What Holli said.
Also, even most of the cover artists never figured out Ged wasn't white (Le Guin's Earthsea books). People tend to see what they expect.
My step-mother swore that Hermione was black, until Emma Watson was cast. That made me uncomfortable, because she pointed to physical descriptions that her generation used to describe blacks, and that my generation views as (negative) stereotyping: bushy hair and prominent teeth. But my step-m really wanted a smart, confident black girl to have a major role in the books.
Did any of the teachers have a partner? It seemed like they were all single.
I still maintain that while it wasn't as explicit as DUMBLEDORE IS GAY ON PAGE 683, D's gayness was in the text. In fact, I would argue that it's not a positive take on a gay relationship, because Dumbledore made some major life mistakes as a result of it, and it certainly didn't turn into a happy and supportive relationship. But Dumbledore is a good role model, and tragic love stories are part of the human experience, so I am cool with it.
I mean, what if she says next that Riddle was gay? That would be bad.
Did any of the teachers have a partner? It seemed like they were all single.
They didn't really have much in in the way of personal lives at all (which is very much how kids see teachers).
I think Hagrid was the only one who had any relationship present in the text.
Anansi Boys didn't take place in a black setting as far as I could tell.
what makes a setting "black"?
what makes a setting "black"?
No idea. Which is one reason I couldn't say Anansi Boys was in one. Okay, the reason. They were just people, and some of them were Jamaican. Setting only arose in an attempt to draw or fail parallels with sexual orientation in fiction.
All I know is, I was reading Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship as romantic, and Snape and Lily's as platonic
This was exactly my reading.
I don't have the book in front of me, but after reading the text and then listening to the audiobook several times in a row, it became more and more clear when Dumbledore used terms along the lines of...'boy with a golden smile', or some such, that his feelings for Grindelwald were more than chummy. The torrid letter writing. The heartache of being separated from him, and then feeling betrayed by him. It all just seemed...normal.
When it first occurred to me, my eyebrow went up with an 'oh-hoe!' But then the notion that Dumbledore was gay simply became part of the tapestry.
I'm struck now...that it didn't strike me as odd.
I'm struck now...that it didn't strike me as odd.
The man does wear funky boots.
Yeah, OK. I have no problem with Rowling not putting everything she knows about her characters in her work; most good writers know stuff about their characters that is not in the text - although by not putting it in the text they leave their work open to equally valid alternative readings.
But she put a fair amount of trivia in the work. Even if she did not see it as essential to the series did she not understand that it would have been far from trivial to many readers? Honestly, is there any shortage of sentences she could have cut out to make room for something along the lines people here have suggested "I was blinded by his beauty for a time"?
Do they actually say the character's races in Anansi Boys?
I don't think any of the black characters are ever described with the word "black," if that's what you're asking, but I think there are a couple of instances where a character's skin color is mentioned or implied. I remember Rosie's mom, for example, is described as resembling Eartha Kitt. Which doesn't necessarily mean that she'd be black, but that's certainly what I would assume until told otherwise.
The story would also have to take place in a setting where, to some extent, queer was the default.
Anansi Boys didn't take place in a black setting as far as I could tell.
Is Jamaica not a setting where one might assume that most people you meet will not be white? I'm honestly asking, as that was the impression I got from the book. I'm not sure what a "black setting" would be, exactly, but I do think that
Anansi Boys
took place in a setting where I found it easy to believe that most of the characters we met weren't white.
I think the question of whether you can parallel
Anansi Boys
with a story that treats sexuality in a similar way is interesting, but I'm not sure I can answer it fully. I can say pretty definitely, though, that J.K. Rowling's story is not that story.
I find it hard to make the leap from that to "being gay in the HP universe is totally not a big deal!" when we're given nothing else to support that reading.
I didn't say she'd succeeded in portraying that world. I just meant that may have been her thinking. (Which means I agree with you.)
Sorry, Emily, I did understand that you and I were in agreement. I was just taking your point and running with it.
