Dumbledore’s Gay

Big effing whoop! I was reading a Time opinion moaning that Dumbledore’s sexual orientation couldn’t have been worked into the plot a bit more. I haven’t even bothered reading all the detractor’s opinions. As I read from someone, “The people most incensed by this, are already people who hated Potter in the first place.”

Dumbledore’s homosexuality was only revealed in response to a pointed question. If that question had not been asked we might have never known the backstory. Back stories are the story behind the main story. They are meant to give depth to the story’s world. The plot worked just fine without knowing Albus’s orientation, but now that we know it works even better.

However, I would go out on a limb and say that perhaps Rowling should not give up backstory information. I don’t know. Maybe I’m old school, but I feel that all answers should be found within the text. Rowling shouldn’t have to answer questions about the text if she did her job. Then again, it probably is helping sales. I don’t know.

The New Harry Potter movie…

…I thought was pretty good. I’m grateful that the people making these movies have finally realized that you can’t shove everything from the book into film. The plot structure is fairly concise and doesn’t ramble along like the first two movies. The characters are more solid than I’ve seen in the previous movies. They take their time fleshing out the slow moments while the action sequence zoom along at a speedy clip.

Altogether, I don’t think this movie (or any of the Potter movies, for that matter) will go down in the panthenon of great movies. Though, I think they might make the list of good fantasy movies.

The real thriller is the book coming out later this month. I’ve been rereading some of the books in order to get caught up again. The wife and I are actually going to go to the Potter Party at B&N. She’s going as Snape. I think I’ll go as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It’s sort of hard to figure out which wizard to impersonate while having a bald head and not having the resources to buy a wig.