[HPforGrownups] ADMIN: Discussions vs. Inflammations

[Lindsay Stirton]

No: HPFGUIDX 20072

Dear All,

They say that first impressions count. As a new member of this list I was
looking forward to listening in on HP discussion (maybe even adding my two
sickles worth now and then) but it would seem that this discussion group is
not for me. The first ten posts or so that I received seem to document, on
the one hand, speculation of a gay relationship between two of the major
characters, and on the other indignation that group members would even
consider this outrage. All this strikes me as utterly banal. Like all
classic children's literature, Harry Potter is concerned with the 'big'
themes: the sexual orientation of the characters is neither here nor there,
and any space devoted to this theme would presumably be cut by any right
thinking editor as extraneous to the central plot line. At the same time,
the reaction that this has caused within the group seems to be out of all
proportion to the original remark. I am not sure that homosexuality is
'sick', but I see know good reason why, even if it were, that homosexuality
is not a proper subject for consideration within literature -- although I do
suspect that the Harry Potter books are not a good medium for that
particular theme. Do we really think that anything that we judge to be
'unwholesome' should not be discussed, as though it does not exist?
Homosexuality does exist and when my children (I do not yet have any, but
some day I might) are exposed to it (as surely they will be) I want them to
be capable of confronting the issue squarely and maturely and not at all in
the knee-jerk way that it has been treated in this discussion group. To my
mind, deliberate violation of human rights for sheer pleasure (as in muggle
torture in HPIV) clearly is sick, yet it is quite appropriate that JK
Rowling incorporates muggle torture into her work. Whatever the rights and
wrongs of homosexuality, I am sure that our understanding of that issue has
in no way been advanced by the posts of members of this group.

Lindsay