Albus Dumbledore is Gay!

[jimboloco]

Magneto went over to the dark side!

I'd be willing to bet that the drive to maximize profits is a factor in the inhibition of Hollywood producers, as this might limit viewer interest in associated films, per the paranoidscheme of things.

Anyhow, as far as Chavez goes, he is over the top in calling the German chancellor a fascist. But he is right on when he warns that oil prices may go up to $200/barrell and that the American dollar will go into a freefall, as he says, it's the end of the American empire.

All we have to do is show some restraint.

So America has this blustering manly aggressiveness, with our stealth bombers and strato-tankers, and can drop a bomb literally anywhere in the world without interception. However, the technology to do this has outpaced the political-economic ability to deal with the aftermath

Any move toward restraint is seen as an emasculation.

[stilltrucking]

pretty interesting post jimbo,
whatever happened to lenny?
he used to post about it last year
meanwhile as the dollar drops China lost 15% on the trillions of dollars it is sitting on.
When I was kid famine in china was endemic. That was before those pesky commies took over. You know I can think. I can think of worse things than 200 hundred dollar barresl of oil. But then I don't drive much anymore.


I think I have seen that article before norman. I have not read the potter books but how bad can they be if they can get a kid to sit still and read for a coulple of hours.

[jimboloco]

• we need a wizard to help figure it all out
  
  http://www.art.com/

[bohonato]

I'm not going to claim that the Harry Potter books are literature. The writing is rather poor, but the story is enthralling enough to make up for it. However, the films are horrid. In perfect sync with the current American trend in films to overwhelm the viewer with computer generated special effects to distract them from the truth that there is no plot or thought to be found. Obviously there are exceptions to this, but I think computer generated images look bad and I find most American (mainstream Hollywood) films to be utterly boring. Anyway, don't judge Harry Potter by the movies, they don't even compare.

So America has this blustering manly aggressiveness, with our stealth bombers and strato-tankers, and can drop a bomb literally anywhere in the world without interception. . .
Any move toward restraint is seen as an emasculation.

Its defnitely a disadvantage of having a culture that idolizes macho John Wayne Dirty Harry bullshit. I know this is oft quoted around here but:

"Well, I know," she said, "You'll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you'll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we'll have a lot more of them. And they'll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

To what point is our cultural landscape determined by John Wayne or Albus Dumbledore? I'm not one to give into post-modernism, but the United States, at least, is largely controlled by the mass media.

And quite frankly, given the isolation that most LBGT persons feel growing up, homosexuality is exactly why I got into Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Gertrude Stein, Walt Whitman, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Bayard Rustin, Oscar Wilde, Angela Davis, Truman Capote, and more I can't even begin to think about. Its an infinite comfort to know that you're not alone, and that there are people in the world you can respect who are the same. Its painfully obvious why LBGT teens are at the highest risk for suicide and drug dependency. I tried both routes, and while there are entire years I don't remember, I don't regret it because its why I'm alive today. Without self-medication, I probably would have killed myself. And that, to me, more than anything, is why making Albus Dumbledore, a fictitious character, gay is important. To anyone growing up queer now, that knowledge may just stay the finger on the trigger.

And having had friends who have either successfully committed suicide or OD'ed, it is kind of a big deal.

"When she jumped, she probably thought she'd fly."
-The Virgin Suicides

And on a lighter note:

"Time after time those fanatical minds
Try to rule all the world
Telling us all it's them
Who's in charge of it all

I've got a trick, a magic stick
That will make them all fall
We've got the power now, motherfuckers
It's where it belongs

They have their weapons
To solve all your questions
They don't know what it's for
Why can't they see that's not power that's greed
To just want more and more?

I got a plan and it's here in my hand
A baton made of light
We're the enforcers,
The sorcerer's orphans
And we know why we fight."

-The FLAMING Lips, The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)

[Arcadia]

Anyway, don't judge Harry Potter by the movies, they don't even compare. Maybe... what I read really didn´t want me to continue reading (I found it so british so I read it somewhere else already and at the same time humor-lacking!) mmm.... where´s my tolerance? But I only read some chapters and I´m a very subjective critic, always.

Its an infinite comfort to know that you're not alone, and that there are people in the world you can respect who are the same. That´s so beautiful and true!!. And it´s great that literature and art can also generate that!!

[Arcadia]

(Aznar did support the golpe de estado against Chavez and the king praised Franco when he was younger and he is still king in the XXI century and Chavez always talk tooo much and..., well... anyway it was supposed to be only a bussiness meeting...)

[jimboloco]

bohonato
i think that kerouak
was mostly hetero
but had dabbled in same sex
and according to his bio
mostly was a loner
but he was not critical of his friends
indeed celebrated them
i read literary outlaw about burroughs
his survival instinct was strong
and have an old book of whitman's
leaves of grass
a power object
bought it at the long beach library fora quarter
in 1975 or 6
signed
"woodie guthrie, longy beachy, 1954"
"my favorite word kook" inside

and ginsberg
a spiritual bieng
as well as beat

plus the others
you are more literate

we are their children
may we be well

arcadia
i think that chavez will be outa office
too much of an egoist
they want the revolution
but not an emporer

[e_dog]

Nonsense.

Where does it say that in the books?

Who cares what the author imagines. If it ain't in the scripture it ain't the Word.

If Rowling writes in to the story a gay character, great. But if she didn't put it in print, it is not so.

[bohonato]

My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

- J.K. Rowling's talk at Carnegie Hall

Well, if you mean did Rowling have Dumbledore go, "By the way, guys, I'm queer." then no, but as she mentions above, there are vague references to the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in the last book. And now my Harry Potter nerd-dom is officially going back into the closet.

[stilltrucking]

Did you see Opus this past Sunday?

11/25/07

http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/client/wpc/wpopu/