Dumbledore and The Ownership of Fiction

Dumbledore is gay.

Or at least, that's what JK Rowling says. She should know, considering she invented him and all. Though I am a bit bothered by the revelation, not because the father figure of one of the most popular children's books ever is gay, but because I don't think the author gets to make these kind of authoritative pronouncements now that the book is written.

Part of the fun of reading, or watching a good movie, is that you get to interpret the events. The author has her intent, but once she releases her final draft to the public, it is up to the public to make their own judgments. Rowling here is trying to rob her readership of one of the greatest joys of experiencing any art. I understand her motives. There's an almost insatiable appetite for all things Harry Potter and she has now finished writing the series which has dominated her life for a decade. And she feels ownership of these characters and wants to control how they are viewed. Which is all well and good, but she doesn't own the characters anymore. They are now part of my and your imagination.

Rowling has taken away the ambiguity. She did drop hints to Dumbledore's sexuality throughout the book, so I don't believe she's making this up after the fact. But there was a reason she didn't come out and just say "Dumbledore is gay" in the books. If she wanted to say that, nothing stopped her. She had several thousand pages to say whatever she wanted. But now that the book is out in the public, it is the public's (or more accurately, each reader's) own imagination which governs the details of these characters.

There was no need to fill in the details. She left it up to us for a reason. Perhaps the author needs to step back and trust her readers. We own these characters, too.