One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[sistermagpie]

> > Magpie:
> > I don't think I'll ever get this, because I don't get what 
they're 
> > losing by not listening to Dumbledore. What is he saying that's 
so 
> > important that they woudl put into practice that they can't get 
if 
> > they don't want to listen to him because he's gay? Couldn't she 
> just as easily have blown it when she revealed him to be as 
> imperfect as he was in DH?
> > 
> > It just seems like you're starting with this premise that 
> Dumbledore is changing the world here and then it all ends because 
> she said he was gay just when everybody was ready to fix all the 
> problems of the world. All I can see is she's got this series of 
> books that are popular but really don't say anything particularly 
> noteworthy at all, 
> 
> Tonks:
> If you don't see the teachings, you don't see them. What can I 
say. 
> A lot of people don't see the Christian symbols either, but they 
are 
> there. 

Magpie:
There are some there, yes. (I don't buy all of the ones that have 
been suggested, still.) A lot of people don't see Big Gay Dumbledore-
-and he's pretty much not there.

Tonks:
> 
> Rowling is in a unique position. No other book, except possible 
the 
> Christian bible, has been read by so many people in every county. 
> The Christian symbolism aside, there are major teachings in the 
> series. Some are obvious and some are not. Children read these 
> books. Children around the world. These books are in libraries in 
> American schools where Christian books can not go. These books are 
> being read by the young people who at an age where they can open 
> mindedly take in the ideas. This is why, in Iran, some objected to 
> the HP books on the grounds that they were brainwashing children 
to 
> Western ideas. 

Magpie:
This is all very vague. So the books are popular. Because they are 
popular people think they are dangerous. So what? What are the ideas 
here that can't be found elsewhere? Dumbledore's raised a teenaged 
boy to take out the evil wizard through suicide. And he's not 
teaching anybody to be gay anywhere in them. 

Tonks:
But the sensors read them and passed them as OK. That 
> was before DD’s outing. Think of it in terms of WWII, instead of 
> Radio Free Europe, we have the HP books. 

Magpie:
God help us. I'll take Radio Free Europe, thanks. HP is hardly the 
only ray of information from the west anybody's getting in the world.

Tonks:
They slip the ideas in 
> under the disguise of entertainment.  How are children 
indoctrinated 
> into any ideas that they will hold later in life? Sometimes their 
> parents, their religion, their culture, and often because they 
have 
> read something that presents ideas that are different than what 
> their parents, religion, and culture have tired to instill in 
them. 

Magpie:
There's plenty of ideas in HP I'd be happy if kids didn't hear 
myself, so I can't get too upset about that. For years people have 
tried to insist they were making kids into readers and they don't 
even do that.

Tonks:

> Now I hear you thinking, well then it is good that DD is gay. No 
it 
> isn’t, if the books do not get past the sensors, be it 
government, 
> school or parents.

Magpie:
No, I'm not thinking that. I'm thinking that DD is not gay in the 
books at all and the only people who know he is gay are people 
who've read reports of that conference. People have attempted to ban 
the HP books already--you yourself even quoted that. They already 
worry that they're indoctrinating people into Western ideas. 

Okay, bad Rowling for giving them one more reason. I personally do 
not think that the HP books being a tiny bit less popular is any big 
tragedy--they're going to do that anyway because they're out now. 
(They already experience drop off in sales when they're no longer 
new.) Some kids will never get to see Star Wars either. I get that 
you're saying that she might lose some readers by saying that omg 
she thinks one of her characters is gay. I don't agree with blowing 
this up into some huge tragedy, or blowing the books up into some 
singularly important moral instruction just because they're popular. 
It still seems like you're giving very special consideration to 
people who don't read these books for *this* reason that you don't 
give to any other reason.

-m