Harry Potter is a CHILDREN'S BOOK re: rape sexual preference

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 79626

For everyone, before I get into this post, can everyone PLEASE SNIP
ONLY THE RELEVANT PORTIONS OF THE POSTS WE'RE ANSWERING, INSTEAD OF
THE ENTIRE [CENSORED] MESSAGE? THIS IS NOT, REPEAT NOT, USENET. If
you're not willing to put in the work to make a coherent, legible
post, maybe your thoughts weren't worth the trouble to begin with.

Sue: "Why is it that it's ok for JKR to write about war, death,
racism, oppression, torture, cruelty etc etc, but some people seem to
think that it's not ok for her to write about sexuality?"

It's always been that way in literature, especially for younger
readers.  That's not a satisfactory answer, of course, but my answer
would be that war, death, and so on are very public, while sexuality
is very private, and touches on taboos. We don't want the kids to get
all jumpy after reading the story, do we?

Sue:" Harry will win the battle against evil somehow. Love is the key
here. Love saved Harry from LV when he was a baby. Seems to me that an
exploration of some other forms of love will be something that JK will
do in the next two books."

JKR can, does, and will write about love.  Great literature has long
dealt with love without getting sexual, or at least with sex in the
background.  In canon, we have many kinds of love already: Lily's love
for her son; Dumbledore's for Harry; Harry's for Sirius; the Trio's
for each other; and the beginning of attraction as the characters get
older. It's love we don't spend enough time considering these days –
the kinds of love, who we love, and how we express it. Getting into
sexuality might even overshadow some of the excellent points about
love we're seeing.  It's an example of JKR's genius that we're seeing
so much about love.

I noticed that in your first paragraph you used the word "sexuality"
but substituted "love" in the next paragraph. Love and sexuality are
not synonymous. We all know there's sex without love, and there's many
kinds of love, most of which don't involve sex.  I'm surprised so many
have missed all the love in these stories. The word "love" does not
sound like a zipper opening.

Jim Ferer