WHOSE DD is he? (Was: Re: Should JKR shut up? (was Re: I am so happy...

[Lee Kaiwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 178613

CJ:
> HP, the WW, DD -- they're all part of a fictional creation which
> doesn't exist outside the pages of the books.

Rowena:
 > It would perhaps be more accurate to say they don't exist
> outside JKR's imagination.

CJ:

Hmm ... but this IS the problem, isn't it? If I say the characters are 
"real" or they "exist" what I mean is, of course, that they "exist" 
within MY imagination. My imagination has taken the words on the pages 
of a book, constructed the image of an individual in my mind, and then 
filled in the blanks *as my imagination saw fit*. In that sense, then, 
there are as many Dumbledores as JKR has readers, none of them the same 
-- and most particularly, none of them like the DD of JKR's imagination, 
except as they might happen to overlap through the words of JKR's book.

And it is *those* characters -- the characters of *my* imagination -- 
that I fell in love with (or learned to loathe), that kept me spellbound 
and drew me back again for page after page after book after book. It is 
*not* the Dumbledore of JKR's creation that enraptured me -- it is the 
Dumbledore of *mine*.

And this is why JKR is not only wrong but two parts offensive when she 
says, "He is my character. He is what he is." The only Dumbledore JKR 
owns is the DD of her imagination. The DD of *my* imagination was a 
collaborative effort between us, containing as much of me as of her, and 
  then along she comes after the fact, after I've invested so much of 
myself in co-creating *my* DD, to tell me that *my* portion of DD isn't 
worth squat, that it's her imagination and hers alone that counts, and 
then tries to force-feed me her DD. When JKR says, "He is my character," 
she is not only wrong, she is offensive.

What her answer *should* have been was, "Look -- it's not *my* DD you 
care about -- he's not the one you fell in love with. It's the DD that 
exists within *you* that you wish to get to know better. And since I 
can't possibly know as much about your DD as you do, only you can answer 
the question. The question is not, 'Is DD gay?' but, 'Is *your* DD -- 
the one you created, the one you spent the last ten years getting to 
know -- is *that* DD gay?'" That's the kind of respect JKR's readers 
deserve.

[Note: it is not my intention to argue that *my* DD was heterosexual (in 
fact, I had never thought about his sexuality), or that I find the 
thought of a homosexual DD offensive. DD's sexual orientation is simply 
a stand-in in the above argument for "Character Trait X", where "X" 
stands for any character trait not in canon that my imagination has 
already filled in. By *not* including it in canon, JKR left it to my 
imagination to fill in, but then comes along after the fact declaring 
her absolute right to sh**-can *my* DD (or Ron, or Neville) and shove 
hers down my throat.]

CJ:
 > A fanfic author (sorry, don't recall who) recently posted in
 > this list that JKR's statement invalidated her own writings
 > involving DD descendants.

Rowena:
 > I think that would be me.

Ah, thanks. I did a quick search but couldn't find your post.

 > I'm not letting this problem worry me. Besides, gay men do have
 > children sometimes don't they?

Why yes, they do, of course. I'm also not bothered particularly by a 
homosexual DD; only insofar, as I've said above, as it represents JKR's 
fundamental mis-understanding of the author-reader relationship, and the 
subsequent disrespect she has shown to us by insisting that she has the 
right to control *my* DD.

--CJ