Dept. of Reading between the Lines
So I quickly heard this morning, literary circles that I swim in and all, that J. K. Rowling "outed" Dumbledore of the world of the Harry Potter books over the weekend. That is, if "outed" is quite the right word for retroactively describing a fictional character as gay. Can you do that? I guess if you're the author you can do that.
There's probably a "serious" question in there about the relationship of an author's claims about a character, extrinsic to the text, to the "actual" nature of that character within the text. For now I'm just happy that it lends authenticity to my crossover fantasy slash fiction. Or half-authenticity, I guess, till we hear something about Gandalf the Grey.
(Kidding. I haven't even read the Harry Potter books yet.)
Other children's book characters to be retroactively declared gay include Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh, The Phantom Tollbooth's Milo, Miss Viola Swamp, and one or possibly even both of the Hardy Boys. And I think we all knew about Frog and Toad already.
There's probably a "serious" question in there about the relationship of an author's claims about a character, extrinsic to the text, to the "actual" nature of that character within the text. For now I'm just happy that it lends authenticity to my crossover fantasy slash fiction. Or half-authenticity, I guess, till we hear something about Gandalf the Grey.
(Kidding. I haven't even read the Harry Potter books yet.)
Other children's book characters to be retroactively declared gay include Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh, The Phantom Tollbooth's Milo, Miss Viola Swamp, and one or possibly even both of the Hardy Boys. And I think we all knew about Frog and Toad already.
2 Comments:
I seem to remember a study in the 90's, when gay was a buzz word, that Bugs Bunny was gay. Whether this probed further than his frequent dressing in drag, or his compulsion to kiss Elmer Fudd, I'm not sure.
I thought Frog and Toad had more of a Wordsworth and Coleridge thing going...
Post a Comment
<< Home