Also I think Swordspoint was a non-hetronormative world -- though I'm not sure queer identity existed in it as such. There was not much concern with genitals of sex partner, and much of the sex was between people with matching genitals types.

Is Jamaica not a setting where one might assume that most people you meet will not be white?

Well...I wouldn't. I know people are surprised by white and "Chinese" and "Indian" Jamaicans, but they're completely and totally run of the mill. If someone told me Jamaican I would assume they've told me nothing about their race, just as if they'd told me Latino.

Add on top of that him almost using the name of a big white Jamaican family...even less so.

Snape and lily - I saw as friends. I believe Snape wanted more, but they never got any where close to romantic.

D/G - their relationship was certainly passionate. I don't know if it was ever consummated. I never really put a label to their relationship. If someone had asked me if they were a couple- I would have been startled at my missing the obvious. ( I do this in real life too). ( I can be very clueless)

The original interview question is interesting. With everything revealed in book 7 , It is clear that that Dumbledore couldn't trust himself to love anyone again. ( but it was a kid that asked, right?)

I can see the point: and adding a line or so would have made things clearer, and wouldn't have hurt. But I am going to assume that JKR left it out because she didn't find a way to put it in. ( not saying it was impossible - but she didn't find away for that and 1000 other details)

With Anasasi boys, I started with the assumption that the characters were black because the legend has african origins. I think that there may be some comparison, because if you assume that the characters are straight, that's what you'll find. If you assume that they're gay, you'll find that as well.

Well, I just brought up the fact here that the really evil characters had French names and basically everyone tried to persuade me otherwise.

Persuasion was not my intent, ftr.

Mine either. More playing with the idea.

I was trying to talk you out of it because I think you're evil.

Well, half-evil.

Well, I am evil, but that's neither here nor there.

I just remember thinking at the time that, had I been Jewish and noticed that the most evil characters all had Jewish names, the conversation probably would have gone in a different direction.

More playing with the idea.

Which is how it was taken. The evil French thing is not something that bugs me per se, because it's a long-standing cross-channel rivalry, but, with my background, it's not going to go unnoticed either.

I was mostly amused by the one Jewish-sounding name in the book, Anthony Goldstein. We know almost nothing about him -- he's a Ravenclaw, a year younger than Harry, and friends with Michael Corner. His name gets mentioned a bunch of times, but I don't think he ever actually said anything or did anything other than being noted as being in the room.

Not many Jewish names, but I did notice the Goblins came awfully close to some old anti-semitic stereotypes. I'm not the only one who noticed. Not accusing her of anything. But it kind of makes me think that Rowling is well intentioned, but not all that well informed on diversity.