[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: One reporter-JKR's revelations: Chapter & Verse

[Lee Kaiwen]

bboyminn:
 > She seems ... to answer with /qualified/ statements....
 > she never said Dumbledore was gay, she said 'I always
 > thought of him as gay'. ... I don't think she is intending
 > to dictate this to us as if it were canon.

I made the same argument in JKR's defense about a week ago. Then came 
her Toronto interview. "He is my character", she said. "He is what he is."

Sounds like dictating to me. Not only does she view DD as homosexual, 
she expects us to, too.

Magpie:
  > Some people, I guess, find it makes it "more real" when
  > she throws out random facts that are outside of canon.

Exactly. JKR is certainly aware at this point that she doesn't have 
"opinions" about her characters. Both to a large portion of her fandom 
and to JKR herself (if the Toronto interview isn't being misreported) 
her "opinions" are fact. When JKR speaks, it isn't reported as 
"opinion". It's reported as a "revelation", a "bombshell", an 
announcement. As fact. The Leaky Cauldron headline said simply, "DD is 
gay!" Reuters (and others) reported it as a "revelation". And, yes, many 
fans immediately accepted it as canonical fact.

And this DOES limit the rest of us; we ARE no longer free to imagine DD 
otherwise. From this point on any heterosexual speculations about DD 
will either have to be kept to themselves, or be forced to defend 
themselves against JKR's "opinion", despite the fact that they are 
certainly allowed by canon. The ensuing furor will so effectively drown 
out the actual speculations it won't be worth the bother of raising them 
at all.

--CJ