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LitNotes: The Political Is the Personal
November 1, 2007
Out of the Closet and Into the Fray: ...Like it or not, Jo Says Dumbledore's Gay... Yes, it's last week's news, but people! He's here, he's queer, get used to it. Why shouldn't J.K. Rowling have outed her own character? She answered a reader's honest question honestly, saying "My truthful answer to you... I've always thought of Dumbledore as gay." Yet even the linked article didn't note that wording, which is quite different from an author's sudden and PR-focused "announcement." If she included scenes of rough sex between Hogwarts teachers, her publisher would have been quite right to edit those out. If she chooses to speak for herself about her authorial processes, we need to deal with it.
Imagine That: How I adore Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, and how I wish I had seen him at Georgetown University this week, where he said: "One's politics as a novelist have nothing to do with the societies, parties and groups to which one might belong, or even dedication to any political cause. A novelist's politics arise from his imagination -- his ability to imagine himself as someone
else." I imagine Joanna Kathleen Rowling might agree.
Publishing, As Usual: First, they came for the editors, and I did nothing... then they came for the literary agents... you can see where this is going, can't you? I'll emphasize, as Ron Hogan of Galley Cat did here, the anonymous editor's "
cri de coeur" that "Publishing is one of the few businesses that I know that does not promote the majority of its products." This is just a fact, so
perhaps a specific book's failure isn't personal; it's just politics as usual...
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on November 1, 2007 | Comments (1)
