Gay Characters in Harry Potter/Other Fantasy Canon

[learnnew]

First of all, I want to be clear that I do NOT mean to discuss fanfics and pairings therein. I realize that, for many reasons - most of which I find rather unfortunate - popular fantasy authors like JK Rowling (referred to as JKR from hereon) do not (will not?) introduce openly queer (GLBT) characters in their fiction (like the Harry Potter books). However, that is not to say that there are very plausible and worthwhile queer readings in the books themselves.

 

Here're my questions: Have you, in your readings of popular series (like Harry Potter, Narnia etc.), observed characters that are queer and/or in queer relationships, especially in the Harry Potter books? If so, could you justify your reading with entirely canon writings (ex. quotes from JKR)?

 

For HP books 1-5, I thought Blaise Zabini was an excellent example of a gender-bending character. Of course, in HBP, Blaise was revealed to be a male. This is just an example that didn't quite work out. But, please, I would like to have a serious discussion on this topic, and not hear stuff like "Umbridge is really a man's drag attempt gone bad and that's why (s)he's such a b***h" You might notice I have specifically not listed LOTR in the list. I believe it's a topic for an entirely different post

 

BTW, I posted these questions in Mugglenet and within 5 minutes, the entire post was deleted because they don't discuss "alternate sexualities". I was honestly a bit disappointed by that, but hey, its their site!

[Lugh]

personally I don't think there are any references in Narnia, but I could be mistaken... however there is a lot of literature out there where the characters leave you wondering.

 

 

Lugh

[Umbathri]

Anyone, and I mean anyone can see just about anyone else as a sexual being. Regardless of whether they were trying to portray themselves as such. It would be just the same for a character in a story, no matter how innocuous the author tries to portray them; someone will see some of their actions as having a sexual interest to them. If you are gay then you

Edited June 27, 2006 by Umbathri

[glomph]

personally I don't think there are any references in Narnia, but I could be mistaken... however there is a lot of literature out there where the characters leave you wondering.

Lugh

 

With Narnia, it's the author who leaves you wondering.

[redlightfeeling]

I'm still convinced that Holden from 'Catcher in the Rye' is gay. Look at how much he talks about Stradlaters sexuality in the first couple of chapters. He may hit on women throughout the book but I still believe his only interst in women lies in the interest of men's sexuality towards women. He's more interested in male sexuality. I wish Salinger would've written an author's note stating that he turned out to be gay.

As for Harry Potter; I read them, but it was a while ago and I can't remember enough details to agree with you. I wouldn't doubt it though.