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Comments
HIS GAYNESS IS RELEVANT GAIZ TOTALLY RELEVANT (yeah yeah, I used the caps lock fallacy, fuck yourself).
@ Country Pumpkin: Notice, i said "off the bottom of the barrel". I can understand analysis. I cannot stand people that look for stuff that just isnt there.
"Still, I see much less bitching about heterosexual interpretations."
I speculate it's because shipping tends to be a fantasy by proxy. I know the reason I'm annoyed by the whole idea that boy + girl = automatic romance is because I'm aromantic myself.
I've said something wrong, haven't I?
The trouble with this entire discussion is that it meets gay rights and fiction with fanfiction. Delicate issue meets idiots, really.
>yeah yeah, I used the caps lock fallacy
Yay, people are starting to recognize it!
The sheer lengths people will go to defend their wank material....
Obviously there's a place for analysing fiction this way, but fanfiction sure as hell isn't it.
HERP A DERP I'MMA STRAWMANNING
Maybe it's just me, but the thing that made Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship interesting was the fact that they both helped and improved each other into the directions they wished to go in life. By turning Dumbledore's feelings for him into romantic affection, it isn't anymore about a friendship that crashed and burned and made better people of Dumbledore, it becomes an obssession with a serial murderer.
Don't forget, though, that the power of love triumphing over sheer force is one of the main themes of the book. So it fits, even if it is a bit shoehorned.
the thing is, though, I think that it means love in more of a fraternal way, rather than just the usual romantic definition. I mean, Harry's romantic relationships are not really that relevant to the story or his success, but his appreciation of his friends and family (For a really loose definition of family here) is what makes him go through all the trials he faces.
That's just because J.K. Rowling is bad at writing romance and better at writing platonic/paternal love.
Well, yeah, that's true. But the thing is, that it seems to me that most of the time in the story, it's not just romance what makes the characters go and do the things they do, but it seems rather secondary to their platonic and fraternal relationships. I mean, look at Lupin. He loves Tonks, but it's his love for Harry and Dumbledore what makes him, you know, Lupin.
He also, in the last book, completely abandons his wife and newborn baby because he's afraid of the monster inside of him. So honestly, I can do with Dumbledore's romance being unstated.
Stating an opinion, refusing to defend/explain it, and refusing to try and listen to other opinions
Everest (from way back) - Of course, another reason why Oscar Wilde didn't put the male characters in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" into open gay relationships is that, when they'd finished being outraged, readers would have asked "why aren't these guys all being arrested?"
On the general subject, I do think there are some people who look too hard for gay subtext, and not just shippers or fans. Literary academics can do the same, especially with classic works. However, just because this happens doesn't mean it's never there, and sometimes the author themselves can create it unintentionally.
It's sort of okay in newer works, but it never fails to piss me off when people talk about how Shakespeare or Marlowe MUST have been gay because of how "feminine" their poetry is. Fuck them.
Uhh... wasn't Sonnet 18 ('Shall I compare thee to a summer's day') addressed to a guy, along with the other hundred and twenty-five sonnets of the 'Fair Youth' sequence?
Seriously, Shakespeare's poetry does get pretty gay.
^ That's one theory. Admittedly, it's quite a popular one, but the truth is that so little is known about Shakespeare's life we'll never be sure.
He could have been writing them for a real female lover, a real male lover or just some imaginary person he made up to write love poetry to.
To weigh in on the Dumbledore thing:
"I do love knitting patterns."
"Everest (from way back) - Of course, another reason why Oscar Wilde didn't put the male characters in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" into open gay relationships is that, when they'd finished being outraged, readers would have asked "why aren't these guys all being arrested?""
I know. I didn't explicitly say as much in my post, but I thought the implication could be dug out. In any case, I understand why it didn't go that far.