Why Dumbledore being gay does and does not matter

There were so many emotions running through me when I first read this the other day that I can't remember what came first. I was surprised and felt a little consternation (er, wait, what?) at first, but what lasted was delight. This explains so much!

I guess it occurred to me that there would be people who would use this as further ammunition against J.K. Rowling and the books, but it wasn't until after I read some of the comments at cnn.com like my friend suggested in his blog about the subject that I realized how upset people were.

Now, I'm not going to respond to the people who would be shocked and morally offended by any character, especially in a children's book, who is gay. There is nothing I can say that will affect how they feel about the subject. I am sorry if this will prevent some parents from letting their children or future children read the books, but I hope those who truly want or need to read Harry Potter will find him somehow.

There were a couple other reactions as well. One was why does it matter? Another was variations on the theme: if it was really important, she would have/should have included it in the story and is therefore only revealing it now to make money/stir up controversy.

As an aspiring writer I tend to look at things I've read differently, so I do have an answer to these points. This is of course, just my opinion and I have no window into Rowling's mind and I could be completely off base, but this is how I see it. And also it's been several months now since I read the 7th book for the second time so it has faded a bit from my memory.

1. It DOES matter. Why? Because it is part of who, as a character, Dumbledore is. I do not for one second believe that Rowling did not have this planned out from the beginning (or at least from whenever she knew that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had been friends at one point). It's not something she has tacked onto the end now just because she could. I'm sure as an integral part of who Dumbledore is, this facet of his life was filtered through everything she wrote about him. It just wasn't necessarily visible to us (or Harry--more on that later). The fact that he was gay and in love Grindelwald explains so much about what Harry and we all found out about him in the Deathly Hallows. I have to admit that although I still respected and admired Dumbledore, I was disappointed in his actions as a younger man. I was sympathetic, but I, like a lot of readers, I think, had put Dumbledore on a pedastal and I wanted him to live up to my expectations, even after he was dead. I was disappointed that he could speculate on the Hallows and the power they could bring with this foreign wizard, disappointed that he let it go so far that it would cause his sister's death and disappointed that when he saw Grindelwald amassing power, it took Dumbledore so long to confront him. Now we do know. He had fallen in love that summer, with all the passion and abandon of the young. I don't know why it relieves me so much, but it does. I guess it's because I didn't find Dumbledore's actions understandable before (despite his explanations to Harry--or is that Harry's subconscious projection of what Dumbledore would have said in that weird little afterlife?). Anyway, now I do find everything understandable and therefore less disappointing. I guess I'm a romantic. :-)
   
2. Despite the importance to Dumbledore's character and all the revelations about him and the Elder Wand in the 7th book, it DOES NOT matter. Why? Because it doesn't matter to Harry and it's Harry's story. There is a reason why the books are called Harry Potter and the such and such. Except for a very few exceptions, the books are told from Harry Potter's perspective. I think by the time Rowling sat down to write the first book, she knew the whole background of all her major characters and quite a few of her more minor ones. Some of that is integral to those characters. We all have things that happen to us, people that we meet, that are of primary importance to who we are today. But if we are a minor character in someone else's story, no matter how important that event/person is to us, doesn't mean it matters in the story. This is one of those times. For the majority of the series, no matter how Dumbledore was shaped by his sexuality and how it related to "his great tragedy" in terms of Grindelwald, it didn't matter to the STORY, HARRY'S STORY, to what was happening at the time. Did it matter that Dumbledore was gay when Harry first came to school and then learned all about Voldemort and the Sorcerer's Stone? Did it matter when the Chamber was opened? Did it matter when Dumbledore and Voldemort battled in Order of the Phoenix or when he was mentoring Harry in Half-Blood Prince? No. It didn't. It didn't have any bearing on the story at all. Harry didn't even wonder about Dumbledore's family until forced to in the 7th book.
   

To sum up. I suppose if Rowling had managed to give Harry away to find out along with everything else in the 7th book, she could have done that. It would have been nice to know when learning about Grindelwald and his sister and everything. But I think it would have been a difficult thing for Harry to find out and really, compared to everything else that was going on, very unimportant.

Anyway, that's my opinion.

