Rowling's outing

Human Race | A surreal U.S. book tour for Potter fans | Harrison Scott Key

What's the significance of "outing" someone who doesn't actually exist? Plenty, apparently, if the character in question is Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series. And if you are J.K. Rowling speaking to fans at Carnegie Hall. Harry Potter's mentor "is gay" she told the crowd on her first U.S. book tour since 2000, to wild applause. Rowling then acknowledged that not everyone likes her work (a reference most media took to mean Christian groups that have objected to its witchcraft), and this, she said, will give them one more reason not to.

But if characters only exist in words, and no words ever defined this imaginary wizard as gay, then what's the point? Rowling spent much of her book tour spinning out the imaginary future of characters whose story was over with the July publication of the final Potter installment. Sharing plot twists in this fashion seems showy, pointed, and precious—like George Lucas coming out and saying, "Well, Darth Vader was against the war in Iraq."

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November 03, 2007, Vol. 22, No. 40

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