Sexuality as a theme in HP (long)

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 119596


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Vivamus" <Vivamus at T...> wrote:
> > Olivier wrote:
> > In this 
> > > post, I try to explore the way I read them: as the journey 
from 
> > > boyhood to manhood, with an explicit reference to 
> > sexuality. Just as a 
> > > forewarning, I insist that the following will deal with adult 
theme.
> 
>Vivamus:

 These
> are childrens books, after all.   There is much illumination about 
the
> growing up process, but it seems to me that sexuality has largely 
been
> washed out of what is otherwise a highly sexually-charged time of 
life.
> Rather than emphasize sexuality, I would say that JKR has DE-
emphasized it.

Renee:
If the references to sexuality would be as explicit as Olivier 
claims, the childrens book argument seems valid to me, but not if 
they're symbolical. Children who aren't ready to deal with such 
things won't get the symbolism. Children who do get it - well, I'm 
inclined to think they are ready. 

JKR may have de-emphasised sexuality on a literal level, but that 
doesn't mean it's not contained in the subtext. I'd say that 
Olivier's interpretation is certainly possible when looking beyond 
the surface of the text. But I have to agree about the sparsity of 
explicit sexual references (so far).  

Renee