The Harry Potter revealations

So JK Rowling claims Dumbledore is gay. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t . Because the virtual world erupts in a furor about her “outing” the “greatest wizard of all time” . Should have, should not have, should have earlier the arguments continue.

Of course the claims “it is a children’s book” and “family values are at stake” are ridiculous enough to be dismissed immediately. But on a closer examination even the “this makes a statement and should have been done earlier” claimers seem to have missed the point. In my opinion, the point is, Dumbledore gay, straight( or as Vikram Seth once asked in a poem , “stray” or “great”) does not matter. I mean Dumbledore matters- matters a great big deal, but not as an icon of his sexuality. He is just himself- a great person, a wonderful wizard and superb lovable character. Plus, he is JKRs creation. And thus completely at her mercy- in as many closets as she would like him to be.

Which reminds me of all the stuff about “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. I know I know I know. It was a very moral story. And it is entirely open to interpretation how one reads the “decadence”. The corruption of the soul in my opinion stemmed as much from his lying, cheating and hypocrisy as his other sins- and when I read the book in my early teens the “other” pat was never as apparent. Just as the implications of what “Alice in Wonderland “ meant did not matter, It was a wildly imaginative story and pedophile or not, Lewis Carroll did a great job with that, the “Looking Glass” and then the Sylvie and Bruno series. So incidentally did Enid Blyton, despite the gollywogs. She never spoke of any sort of discrimination except for snitches and sneaks- remember the Mallory towers and St. Claires stories?

But some adult or the other, with nothing better to do had to go ahead and determine what was age-appropriate and politically correct. And force them out, or rewrite them or stir up endless controversy. Books are books are books. And popular authors, despite their wide audience, often do not write because they like the public or the money that flows in( that is an added value, not the sole aim) , they write because they love their characters as well. And they present a story, despite its stereotypes, despite its shortcomings as they see it. So the responsibility rests with the reading public, notably the adult reading public to remember that this is a story. Not reality.

Because in reality gender, color, religion, caste, region , age or sexual orientation need not define a character at all. Unless that is the narrow band in which one likes themselves to be constrained.