Mark at Delusions of Grandeur mentioned some links hitting his radar about JK Rowling’s announcement that the character Albus Dumbledore is homosexual. Here are some related bits:

Dumbledore is gay, ‘Harry Potter’ author reveals. This outing sends Bill O’Reilly’s Homophobia Running Rampant and many other places go into full text discovery mode, like at Openbanter.

As I was reading the series, I saw these cues, but never took them that way. Judging from much of the reaction that I have seen after this announcement, most other readers didn’t read into it that way, either. My personal reaction when hearing the news was first a hesitation, where I mentally put together all the points of reference about Dumbledore I could remember offhand, wondering if I had missed something obvious. But at the same time, my feelings were indifferent. The cues were not obvious, and the case being that the character is a homosexual in no way alters who he was as a leader, headmaster, teacher, warrior, or father-figure. I would have had the exact same reaction if her announcement had been that Dumbledore is, say, Hispanic. I mean, the revelation is indeed interesting. There just isn’t a focus on it in the story, and the new information does not change what the books are.

I mean, If I had gone out and had a full-size tattoo done, I would probably get some ribbing about it, but really, this revelation doesn’t change the meaning or significance of the character or the books. Sure, it makes ultra-conservative types break out in hives, and start telling anyone who will listen that it’s horrible, that the sky is falling, and that the whole story is now tainted.

Yes, tainted. It’s all one big thinly-veiled Freudian tale of gay sexual innuendo…

Harold often wondered if it were true, that wizards and witches wore nothing underneath their robes. The cauldron’s bubbling ceased, and as it did, the surface of the glossy liquid cleared, and in the reflection, he could just make out the faint outline of a wand… eight and three quarters, thick, ebony with unicorn mane. He wondered momentarily if these details would end up in the penseive one day. Suddenly, a familiar chill filled the room. Knowing that the dementors would be closing in, he reached to his belt for his own wand, ready to cast that incanation that would release his raw energy, a stag at full gallop which they could not deny…

Oh the fan fiction. Oh the humanity!

It’s not like we haven’t seen instances of other Wizards coming out of the closet, either famous or infamous, real or fictional.

It’s a good thing that
Gay Marriage is Unamerican, otherwise, people would have absolutely nothing to be scandalized about…. right?

The news being that it is, though, there is a reminder that the whole series is seen through Harry’s eyes. As he is growing through his pre-teen and teen years, he’s learning more about the real world. If you will remember when he learned of the Tri-Wizard Tournament back in “The Cauldron of Fire,” he was first amazed to learn that there were other wizarding schools besides Hogwarts. Then he became amused at his ignorance. There were several other instances of this sort of revelation, where Harry pieces things together… The wizarding world is not really that different from that of the Muggles. Families think and act much the same way, the battle of the sexes, issues of hubris, these are universal.

The hero always retreats to his beginnings.  The healing power of some solitude to sort things out, the call of the wasteland/forest/”being down home” allows for recharging of the body, the mind.  the spirit.
You see this in ancient literature, like in the Arthurian legends, where Lancelot, who showed up originally from the deep woods, disappears to the deep woods to bolster himself up after things get hairy.

You see similar themes in European and American literature, as well as in popular literature. There are plenty of times where Superman retreats to his secret hideaway for a while, before coming back into the fray, stronger in resolve and in ability than ever before.

Is this part of the male psyche? This Robert Bly ideal of the male ego, this retreat-and-recreation makes perfect sense to men. If you can retreat to the mountain-top, the deep wood, the secret hideaway… preferably the place where you have spent a lot of time doing both nothing and everything, you can space things out without outside interference. It’s usually a place where you found affinities for things that led you to needed skill sets, a place where you might have developed many of your aptitudes.

We see it in literature, and in movies where the hero is someone that we –as men– identify with. Somehow, it’s against the rules in a lot of situations to break away, sort things out, bolster our selves, ego included. Ladies, I’m sorry to tell you, but we do not get anything out of talking about it. It works for you, but not for guys.

You can’t become an epic hero thatta way.