Sex! Love! Writing!

[sistermagpie]

> Mike:
> Actually, I think learning that some women don't outlive their 
> husbands doesn't need to be forshadowed. (Not that it makes a damn 
> bit of difference, but we did have a widower - Xeno Lovegood). Nor 
do
> I think that finding out that Dumbledore outlived two wives would 
be 
> considered controversial.
> 
> If JKR had made it known that she thought of DD as a double 
widower, 
> it wouldn't have affected my understanding of the story. First, 
> because I don't care what JKR says but doesn't write. And because 
> nothing was written that would have been affected by Dumbledore's 
> past marriages, there were no children and no mention whatsoever of 
> his wives. Just as nothing was affected by his past sexuality or 
lack
> thereof, IMO.

Magpie:
Though it would have if it turned out McGonagall was his ex-wife. The 
point being just that it would be illuminating a relationship in 
canon by telling us wait, there's a romance here--or was. 

Which is basically the only place where DD's gayness comes in--with 
Grindelwald. Other than that it's just as important as any 
character's sexuality, which is part of them but might not be 
something that the author finds a natural way to put in. Had she had 
DD having a little romance with somebody around the time of the Yule 
Ball the way Hagrid did, for instance, that would fit in as easily as 
Hagrid's did. As it stands in story terms the only part that's really 
relevent that we know of is that DD/GG is slightly different than it 
seemed to Harry, just as any DD/McG scenes would be in retrospect a 
bit different than Harry imagined if McG was his ex.

-m