Posted on 10/20/2007 8:40:13 AM PDT by Zakeet
NEW YORK — 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.
She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Let me mull it over for a nanosecond.
Nope, moved to chat.
It’s an English Boarding School. I just assumed they were all gay.
Oh dear god....
CAN’T YOU AMERICANS GRASP THAT SHE WAS JOKING....... , she wasnt being serious, just as Robbie Williams wasnt when she said to a US interviewer that he ‘was into bum sex and heroin.....’.
Get a clue, America,please. I like you, but Americans have never understood the dry sarcastic/ironic British sense of humour.
Sorry, but truly the stereotype that Americans ‘dont get irony’ is true. Why do you people take everything SO literally?.
Whats is wrong with the ‘witchcraft stuff’?.Hamlet has a ghost, so I take its ‘trash’ too?...
Oh dear god....
CAN’T YOU AMERICANS GRASP THAT SHE WAS JOKING....... , she wasnt being serious, just as Robbie Williams wasnt when she said to a US interviewer that he ‘was into bum sex and heroin.....’.
Get a clue, America,please. I like you, but Americans have never understood the dry sarcastic/ironic British sense of humour.
Sorry, but truly the stereotype that Americans ‘dont get irony’ is true. Why do you people take everything SO literally?.
Oh dear god....
CAN’T YOU AMERICANS GRASP THAT SHE WAS JOKING....... , she wasnt being serious, just as Robbie Williams wasnt when she said to a US interviewer that he ‘was into bum sex and heroin.....’.
Get a clue, America,please. I like you, but Americans have never understood the dry sarcastic/ironic British sense of humour.
Sorry, but truly the stereotype that Americans ‘dont get irony’ is true. Why do you people take everything SO literally?.
Sweetie,
She was serious.
The JOKE is on YOU!
Hon,
I don’t know where or what planet you’re from but there’s nothing redeeming about Harry Potter.
Apparently you’re not a Christian so you won’t see why Christians are against this book series, Harry Potter. And no, Harry Potter is not like classic Fairy Tales.
The Problems with Harry Potter
Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children’s Culture
by Michael D. O’Brien
...
But is Harry really all that good? He blackmails his uncle, uses trickery and deception, and “breaks a hundred rules” (to quote the mildly censorious but ultimately approving Dumbledore). He frequently tells lies to get himself out of trouble, and lets himself be provoked into revenge against his student enemies. He “hates” his enemies. The reader soon finds himself forgiving Harry for this because the boy’s tormentors are vindictive and mocking. In a consistent display of authorial overkill Rowling depicts such “bad” characters as ugly in appearance. She does a good deal of sneering at the Dursleys for being fat, and ridicules the oafish bodies of the students who oppress Harry. In these details and a plethora of others throughout the series, the child reader is encouraged in his baser instincts while lip service is paid to morality. In fact, nowhere in the series is there any reference to a system of moral absolutes against which actions can be measured. In a word, this is materialist magic, magic as a naturalized human power.
Totally OPPPOSITE of Christian values and beliefs reflected in old fashioned Fairy Tales.
The problem is not the presence of magic in a book, but how magic is represented.
http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter/obrienpotter.html
“Totally OPPPOSITE of Christian values and beliefs reflected in old fashioned Fairy Tales.”
Actually, I’m pretty sure that, by definition, ‘Fairy’ Tales aren’t Christian. And could be more homosexual than anything in Harry Potter. *cough* ‘Fairy’ tale *cough*.
How nice of her to tell everyone from the beginning. I guess this is where compromise gets you when you decide to not care about the witchcraft element.
Red Riding Hood was a lesbian
Classic fairy tales have a clear moral to the story. They emphasize CHRISTIAN values and beliefs as in the case of Narnia.
Perhaps you should read this link and see the difference.
Here’s a link that you might want to read through that covers just some of the problems with the Harry Potter series.
http://www.lifesite.net/features/har...ienpotter.html
I will include some highlights:
But is Harry really all that good?
He blackmails his uncle, uses trickery and deception, and “breaks a hundred rules.”
He frequently tells lies, and lets himself be provoked into revenge.
He “hates” his enemies.
