Hogwarts Herald

Well, it happened. An online Singapore newspaper has reported what we all thought was going to happen – JK Rowling has caused un uproar by outing Professor Albus Dumbledore.

The article, entitled ‘Potter author hit by hate mail’, begins: ‘Already disliked by conservative Christians for making witches and wizards the backdrop of her wildly popular Harry Potter books, British author JK Rowling has been targeted again by the religious right after she revealed that one of the main characters is gay.’

Apparently Dumbledore being gay ‘encourages homosexuality’.

The president of the Christian Coalition of America said ‘I would never allow my own children or grandchildren to read the books or watch the movies, and other parents should do so too.’

A spokesperson on the Christian Broadcasting Network in the US had this to say:

‘Harry Potter, an orphaned wizard, is one hero who has captured the innocent hearts of many children. When such a hero uses evil as a problem-solving tool, we need to be warned. Over time, the child can become adapted to the dark world of witchcraft and not even know that it is dangerous.’

Though it seems that, while many Christian readers were happy to read the Harry Potter books even though they contained ‘satanic themes’, some have found the homosexual relevation to be the last straw.

The revelation that Dumbledore is gay has also turned many Christian readers into ex-fans. Does it strike anyone else as odd that some levels of evil, devil worship and Satanism can be tolerated, while any degree of homosexuality, even though it was not shown or expressed in any way, is an absolute no-no? We lived with Dumbledore for 6 whole books, and still we didn’t know. (Sure, some people say they guessed all along, but that’s just ducky in hindsight…) One whole book after he died, JK outs him. But that’s still enough to turn many fans away from the books.

I’m finding it hard to understand why.

Comment and explanations are, as always, more than welcome!

Til next time, why not check out what’s happening at Big Brother?

Imagine this. I’ve just taken over the Hogwarts Herald blog. So I write my first post, introducing myself to everyone and giving some ideas of my plans for this blog. I got some nice welcome messages from other bloggers, which was very much appreciated.

Go to bed. Wake up. Turn on Sunrise on Channel 7 for some Sunday morning entertainment.

Big headline: ‘Dumbledore Is Gay’.

I mean really - what are the chances?

As David Smith said in his Observer article: ‘There could hardly have been a bigger sensation if Russell Crowe, Rod Stewart or Sven-Goran Eriksson had come out of the closet.’

So how did it happen?

Back to David Smith’s article: ‘After reading briefly from her mega-selling book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, on Friday night, Rowling took questions from an audience of 1,600 students. A 19-year-old from Colorado asked about the avuncular headmaster of Hogwarts School: ‘Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?”

‘The author replied: ‘My truthful answer to you…I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.’ The audience reportedly fell silent - then erupted into prolonged applause.’

Apparently Dumbledore always had a thing for Grindelwald, whom he defeated when they were teenagers. Does this stike anyone else as a little odd? I mean, all things considered, and even after everything else that’s happened, the Harry Potter series is still a children’s series. Or at the very least, it started out that way. It just seems to me that JK is taking a bit of a risk here - there could possibly be a bit of a backlash from conservative parents. Though, that being said, I suppose conservative parents may have alraedy put their foot down about the whole ’satanic themes’ bit.

Anyway, this was the bit that interested me the most:

JK said: ‘Yeah, that’s how I always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read-through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying, “I knew a girl once, whose hair…” I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, “Dumbledore’s gay!”‘

Weird. But kinda cool. Let me know what you think!

Now that we’re done dissecting Dumbledore’s love life, why not head over to the Pride and Opinions blog, and learn about The Differences Between Gender and Sexuality?

Hi everyone, I’m Stacey, and I’m the lucky person who gets to take over the very popular Hogwarts Herald blog. I’ve been blogging with 451 Press for a little over 5 months now, over at Global Poverty Monitor. As is the common story with 451 Press bloggers, I very quickly became hooked on my blog and the whole 451 Press network. I’ve been searching for another blog to write on, and then sure enough, this very Harry Potter blog presented itself to me a few days ago. I write a quick application (read: pathetic begging letter which actually used the phases ‘getting down on my knees’ and ‘promise to pour so much love and affection into the blog’) and within a day - the Hogwarts Herald was mine.

So… what’s going to happen here now? Lots of stuff! I’ve got a heap of ideas for the blog, so I hope that the faithful readers from before will continue to visit, and that new readers will join along the way. I’ll be covering any new news that comes up, and also going back over the 7 brilliant books behind us, and the movies both past and present.

I’d also like to include some fan fiction. I’m not a hugely talented fan faction writer myself, but I know there are a heap of you out there. I’ve read some pretty impressive stuff. So if anyone has got any Harry Potter fanfic tucked away somewhere, give me a yell. I’d love to publish it here for you.

That’s all for now from me. I hope you’ll check back soon - let’s get this party started!

Now that you’re all updated with what’s going on over here, why not head over to the Angelina Jolie blog and read about her latest news?