questions to JKR (p. the 'gay' one)

[Flying Ford Anglia]

No: HPFGUIDX 3876

Pengolodh at the boards wrote:
 
>>While I am interested to know whether there will be a gay or
>>lesbian character in future books (being gay myself),
>>I do not see any requirement for it.  I do not want to
>>see it appear just because she is "supposed" to have a
>>nice gay person in there

Amanda replied:

>Thanks; I had wanted to suggest not asking this question for this 
>reason, but I couldn't quite phrase it to my satisfaction, not 
>wanting to offend, either.

I agree.  Those of us who want to can draw our own conclusions on the 
sexual orientation of some characters, without the need for tokenism 
(hey, another -ism!).  I'd have to say that I rarely read books 
thinking "I wish they'd written a gay character into this" and, 
frankly, the Harry Potter series is far from the first place I would 
be looking.  It's that 'order of fries' argument again: we should eat 
what is put in front of us (a feast, let's be honest) and not try to 
get beans on the plate instead of peas.  

When it comes to choosing questions to ask JKR, I support the view 
that we shouldn't be asking her to reveal every trick and plot 
development she has up her sleeve.  The odd leak is fun, but I'd 
rather have the really big secrets revealed when I have my nose 
buried in book 5, 6 or 7. I want to be surprised by these books, not 
think "oh yeah - I read that in an interview." 

I think questions should relate to 'mysteries and inconsistencies' in 
the first four books.  That # students question was a valid one, for 
example.  Shame about the answer, which made no sense. I'm saying all 
this having come in on the tail end of this 'JKR interview' thread, 
but I gather she's doing a number of online interviews?...I guess I 
should go and catch up on the messages.

Sorry - I seem to have gone all seeeeerious on you lately, but I'm 
sure that won't last very long <g>.

Neil