But is Harry really all that good? He blackmails his uncle, uses trickery and deception, and “breaks a hundred rules” (to quote the mildly censorious but ultimately approving Dumbledore). He frequently tells lies to get himself out of trouble, and lets himself be provoked into revenge against his student enemies. He “hates” his enemies. The reader soon finds himself forgiving Harry for this because the boy’s tormentors are vindictive and mocking. In a consistent display of authorial overkill Rowling depicts such “bad” characters as ugly in appearance. She does a good deal of sneering at the Dursleys for being fat, and ridicules the oafish bodies of the students who oppress Harry. In these details and a plethora of others throughout the series, the child reader is encouraged in his baser instincts while lip service is paid to morality. In fact, nowhere in the series is there any reference to a system of moral absolutes against which actions can be measured. In a word, this is materialist magic, magic as a naturalized human power.
...
If the natural and spiritual guard has been lowered in a child’s mind, if his concept of morality has been skewed and authority under minded, what other kinds of disordered interests and activities will follow?
Speaking of the growing phenomenon of diabolical possession and other forms of bondage to evil, Amorth points to sorcery as the most frequent cause. (p. 57) He warns that ultimately there is no real difference between “white” and “black” magic. Every form of magic is practiced with recourse to Satan, he says-either knowingly or unknowingly, the practitioner of magic exposes himself to diabolic influence. (p.60) “Scripture warns us that witchcraft is one of the most common means used by the devil to bind men to himself and to dehumanize them. Directly or indirectly, witchcraft is a cult of Satan.” (p. 143)
(Witchcraft has increased in popularity since these books hit the market)
The problem is not the presence of magic in a book, but how magic is represented.
...
Supernatural powers, Lewis repeatedly underlines, belong to God alone, and in human hands they are highly deceptive and can lead to destruction.Rowling portrays Harry’s victory as the fruit of esoteric knowledge and power. This is Gnosticism. Tolkien portrays Frodo’s victory as the fruit of humility, obedience, and courage in a state of radical suffering. This is Christianity.
...
Regardless of how few or many children are prompted to venture into occult activity after reading the Potter series, it will have a strong effect on most, in the sense of what educators call the propaeduetic-preparing the ground for later developments. If the natural and spiritual guard has been lowered in a child’s mind, if his concept of morality has been skewed and authority undermined, what other kinds of disordered interests and activities will follow as he makes his choices later in life? This is no longer an academic question. A recent search of the Internet for Harry Potter references yielded more than 500,000 “hits” or sites where the books are being discussed, including those of major libraries. Selective searches turned up more than a hundred high-profile websites devoted to the series, many of which offer cross-links to advanced occult websites under titles such as “Learn More about the Secrets of the Occult” and “How to Become a Witch.” In an interview with Newsweek, a spokesman for the Pagan Federation in England reported that he receives an average of 100 inquiries a month from young people who want to become witches-an unprecedented phenomenon which he attributes in part to the Potter books. An article in the December 17, 2000, issue of Time magazine reports that a similar organization in Germany deals with an increasing number of inquiries, which it also credits to the Potter factor. Rowling herself has expressed surprise at the volume of mail she receives from young readers writing to her as if Hogwarts were real, wanting to know how they can enter the school in order to become witches and wizards.
...
In explaining Christian concerns about the Potter series, she outlines how the books repeatedly portray in a positive light the very activities that are condemned in both Old and New Testaments in the strongest possible terms. She cites Deuteronomy 18:9-12, a passage in which enchanting, divination, charms, consulting with familiar spirits or a wizard or a necromancer are described as an “abomination” in the eyes of God, and must be driven out. She notes numerous other passages forbidding the practice of witchcraft and wizardry or consultation with mediums or diviners (Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 27; Isaiah 8:19, 19:3; Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21:8; 2 Kings 21:6, 23:24; 2 Chronicles 33:6. See also the confrontation between St. Paul and a magician in the Acts of the Apostles 13:6-12).
...
Christian use of magic in fantasy literature
Both Tolkien and Lewis use magic in a way fundamentally different from Rowling. In The Magician’s Nephew, the first volume of Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, the corruption of Narnia begins when an elderly Londoner dabbles in occult activity, and opens the doors between worlds. The ensuing struggle for the restoration of Narnia to its original order is the direct result of the very activities the Potter books portray as forces for good. Lewis depicts them as forces allied with chaos, disruption, bondage, and violation of the dignity of creatures. Throughout the Chronicles witches are portrayed in classic terms, as malevolent, manipulative, deceiving and destructive-not the least of whom is a character called the White Witch.