World Fantasy, Here I Come

After a couple months of dithering, I have finally officially registered and paid up to attend this year's World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York. As this convention is more geared toward professionals than newbies, I doubt there will be much on how to get published or changes to meet agents in pitch sessions or anything like that. Instead there will be panels on different literary topics, lots of published authors and publishing professionals around and books galore. At least that's what I think it will be like. The theme this year is ghosts, which isn't that relevant to my work, but perhaps I will be inspired to write something. I've gotten ideas from stranger places. :-) I'm hoping to enjoy the atmosphere, meet interesting people and talk about books.

I'm still waiting to hear that my hotel reservations will be confirmed, but hopefully they will call me soon. I put my credit card number in and everything, so if I don't get word soon, I'll have to call them, which will not make me happy.

I signed up to go to the awards banquet and have added almost all the nominees to my booksfree.com list. It will take some work to read them all before the convention, but I'd like to at least be informed about one category. I'll probably have to buy some of them, since booksfree isn't really good at sending me books in the exact order I want to read them. But that's ok. They've all been nominated, so they should be really good, right? I might do a post on my pre-read impressions and then maybe follow-up with post read impressions. Definitely be on the look-out for a post or two about my experiences at the WFC.

Speaking of Young Adult novels...

I read a series of young adult novels not too long ago that I absolutely LOVED! I read the series pretty much two times in a row, the first book three times (the last time I mapped out the first book's plot on note cards) and I had to force myself not to keep reading them! I felt like I was going through withdrawal when I stopped. lol.

The books are (drum roll please!)...Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer! These books inspired and absorbed me so much that not only did I go back to my first novel (which will probably be considered young adult), but I had an idea for a young adult forbidden love story with fantasy elements as well. I'm really excited about it, but I can't talk about it yet as I don't even have the world/magic background worked out, let alone characters or story. Stephenie Meyer has said she had the idea in a dream and so the characters and world and heart of the story came to her all at one time. I'm not so lucky this time, but I think if I can figure some things out, it will be a good world with plenty of potential angst to explore. :-)

I also read another book (this one dealing with fairies rather than vampires) that has also gotten some buzz that I've seen on the Internet (i.e. I have heard of the book--that's why I read Twilight, I kept seeing posts about it on agent's or author's blogs). It's called Wicked Lovely. I didn't like it quite as much as the Twilight series but it was still good. :-) And isn't that cover beautiful?

My Marla book (the young adultish) novel that I'm working on doesn't have a love story--at least not yet; the second book in the series should start developing some of that--and isn't atmospheric like these and it also doesn't take place in the real world, but I'm still enjoying working on it, although I have come to a pause for the past week or two. My real job got in the way. lol. Anyway, I had some ideas with the plot that should really tighten it up. I'm forever saying that. I wish I could come up with a plot and STICK to it! Hopefully, I'll gain that ability as I grow as a writer.

I miss my Veronica Mars!

So I THOUGHT I was recording Veronica Mars all summer so I could re-watch the third season this fall, but apparently, the DVR was set only to save 3 episodes or something, so no luck. This leads me to the first item on my Christmas List--normally non-existent except for vague things like clothes is good, or gift cards for books :-)--the first three seasons of Veronica Mars on DVD.


The picture is for the Season One and Season Two set, but here is the link for the set including all three season, which doesn't have an image yet. Veronica Mars: The Complete First Three Seasons.

So now I've watched the first three or so episodes of the third season and I only have two more (and the Season Three 2-episode finale) saved. I have no idea how it got screwed up, but my episodes will surely end in the middle of a Veronica/Logan breakup, not to mention before the rape case is solved! But I guess since the whole series ends with similar unanswered questions... ah well. And I have seen them all before.

I've been boycotting the CW even though Kristen Bell narrates Gossip Girl and that Reaper show seems kind of interesting. I may not have been able to resist listening to Kristen's perfect snarky voice, but the prospect of seeing her on Heroes (hopefully soon!) has given me the necessary willpower. :-)

And as to the question of whether Veronica Mars of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would make the best Gallagher Girl? Veronica Mars! No question. (But I may be biased considering that I never watched Buffy.) Go to this blog if you want to know what I'm talking about. Ally Carter has written a totally cool young adult series about a secret spy school for girls. Or just buy the first book: I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You.