Momma and I listened to Chamber of Secrets today driving from Memphis to Macon. Just as good as the first time...
I started laughing too. But I was laughing because some guy had fallen asleep and loudly snored. I didn't even know people could snore that loud...
Finished the last book tonight... WOW. The development of Dumbledore's character was simply mind-blowing. While before, he fit the archetype of the Omniscient Pederast to a T and was really quite offensive, the final book reinterprets his unrequited sexual desire for Harry to a much deeper level (EVEN FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE). I'm not talking about the obvious stuff on the surface. That's there for everyone to see. But digging deeper, look at all the subtext behind the various shenanigans with the wands that prove so important to the superficial plot. Peel back the layers of this rich, rich book! If you really pay attention to whose wand (phallus) works for whom and which wand breaks from what and on and on, you find a potent story about the difficulties faced by LGBT teens both in finding and coping with their identities and in confronting societal bigotries against them. JK Rowling has achieved something quite brilliant here in weaving such profound threads throughout what would otherwise be a fairly dry, plodding series of children's books. Kudos!
Also, what was the deal with Aberforth's goat-****ing? It doesn't fit, but the book is quite adamant that he's a goat-****er.
My kid loves them and I can see why after reading them. My Generation never had a 7 book 7 movie series like that unless you enjoyed Charlie Brown and liked to read the paper everyday waiting for Lucy to pull the football our from CB or give Advice, get kissed by Snoopy or steal Linus' Blanket from him. Maybe C-Tease Schnieder or rile up Peppermint Patty or make a nasty comment about Pigpen.
I am going to entertain the thought that you are serious for a few moments. First, British literature is literally littered with references of mentor-student relationships. It helps to understand that JK Rowling drew heavily on the more traditional boarding school culture of the rich and even the culture of the most respected universities in Britain – Oxford and Cambridge. Take, for instance, that Oxford University is divided into 6 permanent private halls, each controlling its membership and with its own internal structure and activities. They were all founded by different Christian denominations – Blackfriars (founded 1221, re-founded 1921) Catholic (Dominican), Campion Hall (1918) Catholic (Jesuit), Regent’s Park (1927) Baptist Union of Great Britain, St Benet’s Hall (1897) Catholic (Benedictine), St Stephen’s House (1876) Church of England (Anglo-Catholic) and Wycliffe Hall (1877) Church of England. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand why JK Rowling introduced the sorting hat for first years into the houses based on personality traits. Secondly, bear in mind that mudbloods could also be a JK Rowling reference to women or other minorities being accepted into the colleges and eventually into the old boy’s club in London. Prof. Dumbledore had always protected their right to get into that magical club and some houses (like Oxford’s private halls, historically) would be more or less accepting to their own mudbloods at the time. Thirdly, Prof. Dumbledore did have an infatuation with Harry. He took the extraordinary steps in several earlier books to be distant as he considers that he would be dangerous to Harry. When he took Harry to recruit Prof. Slughorn back to Hogwarts, he said that Prof. Slughorn highly values collecting powerful and famous students. Prof. Dumbledore could have been describing himself as the very same. There is a whole tonne of references here. Prof. Dumbledore wasn’t a role model to anyone and that was clearly laid plain in the character development in later books. He was secretive and vain and a big show off and did a lot of really bad things earlier in his life. But, Prof. Dumbledore did teach Harry more than a few lessons about character without magic and I think that completely redeems his own character. Thaumaturge, I have a question for you. If there was no physical homo relationship, was there ever a homo relationship? But, whatever dude. I am going to have to research more about wand = phallus idea in regard to some ancient text, off hand I don’t remember it being mentioned in some of the earlier scriptures or magi text or alchemists notes.
Funny, it was listening to an audio CD of the 5th one that got me back into HP. They really are pretty darn awesome.
This is all great stuff, but we're talking about the wandlore and all of its clear subtext. (Although... the unrelated stuff about Aberforth's goat-****ing is about as far from subtext as it can get.)
