Dumblegate!

Posted on October 20th, 2007 by Carlos

You’d almost think a surprise book 8 was in the offing: J.K. Rowling announced on Friday, to a packed Carnegie Hall, that Albus Dumbledore is gay.

Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was “terribly let down” and went on to destroy his rival.

That love, she said, was Dumbledore’s “great tragedy.”

“Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” she said.

The audience reportedly fell silent after the admission — then erupted into applause.

Rowling, 42, said if she had known that would be the response, she would have revealed her thoughts on Dumbledore earlier.

I’m guessing the last sentence that I quoted above could be (generously) read as Rowling trying to make a joke to help everyone move on after a potentially awkward moment. But I think it might reveal a little something about Rowling as a writer and us as a readership. See, Rowling kills many many people in the Harry Potter books: perhaps a good title for the entire seven-book series would be Harry Potter and the Steaming Pile of Corpses. You can’t lie to kids, Rowling argues; they have to see that life is fragile, that death is inevitable, that heroism is born from the courage people show when they are most in danger. But if it’s really so important not to lie to kids and to let them see the truth about death, then why not let them see the truth about human sexuality as well? Is it because, as Rowling seems to imply above, too many people would disapprove?

My inclination is to be more generous than that. The book is so focused around Harry and his perception of and reaction to events that, unless there was a plot-relevant reason for Big D to reveal his sexuality, literally it might never have come up. Nor should it have. Dumbledore’s sexuality had nothing to do with Harry, nor with the looming threat that consumed the wizarding world: Voldemort.

Furthermore, in spite of this revelation, homosexuality, I would argue, is not the defining characteristic of Dumbledore’s identity, sexual or otherwise. Chastity, celibacy, hermetism, and even a sort of chilly aloofness better characterize Dumbledore’s relations with others. We now have a hint of the backstory as to why: he loved once, was hurt, and therefore distanced himself from others. It’s an old story. But the fact is, while this information provides a bit of motivational filler, it doesn’t really recast Dumbledore’s character in very dramatic ways.

We unfortunately live in a scandal-loving world. So of course this disclosure is the one that people will focus on, even though, as far as the books themselves go, it’s irrelevant. It has to be irrelevant, or else Rowling had to put the information somewhere in the seven books she wrote, or else Rowling is a terrible writer for having neglected to include such vital information in them. You may not think she’s a great writer, but c’mon: she’s not that bad.

In fact, I think she’s pretty good. She may not be my #1 prose stylist, but she has thought long and deeply about her characters, planned her books carefully, and executed them well enough to enrapture millions of readers, in an age where we regularly hear laments about the death of prose as an artform. Issues of class (the Malfoys vs. the Weasleys) and race (wizards vs. muggles, wizards vs. goblins) she explicitly addressed in the books. Maybe she missed an opportunity with sexuality? Maybe. But maybe, in light of the fact that we still live in a culture this homophobic, the fault lies as much with us as with her. Pile on the corpses as high as you want, but don’t you dare tell my child that the tragic hero of your seven-book epic is a gay.