Harry Potter 7: Don't Read This Unless

[WordWolf]

I think the TIMING of this announcement is rather CONVENIENT.

There's people who seem to think this was almost accidental, since a fan asked something related.

Then again, some fans have romantically matched up nearly every character with every other

character- the Marauders in particular have had that happen a lot,

and Harry with just about every other character in the series,

including Draco. (No, I haven't read any of those stories, that's plenty of information, thank you.)

That anyone would ask about DD and relationships is expected.

However, JKR just HAPPENED to answer this one once all the sales of Book 7 have happened,

meaning there's now a lot of books that haven't been bought.

Now is the first time this has actually come up from JKR, either in the books or interviews or

her website. The timing just HAPPENS to be when she can make more money by taking

copies of the books and selling them to a subculture that normally wasn't soaking up her

books but NOW might suddenly begin buying up the paperbacks, the hardcovers....

I think that this announcement was carefully planned, and I resent the artifice that this was

supposedly some offhand comment.

[rascal]

Well what I DON`T like, is she made a comment about some groups dissaproving of the story because they were about witches, that now they would REALLY have something to talk about....seemed to me like kind of an *in your face* christians...:(

It was like she was looking to deliberately offend people.

I am just really dissapointed. I have enthusiastically recomended these books for YEARS ...claimed that there wasn`t anything blatantly evil or threatening to christianity.....A great read, an inspiration to get children hooked on reading...now I feel ...I just don`t know...dirty...betrayed

I don`t know, I thought I was over being a homophobe, but with the reaction that I am having...I am guessing that I have some work to do yet.

My kids were shocked and disgusted as well...I am going to have to figure out why it matters so much.

It can`t be JUST the homosexuality issue, because I have read and enjoyed Ann Macafferty`s Dragon rider series and been able to stomache the gay characters and sexual life styles that are in her stories. Maybe it was because it was right up front from the very beginning. :(

Edited October 21, 2007 by rascal

[WordWolf]

Well what I DON`T like, is she made a comment about some groups dissaproving of the story because they were about witches, that now they would REALLY have something to talk about....seemed to me like kind of an *in your face* christians...:(

That wasn't your imagination-she clearly was thinking that and said as much.

It was like she was looking to deliberately offend people.

But not until after they bought the whole series.

I am just really dissapointed. I have enthusiastically recomended these books for YEARS ...claimed that there wasn`t anything blatantly evil or threatening to christianity.....A great read, an inspiration to get children hooked on reading...now I feel ...I just don`t know...dirty...betrayed

Lots of Christians read and recommended the series, giving her a lot of revenue.

Now that they already spent the money, she's free to offend them.

Mind you, I'd actually be less offended if she'd come out and said this in the actual books.

Doing it NOW strikes me as particularly greasy, underhanded, dishonest.

If she wanted to make a major character gay, this

"oh, he secretly was all through the series, but now that you've all bought it,

now I'm going to announce it" thing strikes me as disrespectful to the readers.

It's like she wanted all the "benefits" of being "open-minded" and "politically-correct",

but without taking the risks of offending "traditional values" readers and affecting the sales negatively.

I find that distinctly lacking courage and CONVICTION.

Oh, and if one's going to say "the signs were all there", an equally-strong argument can be made

for almost anything else that didn't happen in the actual books.

I thought she'd made DD's personal life more like Prospero's in The Tempest,

who said

"My library was dukedom large enough."

I don`t know, I thought I was over being a homophobe, but with the reaction that I am having...I am guessing that I have some work to do yet.

My kids were shocked and disgusted as well...I am going to have to figure out why it matters so much.

It can`t be JUST the homosexuality issue, because I have read and enjoyed Ann Macafferty`s Dragon rider series and been able to stomache the homosexual characters and life style of some of her charaters. Maybe it was because it was right up front from the very beginning. :(

It probably was the way she SNUCK THIS IN after the entire series was OVER.

I've read stories with homosexual characters in them and liked the stories.

Then again, that's hardly the same thing- these were marketed for youths,

and the stories I read, the characters' sex lives (or lack thereof) were all in the stories,

and not tacked on once the series was over.

[rascal]

Thanks wolf, I think that you are absolutely right. I think that definately is part of what has offended me. She has been carefully neutral. Her stories have always been good overcoming evil, not a lot of swearing or sex or anything that would be offensive to parents, nothing that hs to be explained to the kiddoes. Just good wholesom fun for the kiddos...

Now, to me the innocence has been destroyed by bringing it into the political social correctness arena.