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a selfish boy who has no understanding of the supernatural meets a dragon. Entering its lair he seizes its treasure hoard and is changed into a dragon. He is liberated from this condition-”undragoned”-only by the intervention of the Christ figure, Aslan, who alone has the authority, the “deep magic”, to undo what evil has done. Supernatural powers, Lewis repeatedly underlines, belong to God alone, and in human hands they are highly deceptive and can lead to destruction.
In The Silver Chair, the crown prince of Narnia has been kidnapped and brainwashed by a witch, and the children in the tale embark on a quest to rescue him. The witch captures them and seeks to enthrall them by reprogramming their minds while at the same time lulling their natural defenses to sleep. They are close to utter enslavement when the brave Marsh-wiggle deliberately burns himself in order to shock his mind back to reality. When he does so and challenges the witch, she reveals her true nature by taking the form of a powerful serpent, thus alerting the children to their peril.
In his great fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien also portrays magic as deception. Supernatural powers that do not rightly belong to man are repeatedly shown as having a corrupting influence on man. While it is true that Gandalf, one of the central characters, is called a “wizard” throughout, he is not in fact a classical sorcerer. Tolkien maintains that Gandalf is rather a kind of moral guardian, similar to guardian angels but more incarnate. (Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1981) In letters 155, 156 and 228 he explains his depiction of matter and spirit, and the distinction between good magic and evil magic. In essence Tolkien’s “good magic” is not in fact what we think of as magic in the real world. Gandalf’s task is primarily to advise, instruct, and arouse to resistance the minds and hearts of those threatened by Sauron, the Dark Lord of this saga. Gandalf does not do the work for them; they must use their natural gifts-and in this we see an image of grace building on nature, never overwhelming nature or replacing it. Gandalf’s gifts are used sparingly, and then only so far as they assist the other creatures in the exercise of their free will and their moral choices.
...
It is now almost universally taken for granted that we can absorb a certain amount of immoral entertainment without being adversely affected by it.
...
(FALSE!)
Why, then, have we accepted a set of books which glamorize and normalize occult activity, even though it is ever bit as deadly to the soul as sexual sin, if not more so?
...
Again, I urge you to read this link in its entirety. You will then better understand the difference between class fairy tales and the Harry Potter series. There is a WORLD of difference for those who want to SEE. Harry Potter is NOT a Christan series. It teaches the OPPOSITE of what Christians believe.
“Red Riding Hood was a lesbian.”
ONLY in YOUR mind.
I suspect for you, Santa Claus is a homosexual and Snow White was a pedophile.
It’s no wonder sick minds love the perverted Harry Potter series. It suits their sick world view.
1—No, I am not a Christian, so I cannot understand the American Christian viewpoint about thr ‘dangers’ of ‘witchcraft’, as if something as silly as Potter will turn a generation into tiny Anton LeVays....
I find it sad and narrowminded that Mid-Western Christians are seemingly proud that a great work like Hamlet is verboten...
NOWHERE else in Christianity,from Britain to the East, do Christians find Potter(or Halloween) incompatable with the Bible.
They see it for what it is: a bit of fun for children...
2—Paganisation?.....oh cripes a lordy.
I come from an ancient nation that had hundreds of years of pre-Christian civilisation(the Celts).And managed nicely enough thank you to create a civilisation of great art, literature and culture,where women and children were valued.
Civilisation didnt start and wont stop with Christianity,dear.
I suppose the ‘ah, fan fiction’ remark passed you by?.
Understand that and you will grasp her irony.
Im afraid you are being too rational....it dont work on some folks...
I read the article this way:
Rowling was just repeating what her fans had conjured up...she mentioned a girl in her character’s past ...I think she is being tongue in cheek and neither confirming or denying fans supposition that Dumbledore is “Gay”
Considering her quote about the fanfiction community....
We all know that Harry Potter is a HUGE fandom when it comes to people basing fanfiction stories on it... including compromising situations that are sexual and gay (not necessarily in the book but that people imagine these characters doing).
Rowling is WELL aware of these online communities and fans that do such things with her creative characters and is a bit against it since she is concerned about a child google-ling some fanfiction that is innocent in the HP fandom but then coming across an unprotected NC-17 piece and ruining their fragile minds.
Same thing happened with Lord of the Rings, Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom ‘pushed the envelope’ for a joke by teasing some fans and were then driven them up the wall when they found out the “interesting” situations people wrote their characters into.
The wolf was a cross-dresser.
Hmmm. Book sales slowing?
She's in a writing slump.
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