WHOSE DD is he? (Was: Re: Should JKR shut up?

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 178649

 


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*.
 
Julie:
I am completely with you so far. We each create our  own individual Harry 
Potter
universe, and the way we interpret the characters, the places,  the actions, 
etc in
the books is that universe's construct. JKR's interpretation  of the 
characters will
never exactly match anyone else's, despite her being the  original creator.

CW:
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.
 
Julie:
Here I disagree, because in at least one sense--the  legal sense--Dumbledore 
IS 
JKR's character. She owns the copyright, and no one else can  recreate 
Dumbledore
in any manner for publication or profit without her consent  (except Warner, 
which has
the rights to the movie version of Dumbledore). And I believe  this is 
exactly what JKR
is referring to, no doubt a bit defensively (I would be). She  created--and 
technically she
owns--the character, so the idea that she should shut up about  the character 
may have
struck her as a bit "offensive." 




CJ:
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.


Julie:
I understand what you are saying, and your imagined quote  above is quite 
wise and
perceptive (though I'd cut out "the one you created" bit if I  was the 
author, because
I should get *something* for all that work ;-). I believe  Douglas Adams was 
quoted 
saying something similar about his characters. I personally  think JKR 
initially gave
the fans what she believed they *wanted* when she answered  that question, 
given the
number of fans who've pestered her not only for clues to  future books over 
and over
but who ate up every tidbit about character backstories and  whatnot she 
offered,
even when those tidbits were from her own background notes and  would never 
be in
the books. (For instance, how many fans *didn't*  accept the background facts 
about
Dean Thomas's upbringing that JKR supplied  but which never made it into the 
books?
My recall is that no one on any list I read protested learning  that 
information, nor 
demanded JKR refrain from offering such extraneous tidbits.)  So where did 
she ever
get the idea that her fans (separate from Douglas Adams fans)  wanted to know 
any
little tidbit she'd be willing to share? And how should she  have been able 
to separate
the easy acceptance of Dean's non-canon backstory facts from  the sudden fury 
that
greeted her revelation that Dumbledore is gay? (One could  argue the Dean 
bits were
offered before the saga was officially finished, while the  Dumbledore 
factoid came 
after the saga was complete, but I don't see exactly how that  makes a 
difference,
as they are still extraneous facts outside of book  canon.)
 
CJ:
[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.]
 
Julie:
It still amounts to the same thing though, that no one  complained about 
Dean's
backstory, or other non-canon (not in the books) facts JKR  offered that never
made it into the books. So why  now?


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.

Julie:
I'm not sure I agree that any fanfic can be "invalidated' by  canon, since 
fanfic
isn't part of canon, and much of it has very little to do with  canon anyway! 
(I'm 
also kind of curious when the stories were written that were  invalidated, as 
all
fanfic written before DH was written with the explicit  knowledge that it 
might 
become something not consistent with canon once DH was  published.) 
 
In any case, I can see a fanfic author being irritated about  that, but I've 
always
thought those who write HP fanfic (I haven't done so yet,  though I might in 
the
future) are lucky that JKR is so accepting of them playing in  her universe, 
so to
speak. And before someone says she can't control that aspect,  that is not 
true.
If an author does not want fanfic based on their work posted  online, it will 
be 
removed, unless it is very well hidden. Try and find fanfic  based on works 
by 
Anne Rice, Anne McCaffrey, Jasper Fforde, as well as a host of  others. While
at this point it would be very hard for JKR to change her  stance on fanfic, 
as
there is so much HP fanfic on the Internet, she could make it  much harder to
share it. Other authors have certainly done so.
 
IMO, JKR has been pretty accomodating to fans in almost every  way. Even her
comment about DD being "mine" I don't think was meant to imply  that she 
wants 
to control anyone's individual interpretation of DD, but that  she created 
him (and 
legally owns him) so has every right to share *her*  interpretations of him.  
 
 
Julie







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