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A year in the life of J. K. RowlingI should state up-front that I’m not a Harry Potter expert. I’ve seen all of the films, and I’ve read one of the books, which I enjoyed — but I’m not the person to go to if you want a detailed exposition as to what makes a Slytherin different from a Hufflepuff. (Are those the right names?)
Consequently, I’ve never been an expert on J. K. Rowling. I mean, I know what she looks like, and I vaguely knew the parts of her story that have filtered through to the general public consciousness — the fact that she wrote the first Harry Potter book as a single mother living in Scotland, the fact that she’s now married and has more children. If you’d asked me to describe her, though, the first thing that would have sprung to my mind would probably have been this funny, but as it turns out very unfair, parody that Brit comedian Jennifer Saunders did of her for a French and Saunders Potter parody in 2003 (Jennifer first appears in Rowling-drag at 0:44): The documentary A Year in the Life ... J. K. Rowling first aired in the U.K. on December 30, and during its 60 minutes, it did quite a lot to dispel my ignorance. It also did quite a lot to make me like its subject matter. Following the author over a year as she completed the last book in the Harry Potter series, it showed her talking in an open, matter-of-fact way about her Christian faith (and religious doubts), as well as her ideas about courage, heroism and evil. It showed her in school photos as a child with brown hair and freckles, and it discussed her difficult upbringing (her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, while she had a tense relationship with her father, whom she no longer speaks to).
It gave an idea of the public demands of her current life — from live book-readings to hundreds of expectant children, to press launches, to supervising plans for a Harry Potter theme park (where she confessed it felt very odd, as a former secretary, to have other people looking to her as the most important person in the room), to running her own charity and sifting through a constant influx of letters asking for money. The most moving part of the documentary took Rowling back to the flat in Leith where she lived after the breakup of her first marriage, having returned from Portugal with a baby daughter, and, in her words, “made such a mess of things.” Standing in the flat, through floods of tears, she says:
Prior to seeing this documentary, the one "beef" that I’d always had with J. K. Rowling was the fact that her huge, multiracial, multispecies world didn’t seem to include any gay characters. It was all very well to hear Harry and Hermione banging on about discrimination against elves and giants, but what about the discrimination that exists in the real world?
Of course, Rowling then went on to make her revelation about Dumbledore, and so Hogwarts is officially no longer a heterosexuals-only universe. One of the interesting moments in this documentary (which was obviously filmed before Rowling made her big revelation in NYC in October 2007) comes when the interviewer asks her if Charlie is gay (Harry experts, you may know who Charlie is). Rowling replies no, but says that
You can view the relevant clip here, starting at about 7:35: She is shown drawing up a detailed family tree for the futures of the Potters and the Weasleys. Watching her blithely marrying off Harry and his classmates, I couldn’t help hoping that the children’s writers after Rowling will go further than she has done, and acknowledge that somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of the kids at Hogwarts would have been dealing with homosexuality — not just their one ancient headmaster. But making Dumbledore gay was unquestionably a huge step, and, combined with her thoughtful, down-to-earth demeanor in interviews, it left me feeling that J. K. Rowling is an unusually likeable person, as well as a hugely successful writer. Submitted by on January 18, 2008 - 11:00am. |
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JK
Well, first up, I'm a huge HP fan
One of those to debate the relative merits of Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, as you said. (Seriously, I post over at Fictionalley Park, a popular fan forum).
While I haven't seen that doco, I am familiar with her life story. And JK does seem pretty down-to-earth and likeable, all things considered.
Regarding Dumbledore ... I wasn't particularly surprised about his outing. The backstory with Grindelwald in Deathly Hallows had a lot of slashy subtext.
But, I have mixed feelings about his outing. On the one hand, we have an extremely powerful, well-respected character who is not defined by his sexuality. On the other hand, it's another example of the stereotype of a dead gay character (who was presumably in the closet).
I'm still glad she did it though. What do other people think?
I'm glad she outed
I'm glad she outed Dumbledore also. And for those out there who seemed to feel it was unecessary, i felt the oposite way. I thought it was vital in helping me understand why Dumbledore stood by Grindlewald and his 'For The Greater Good' crap. The explanation of 'love makes us blind' was sufficient for me, seen as i had trouble, before knowing he was gay, understanding why such a great man as Dumbledore would have stuck with a man he must have known was a total purist idiot. It was fitting as well that love was what weakened him and blinded him...seen as he always says love is the most powerful force.
I watched the documentary too and thought it was great. I didn't know much about Rowling beforehand either. I got especially excited when she started drawing up the family tree, seen as some of the names and connections on there aren't mentioned in the books.
Damn they don't make 'em like this anymore...
I...love her. Harry Potter
Up until the punching, it was a real nice party...
most amazing woman and mind
I love harry potter and jk. like shae said, harry potter defined my childhood as well. I was pretty much harry's age when the first book came out and I was hooked immediatly!! I feel like we grew up together, going through some similar things (though obviously nothing like war or being a hero). and I think that harry's story is very universal, as probably ever single teenager can relate to his feelings.
I'm amazed by jk all the time. she has this huge fantasy in her mind and she knows each and every character so well, it's amazing the way she talks about them. this story must be so real in her head, I can't even imagine how you can come up with such a story. all the storylines are so entangled and I was really surprised at how well the 7th book made everything crystalclear. I think it's great that she said dumbledore is gay, I didn't really see that, to be honest, but now that I know it makes perfect sense. I would love to spend a day in jk's mind and see whats going on in there. unfortunatly, I haven't seen the documentary :( but I'm really hoping for this encyclopedia, because I just can't get enough of harry. even though the 7th book was a great ending and really closed the story, I think I'll have to read all the books a few more times to truly understand all the entanglements.
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from." ~ Jodie Foster
I was there!
Amazing woman
I love all the harry potter books, to this day I've never seen anyone make such a powerful impact on the world through literature. I think it was great that she outed dumbledor It could have been done in better circumstances but it was still good none the less and i do feel like it explains a lot of his realtionship with Grindewald. I also am amazed at how she can always fully explain any part of the characters and events in the story she truly does know every character down to the last detail and that shows in the quality of her writing. These book are going to be read and re read by everyone for a long time.
"If Things Get Too Real, Promise To Take Me Somewhere Else"
she's really something :]
JK Rowling participated in
JK Rowling participated in two episodes of PotterCast (Harry Potter podcast) recently, and discussed homosexuality in the wizarding world, among other things. I'm quoting from memory here, but she said something along the lines of that the situation for gay people would be quite similar to how it is in the Muggle world, but that for narrow minded people the greatest taboo is your blood status, so that you could probably be pure-blood and gay and people like Lucius Malfoy wouldn't care much that you're gay. She also discusses the impact that Dumbledore being in love with Grindelwald rather than their relationship being a straight-forward friendship has on the series, and a little something about Madam Hooch's romantic life :D
If anyone's interested, the episodes in question can be downloaded and listened to at http://www.pottercast.com or downloaded from iTunes. Rowling is in 130 and 131. It's a very fun and honest interview and hardcore fans will probably enjoy it - I definitely did.
It's been years since I've
It's been years since I've watched the Harry Potter parody, i love it. If you can find the rest, it's hilariously funny. Jeremy Irons is hilarious and I can't remember who plays McGonagall, but she is excellent later on... "Lemon Sherbert!"