The Greatest, the Chosen and the Brightest

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 179490

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Laurel Lei" <laurel_lei at ...> 
wrote:
>
> In reading and following some of the various threads... I noticed 
> the "Down With Dumbledore" theme.
> 
> I think that people, since J.K.'s public revelation, are now 
trying 
> to find more ways to show that Dumbledore is a "bad" or "cruel" or 
> a "terrible" person...(and please insert your own adjective here 
and 
> this is not a new topic, by the way).
>  
> Unfortunately, it's human nature to see fault... and now in some 
> people's eyes he's even worse by being viewed as gay. Just another 
> layer to categorize or to rationalize dislike. To each his own, I 
> say.  Live, Love and be Happy!

wynnleaf
I disagree.  Even before DH, there were many, many readers who were 
very concerned with the ethics of Dumbledore after reading his many 
manipulations and decisions and apparent willingness to risk even 
the lives of children in his care in order to win the war.

Immediately following DH, the increased dissatisfaction with 
Dumbledore escalated dramatically, well before JKR's announcement 
that he was gay.

When JKR announced that she thought of him as gay, I personally felt 
it was a pity that she waited to announce that until 
i after
 so many readers had developed such a negative view of him.  It's 
too bad that she couldn't have revealed that piece of information 
when more readers revered him.  But while there are certainly some 
who dislike Dumbledore *because* of his sexuality, that is only, as 
far as I see across the fandom, only a small contingent compared to 
many, many people who aplaud JKR having a gay character, but very 
much dislike Dumbledore's ethics.

>  Laurel Lei
> While reading any of the books in the series, I had always thought 
of 
> Dumbledore as a great, caring wizard. But, I never thought of him 
as 
> the "greatest wizard". Just like I never totally "bought into" the 
> idea that Hermione was the "brightest witch of her age". Nor did I 
> buy into Harry as the "Chosen One" and that he, alone would save 
the 
> Wizarding World.

wynnleaf
Although it seems that Hermione *is* supposed to be the brightest 
witch in her age group.  And Harry was necessary to the destruction 
of Voldemort.  And as far as I can tell, especially since JKR shows 
that apparently only Dumbledore could defeat Grindelwald and 
Voldemort really was only afraid of Dumbledore, than Dumbledore is 
supposed to be the "greatest wizard" living at the time.  Although I 
completely agree that they all have their faults.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Dumbledore's revealed 
faults changed the rest of the books for me.

While many considered his decisions questionable all the way 
through, I was able to be comfortable with many of his decisions - 
especially those that risked the lives of children - because I hoped 
JKR would reveal that Dumbledore had special ways of knowing that 
his plans really would work, that children would not die due to the 
risks he allowed, and so on.  But in fact we did *not* learn that.  
Instead, we learned that many of Dumbledore's plans were so faulty, 
that the only reason kids didn't die was because of good luck.  We 
learned that some of Dumbledore's decisions were probably just dead 
wrong, and others highly questionable.

It helps, in a story like HP, for there to be a "great wizard" who 
can actually be trusted to give wise advice, to kind of "know" 
what's going to happen, and when he appears to risk the lives of 
innocents he actually *knows* that either they will really be okay, 
or the particular risk is either unavoidable or truly worth it.  

To discover that was not correct pulls the "safety net" out from 
under all of the books.  No longer can I pretend that Dumbledore had 
some higher or deeper knowledge that his plans would really work, or 
that he was actually correct in his assumptions.  Instead, I 
discovered he was often wrong and his plans didn't always work.

If we'd been presented initially with a character who admitted that 
this was the case, and therefore shared his plans with others, 
included others in his secrets, and sought out the council of 
others, I could still believe that he was truly wise, even though - 
like all humans - imperfect.  But instead, Dumbledore approaches his 
decisions as though his assumptions, plans, and decisions are the 
only possible solutions - as though he must be correct.  He holds 
secrets and seeks no counsel, in some belief that his incredible 
brilliance makes him above all others.  

I no longer see him as wise.  He did eventually see *some* of his 
flaws, but he never sees what I considered one of his biggest 
weaknesses, his unwavering faith in the infallibility of his own 
intellect.

wynnleaf