Harry Potter and the Gratuitous Gay

J.K. Rowling, author of the Hary Potter series, has “outed” one of the main characters:

Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay.

J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall. After reading briefly from the final book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds “true love.”

“Dumbledore is gay,” the author responded to gasps and applause.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303760,00.html

Gasps and applause. Good gawd. Sooner or later the closet just has to get flung open, doesn’t it? I’m not a big Potter fan, although Daniel Radcliffe is as cute as the dickens, but this is just the lastest in token “diversity” and it’s worn thin. Aren’t their any straight people left in literature or the entertainment industry?

Dumbledore has joined the ranks of the other political undertones of Rowling’s stories:

Perhaps this is why Alfonso Cuarón won’t be directing any more Harry Potter movies: he’s compared the über-evil series villain Lord Voldemort to George W Bush.

Given the current culture of paranoia in the States, Cuarón’s comments are likely to cause a stir. The “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” director told Newsweek that Voldemort reminds him of both Bush and Saddam Hussein: “They both have selfish interests and are very much in love with power,” he said. “Also, a disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people.”

And the political comparisions don’t stop there: “I read books four and five, and [Minister of Magic] Fudge is similar to Tony Blair. He’s the ultimate politician. He’s in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/07/28/reel_life_july_28_2003_article.shtml

Didja get that? The limeys think we have a ‘culture of paranoia’. Yeah, let’s just all calm down. The terrorists are nothing to worry about. 3000 dead people and a world-wide campaign of homicide bombings, beheadings, and anti-Western hate speech in the name of Allah, isn’t enough to ’cause a stir’. All we have to worry about is Cuarón’s fatuous comparisons of a fictional evil sorcerer to President Bush. Wow.  Talk about paranoid.  Maybe GW can cast an evil spell on the little twit and turn him into a “Quaffle” ball.

Another ‘interpretive’ comparison, this time by a Slate columnist:

What is J.K. Rowling up to here? Is she criticizing the War on Terror or simply using it as a plot device? In some scenes, she does take jabs at the Bush and Blair administrations. The Ministry of Magic’s security pamphlet, for example, recalls the much-scorned program: “Should you feel that a family member, colleague, friend or neighbor is acting in a strange manner, contact the Magical Law Enforcement Squad at once.” And Harry has a telling confrontation with the Minister of Magic, who thinks that in the battle against Voldemort, perceptions matter most. “If you were to be seen popping in and out of the Ministry from time to time,” he tells Harry, “that would give the right impression. … It would give everyone a lift to think you were more involved.” Harry refuses. He doesn’t want to endorse the ministry when it’s sending innocent men to Azkaban—the wizard penitentiary that becomes, in this installment, a stand-in for Gitmo. “It’s your duty to check that people really are Death Eaters before you chuck them in prison,” Harry says.

http://slate.com/id/2123105/

Let’s see: Reference to nazi-era snitches, check. Sympathetic nod to the muslim terrorist gutterslugs at GITMO, check.  Rowling sure covers all the usual leftwingnut bases. But hey, at least she got kids interested in reading again, right?