From Hamlet to Gun Moll
Our Blogmaster commented about JK Rowling’s revelation that Dumbledore is gay. California was on fire at the time so I didn’t get a chance to post my own response. JKR has managed to diminish her own creation, she has turned Dumbledore from a character with a fatal flaw into a bimbo falling for a sweet talker. This by the way would be true whether the object of Dumbledore’s love was male or female.
In the book Dumbledore’s agreement with Grindlewald’s anti-Muggle philosophy was based on his family tragedy. The Dumbledore family was torn apart when three Muggles attacked Dumbledore’s very young sister. In that light Dumbledore is classically tragic, getting carried away with revenge. He is the Hamlet of the magical world. But now JKR says it wasn’t justice for his sister that motivated Dumbledore, it was simple lust. In an instance Dumbledore goes from a noble, but flawed hero, to a fool thinking with his pants. It doesn’t matter if Dumbledore’s love object is a woman or man, it changes his basic motivation in joining in with Grindelwald’s philosophy. He is now no longer Hamlet, he is Bonnie Parker. JKR is so quick to jump on the PC bandwagon she can’t even notice how much she has diminished her own work.
Which is fine with me, always hated Dumbledore. I think he should have been turned into the Wizarding police in Book One for endangering children. He probably let Snape kill him because he wanted to get away from the major lawsuit Katie Bell’s parents had dropped on his head. Talk about stereotyping, JKR has portrayed a gay man as being a threat to young children in his care, placing them in constant danger to fight a threat he won’t fight himself. GLAAD should sue.
