Stalinist realism/perfection/Heinlein/lesbian and gay issues

[susanmcgee48176]

One of the reasons that I have had a hard time with the main list 
recently (and really, with deep respect to those who disagree) is 
that everyone has to be perfect.

Harry is now damned because he yearned for Kreacher to bring him a 
sandwich (buying into the institution of slavery). Dumbledore is 
suspect because he has the glasses of oak-matured mead bouncing on 
the Dursleys' head...Moody should NOT have turned Draco Malfoy into a 
ferret.... [the last two were scenes I found hilarious..including 
Dumbledore saying "But alas, rudeness too often occurs accidentally" 
(not exact quote from the HBP)].

I'm surprised as to how many people expect the good guys to be 
perfect!
Great heroic leaders are very imperfect; all humans are imperfect.
I especially have a hard time with people expecting fiction to 
incorporate ALL truth..that's kind of like Stalinist/Soviet Realism
(they rejected modern styles such as impressionism and cubism, since 
these movements existed before the revolution and hence were 
associated with "decadent bourgeois art." Socialist realism was thus 
to some extent a reaction against the adoption of these "decadent" 
styles. Also, the non-representative forms of art were not understood 
by the proletariat and thus could not be used for the state 
propaganda.)...So only art and literature that included all elements 
of the national ideology were permitted....YRGHHHH....

Anyone else a Heinlein fan? (someone who certainly does not reflect 
perfect morality)...when he talks about Captain John Sterling (in the 
Cat Who Walks Through Walls)...Sterling "had a two-dimensional 
quality. He neither smiled nor laughed. He was unfailingly polite but 
always dead serious...." He could not take long lunch hours, as his 
opponent the Galactic Overlord did not either. 

Heaven deliver us from one-dimensional characters..it's one of the 
reasons I like the HP universe. Characters are complex..some are not 
really great, but not really evil (Snape, Slughorn). People change 
(RAB). Kids mature. Basically good guys (like Xenophilius Lovegood) 
do the wrong thing because their kids are threatened....

It's kind of like leaders in the lesbian and gay community not being 
thrilled with JKR because she didn't include lesbian/gay characters 
in the book and only outed DD after the fact. I don't look for 
perfection..yes, (in response to someone), I did think naming DD as 
gay was a step in the right direction. (that homosexual agenda crops 
up again)...I DO want lesbian and gay youth, in particular, to not 
feel invisible, and to see fictional and real lesbian and gay men 
(both great, mediocre and evil) depicted....so that they know that 
lesbians and gay men have choices like everyone else, and can strive 
to keep doing the right thing, or not...

Susan