One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[Katie]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at ...> wrote:
>
> Katie wrote:
> > I guess what I was referring to, and I 
> > phrased it poorly, was that you have argued 
> > that saying DD is gay has now offended some 
> > people who now don't want to read the books, 
> > and she shouldn't have done that.
> 
> Del replies:
> Not quite. What I have argued is that:
> 
> 1- JKR knew perfectly well that there *are* 
> some of her readers who would stop reading her 
> books if there was a main gay character in them.
> 
> 2- She pandered to the wishes of those readers 
> throughout the 7 books, by creating a strictly 
> heterosexual society, and by writing DD as an 
> asexual character.
> 
> 3- AFTER the 7 books were out, and AFTER a good 
> deal of those aforementioned readers had BOUGHT 
> and read the books, she outed DD.
> 
> That's despicably manipulating IMO. Something 
> worthy of DD himself, and I despise DD on that 
> matter.


<<<<Huge Snip>>>>

***Katie again:


There was a lot more to this post, but I would like to address the 
part relevant to HP. I know we're on the OT list, but I feel this 
whole discussion has veered off into political and social quagmire, 
and I think I'd like to get back to the books. 


I don't understand why JKR would "know" that there is a whole group 
of people that wouldn't buy the books if there was a gay main 
character? I didn't know that before there was such an uproar about 
it! I didn't think it was a real big deal, and appartently, neither 
did she, since she mentioned it so casually. So, I don't think there 
was an intent to deceive. Much like the backstories of other major 
characters, we only get what is relevant to Harry's story - and this 
wasn't - so we didn't get it in the books. It's as simple as that.


Secondly, I don't know why anyone would think she was "pandering" to 
a particular group of anyone. As some others have mentioned, was she 
pandering to the H/R shippers when she got them together? No, she 
was just writing the books the way she wanted to, and some people 
happened to agree with her choices and be happy about it. Was she 
pandering to the LOLLIPOPS people when she gave us the Lily/Snape 
story? No, she just has a lot of devoted fans that realized what was 
about to happen. 


I certainly don't believe that she sat down and consciously 
said, "If DD is gay, no one will read my books. I better keep that 
quiet." It just wasn't meaningful to the story! It didn't matter! 
And then some fan asks her a simple question, she answers, and it's 
a huge deal. I don't think she saw this firestorm coming. I 
certainly didn't.


Furthermore, I have to say that if having a gay character in the 
books (who, as you mention, is only gay in her head, not actually in 
the story) completely ruins the books for them, then I think they 
need to reevaluate how much they liked the books to begin with. 
There is absolutely nothing gay about DD in the books, so if you 
want to ignore what she said, then ignore it and read on. I ignore 
plenty of what she's said about Snape - even what she said in the 
books!! My Snape is a very different man than the one she revealed 
in DH, and in later interviews, and I just choose to ignore that, 
because I keep my Snape in my head when I read. If I can ignore 
actual canon in order to enjoy the book, I don't understand why 
other people can't just ignore her one-off comment about DD and keep 
on reading? 


Katie