I really didn’t know where to put this, but thought it brilliant, so here it is, in its very own thread. What if Ayn Rand wrote Harry PotteR?
“You’re a wizard, Harry,” Hagrid said. “And you’re coming to Hogwarts.”
“What’s Hogwarts?” Harry asked.
“It’s wizard school.”
“It’s not a public school, is it?”
“No, it’s privately run.”
“Good. Then I accept. Children are not the property of the state; everyone who wishes to do so has the right to offer educational goods or services at a fair market rate. Let us leave at once.”
Hermione ached with desire for the both of them to master her, but nobody paid her any attention. They had empires to build.
And as it sat upon it’s dusty shelf in Dumbledore’s office, the Sorting Hat smugly said to itself, “See, Potter? I told you that you belonged in Slytherin.”
That was basically a retcon by Rowling in an interview after the series had ended. So, you get points for being brave / inclusive but no flak for making gayness an issue in a “children’s book.” Cheap & easy pop-culture grace.
I think it was a bit more than that. It’s not obvious early in the series but later in the series when Dumbledore’s past gets explored there’s a complete omission of romantic female relationships and a lot of dwelling on his past with Grindelwald.
Yeah, it definitely wasn’t a retcon. At no point did Dumbledore say “I’m totally gay, Harry!” but the relationship with Grindelwald was pretty clear. It just didn’t have anything to do with Harry’s story, so there was no need to make a big point about it.
Well, not to this guy over the course of listening to all of the unabridged audiobooks. It seemed to me at most as part of the author’s un-stated back story for the character.
It just didn’t have anything to do with Harry’s story, so there was no need to make a big point about it.
And to that extent it’s good storytelling to focus on the essentials. The later books were thick enough.
The main thing for Dumbledore is that the relationship is only ever hinted at. If Rowling hadn’t come out and said so, it might have been a question, but would have remained an open one. Sure the complete lack of any inclination of female relationships opens the possibility, and certainly the closeness of Grindelwald can raise the flag, but nothing definitive. Really outside of Grindelwald and his brother, there isn’t a whole lot of talk about Dumbledore’s personal life.
Besides sexuality of almost any form is ignored throughout the series. So to specifically go into detail about Dumbledore’s sexual history would have been severely out of character from most of the book.
Pretty much all of the Hogwarts professors seem unattached, with little life outside of school even hinted at, beyond Snape pining for Harry’s mother. A close relationship between two young men does not mean that it has to be sexual, so I did not read that into the story, beyond what Rowling said outside of the actual books.
I recently came across this little series of write-ups and have been quietly snickering at my computer for like 20 minutes. Hah, Ayn Rand. Ridiculous :-D
“The question isn’t who is going to let me,” Harry said, already climbing into the driver’s seat and making an informed, personal decision about whether or not he chose to wear a seatbelt, “it’s who is going to stop me.”
“You preach selflessness,” Harry said, “but what you really mean is slavery to the collective.” And with that, Harry awarded himself six O.W.L.s — which was his right as an individual — and Disapparated to Hogsmeade.
“The only room I care about,” Harry replied, “is the one with all the money in it.”
“Do you mean the bank?” Dumbledore asked.
Harry waved his stump about impatiently. “It has many names. I call it the Freedom Room.”
“It’s also why I never water my plants in Herbology. They must learn to survive with or without me. Self-sufficiency is not just a human virtue. It is the highest virtue.”
Harry laughed long and loud. “You should not mourn the government,” he told Neville. “The state has never shed a tear for you. Why waste your tears on it?”
Pullquotes and links gratuitously stolen from a reddit commentor.
