One reporter reacts to JKR's revelations

[Tonks]

> Carol:
> 
I'm also talking about the
> effects of JKR's post-publication announcements on *any* reader's
> interpretation of the books, not just my own. (Do you see DD
> differently now that she's made that announcement? I suspect that 
you do. I don't see how any adult could read her answer to the DD in 
love question and not rethink both DD himself and the DD/GG 
relationship, both of which we previously interpreted solely based 
on what's in the books--unless we factored in "the epitome of 
goodness" and accepted or rejected it, as we can't so easily reject 
information that she presents as "fact.")
> 
> BTW, you mentioned on the main list that JKR's message includes
> questioning authority (which, of course, most of us picked up on
> whether we agree with that message or not). I meant to include that
> remark in my previous post but forgot, so I'll bring it in here
> instead. Does JKR mean that readers should question authority 
unless *she's* the authority, in which case, we should regard the 
characters as hers instead of the general public's or the world's? 
Or does she mean question authority, period, in which case her own 
pronouncements are also subject to question?
> 
> Carol, still recommending the article and hoping that Pippin will 
read it if she hasn't already done so
>

Tonks:
It is a very good article and I agree with the reporter 100%. As to 
everyone now seeing DD differently. Well I am very stuborn and I 
have decided that Rowling does not know DD as well as she thinks 
that she does. 

At some point a character no longer is what the author imagined 
him/her to be and comes to life with a will of his/her own. They 
start to be their own person. When Rowling said she had some trouble 
with DD in the last book, maybe it was because she and he had an 
argument over that little point about his life. How often do we in 
real life think we know someone and are wrong? I might look at a man 
who has some mannerisms that shout ‘gay’ to me and it turns out that 
he isn’t. So I have decided that Rowling just doesn’t know DD well 
enough to know his true nature. I think that he is one of those of 
high intelligence for whom their passion is their work, their 
research. For DD his pursuit of knowledge of the universe and magic 
was more important than sex, being such a base thing was never on 
his mind. He had higher pursuits. Rowling has her opinion of the man 
and I have mine. And I am just stubborn enough to say that hers is 
wrong. So I will not read the books any differently than I have in 
the past.

Tonks_op