cut it for me.

Anyway. Sorry, I've been reading this happiness all over my flist, and I'm just so angry. *fumes*

[meishali.livejournal.com]

Um...I'm another lurker, and I actually lurk on your LJ, too.

But, yah, my first reaction was pretty much WHY THE F#%K IS EVERYONE SO HAPPY!!!!! And is she trying to insinuate that gay people are evil? *sorry, always thought Dumbledore was a manipulative bastard*

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Your sentiment is understandable, but your claims are full of holes.

Putting Dumbledore's sexuality in the book directly would have been too distracting to the plot. I'm sorry to say it, but in today's world and with the fact that Harry Potter is primarily a children's series, calling that much attention to something so inconsequential to the story would have been ridiculous. Looking back, she's been giving up hints of Dumbledore's preference since Book 1, just very subtly. She's not being hypocritical, she's just being sneaky. Besides, this is an adventure series, not expressly queer fiction, and sexuality of the characters ought to be treated as non-chalantly as possible.

And how do you know Grindlewald didn't reciprocate Dumbledore's affections, for a little while? Dumbledore's romance, at least, turned out better than Snape's crush on Lily. As for beind dead, a LOT of character are dead, and the whole point of the seventh book was that death was not final if you lived on in the minds of people who loved you. Harry wouldn't have named his son Albus if Dumbledore was unimportant to the series.

[gospikey.livejournal.com]

Part of me also thinks it's a bit of a bummer that she picked a dead and very old character to be gay, and not a younger one. But, as always, we'll 'correct' things in fanfic, that's what we're here for.

Spikey

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

Well, the Big Gay Love of his life did happen when he was a teenager. Not that there's a thing wrong with being old and gay. Dead is more of a hurdle. :D

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Minor quibbles aside (so in Jo-land did he never love anyone else? Not even Doge?) I still think I've died and gone to slash heaven. Don't wake me up when she contradicts herself. XD

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I know, I kept looking at the articles saying, "Is this The Onion? Omigod!" :D

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, see, this would be the reason I wrote my 100-word Dumbledore drabble at 4am this morning.

Great job, Jo, though I do hope no one gets it into their heads to give Dumbledore an "Out and Proud" award, which would be slightly unfair considering he's fictional. All the same, today is a good day.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And thanks for presenting your reasoning to others on this thread! You've said a lot of what I was trying to articulate. ^_^

[beckaandzac.livejournal.com]

I was so sick of the "exposition on Dumbledore's past" in DH that there's a fair chance that she could have thrown "BTW, he was gay" in there and I wouldn't even have noticed.

I think it would have been totally superfluous to explicitly state in canon that Dumbledore was gay, the same way it would have been pointless to say, "Remus and Tonks are straight," which would have been a really offensive thing to have clarified, to my way of thinking.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I was so sick of the "exposition on Dumbledore's past" in DH that there's a fair chance that she could have thrown "BTW, he was gay" in there and I wouldn't even have noticed.

*laughs and laughs and laughs* Omigod, YES.

And yes to the rest of what you have to say. I think that what she's presented invites the reader to look for the subtext--not, I mean, as if we don't do this already, but now we have the author's agreement that at least one thing is there if you look for it.

[ackonrad.livejournal.com]

"Author interviews don't count," without adding, "...er, unless I want them to!"

Bless you. This is exactly the way I think about it.

Dumbledore is gay, because JKR said so, and because there are D/G hints in DH. Ginny and Harry are not soulmates, because JKR failed to convince me that they are in her books. There. Full-stop.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*kisses you deeply* YES AND YES.

[kissed-by-fate.livejournal.com]

Okay, I will admit up front that I don't write any kind of fan fiction. I do, however, adore the Potterverse. I know that the revelation that Albus was gay is newsworthy, but will it change how you see him now? Have you lost or gained any respect for him, or what he accomplished in his life?

I'm a little sad about it, myself. But not as sad as if she'd said Snape was all evil... (yeah, double standardish, ain't I?)

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's one of the reasons the information was withheld in the text. Dumbledore being gay simply doesn't change anything.

Also, I don't think you're double standardish about Snape, because, oh, I would have been pretty upset if he had turned out to be working for the Dark Lord all along.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

I'd like to think that later on down the road, Elphias Doge told Harry about the Big Love and Harry was all "pfft, I totally called that one."


Really, really big smile over here. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Harry would be all, "Dude, he evaded all my questions by talking about SOCKS. You think I didn't know?"

[chimbleysweep]

I've been rolling in the glee at grindeldore!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know that was THERE! I'm so happy to find that! :D

My flist is so much fun right now

[rectpropagation.livejournal.com]

You, however, win for the best post title.

(The laughing and grinning has given me a headache and I don't care)

Re: My flist is so much fun right now

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Awwww! *huggles*

[raining-slash.livejournal.com]

"Author interviews don't count," without adding, "...er, unless I want them to!"

So true. :-P

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

IT'S MY FANVERSE AND I'LL MAKE MY OWN RULES. :D

Icons

[natasha-arruda.livejournal.com]

Lol sorry, this has nothing to do with your post. I was on a different journal reading fics, and I noticed your icon. Not sure if you created it, the one that says Not het, not slash, just you? But one of the icons isn't actually Draco and Harry lol. It's Seifer and Squall from Final Fantasy VIII.

The one where the blonde is above the brunette, pinning him to the bed and licking up his neck. Not sure if you knew, or the creator knew, just a little knowledge for ya.

Re: Icons

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Do you know, someone did tell me that, once upon a time! I couldn't remember their names, but they told me it wasn't actually H/D. And I (like a lot of rabid H/D fans), said, "Ah, heck with it, close enough for iconning." :D

[linconclusive.livejournal.com]

It's likely that it's all been run over already above, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway ;)

DH did kind of scream "I ship AD/GG!" at the top of its little papery voice, but part of what I liked about the Harry Potter books was that Rowling never explicitly dealt with drawing lines in the sand in terms of sexuality. You could pretty much read whatever you wanted into it. So now to go and drop in another tidbit of demystifying material after the fact just rankles me because it means that millions around the world are going to tick the last little check box next to Dumbledore's character and make no attempt to look any further than the fact he wears bright colours and is gay.

Heh, I guess that comes across as a little cynical. But I think if it was something she really wanted to say, then she should have said it in the book (have Rita making subtle allusions about the 'friendship' could have really made the bits Harry read sting) and not dropped what she must have known was a massive bombshell months later.

And lastly, er...I've definitely got my fingers crossed for you having some Grumbledore fic hidden up your sleeve ^_^

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I have lots of Grumbledore thoughts, and I hope one of 'em turns into a fic at some point! I look around at the other people writing them and am so HAPPY. :D

[capri-chan.livejournal.com]

...

Okay, for some reason, LJ isn't e-mailing me when things update, or else I would have replied before now. But at least I'm not so confused as to why "you haven't said anything yet."

I have a horrible, horrible weakness for backstory, and thus loved not only Dumbledore's history, but HBP as well. But you're right, that right there would have brought the plot to a screeching halt.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

That's my basic argument--where did people want it put that it wouldn't have overshadowed everything else? If the answer is that they wouldn't have cared if it did, then I think that just describes an agenda that Rowling didn't have.

[fly-chickadee.livejournal.com]

I love how she said, "Oh, the fan-fiction," as if it was a curse and a blessing. Which, in a way, it is, but it was so funny how she especially pointed it out. XD

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It's the perfect capper on that. Perfect.