17 responses so far ↓

• 1 Amy H. Sturgis // Feb 15, 2008 at 3:29 pm

  Thanks for the shout out! By the way, I highly recommend the entirety of that Harry Potter and the Law collection. Both Andy Morriss and Daniel Green, in particular, are very thought-provoking libertarian scholars, and of course you already know Barton.

• 2 Amy H. Sturgis // Feb 15, 2008 at 3:50 pm

  PS. I love the Lego video! Also, the website that was hosting my Harry Potter article (linked in the post you reference) is down, it looks like, but if anyone’s interested in it, it’s also available from my website here under “Articles.” Thanks!

• 3 Travis Prinzi // Feb 15, 2008 at 5:23 pm

  I’ll second the recommendation on the Harry Potter and the Law collection. I linked it here.

  I’ve got it printed out and in my collection of must-read Harry Potter analysis.

• 4 RenaBlack // Feb 15, 2008 at 6:16 pm

  I would just like to point out that Dumbledore is in fact wearing a vivid shade of purple, clearly giving credence to Rowling’s statement about his sexual orientation.

  [Sic.]

• 5 Mellie // Feb 17, 2008 at 2:55 am

  Dumbledore wore bright purple in the books. At the very least he wore it at the beginning of Philosopher’s Stone.

• 6 revgeorge // Feb 17, 2008 at 10:03 am

  Purple can also be a sign of royalty or of repentance. Lent after all is a penitential season & the assigned color is purple. Maybe Dumbledore’s vividly repentant?

• 7 LunaLouise // Feb 17, 2008 at 7:55 pm

  As far as I know, young Dumbledore wore a velvet purple suit when visiting Tom’s orphanage in the Pensieve walk down memory lane in Half-blood Prince. Harry even commented on it and all aged Dumbledore do in response was giggle. And then people didn’t see Dumbledore’s sexual preference coming before Deathly Hallows ? That was more than a wink in my opinion

• 8 reyhan // Feb 17, 2008 at 8:23 pm

  Purple clothes were associated with royalty and power in the days of the Roman Empire - and even earlier - because it was very expensive to manufacture purple dye called Tyrian Purple: it was made from the gland of a shell-fish, and it took approximately 12,000 molluscs to produce 1.5 grams. Thus only the rich and powerful could afford to wear clothes which had been dyed purple.

  So if anything, Dumbledore’s purple gear is suggestive of power and status and wealth. Not his sexual orientation.

  There is no one colour associated with being gay; rather it is the rainbow. Wikipedia tells us:

  “The rainbow flag, sometimes called ‘the freedom flag’, was popularized as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and diversity by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. The different colours symbolize diversity in the gay community, and the flag is used predominantly at gay pride events and in gay villages worldwide in various forms including banners, clothing and jewelry.”

  I don’t remember Dumbledore ever wearing rainbow colours. But then, I wouldn’t expect JKR to use such a crude device to signal the sexual orienatation of a beloved character.

• 9 korg20000bc // Feb 18, 2008 at 7:46 am

  Raibow as a symbol for homosexuality now makes me wonder what Tolkien was saying about Sauruman of many colours!

  Matthew

• 10 reyhan // Feb 18, 2008 at 7:59 am

  The symbol didn’t come in until after Tolkien had died, so I think Saruman’s orientation is unimpugned.

  However, I believe the Nazis forced known homosexuals to wear pink stars (don’t think JKR would have outed DD under those conditions!) so Umbridge maybe was a little iffy, except for the fact that no one is likely to make a fashion statement with a badge of oppression except for someone truly edgy, which Umbridge with her boucle jackets clearly was not.

• 11 Mellie // Feb 18, 2008 at 4:09 pm

  I always considered his purple robes a mark of his eccentricity, not status or sexuality. He’s always been a unique individual, and as Percy tells Harry in Philosopher’s Stone, Dumbledore is brilliant but “a bit mad”.

• 12 korg20000bc // Feb 18, 2008 at 5:47 pm

  reyhan,
  I realise that rainbow symbol being nabbed by the homosexuals is a recent occurence. It was an attempt at humour that I never seem to get away with here. I think it quite funny when a minority group uses an ancient symbol for it modern issues.

  I also took it as a sign of Dumbledore’s eccentricity. What decade was it that he went to see the young Tom Riddle?

  Matthew

• 13 reyhan // Feb 18, 2008 at 8:06 pm

  I got the joke, Matthew.

  I see Dumbledore as having the verve and elan to carry off any stylistic eccentricity. He transcends his sexual orientation. He is a true original. In the words of Shakespeare:

  “He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again”

• 14 LunaLouise // Feb 20, 2008 at 11:57 am

  Maybe it was the reserved Dumbledore that I couldn’t unify that exertion of flair and eccentricity from the past with. And I certainly didn’t mean to say that purple is a stereotypical homosexual colour and that others are not. It’s just that as I don’t see Dumbledore as the type of person that would wear the colour purple to appear majestic or repentive, to me it was a clear statement none the less and I must say that purple is a very rare colour to be worn by men.

• 15 revgeorge // Feb 20, 2008 at 12:09 pm

  The Joker always wears purple. Prince wore purple a lot.

  Oh wait, maybe those aren’t the best examples…

• 16 LunaLouise // Feb 20, 2008 at 5:20 pm

  Indeed Revgeorge !

  Matthew -

  Dumbledore went to see Tom as a 11-year-old boy in the orphanage since Dumbledore will invite children to Hogwarts the spring or summer before the 1st of September in the year that a child is 11.

  We know from Nick’s deathday party that the current year in the Chamber of Secrets is 1992.

  At the time of opening of the Chamber Tom was 16 as is said in chapter ‘The Secret Diary’ when Harry observes the student Riddle in the walk with Voldemort’s horcrux.

  The first opening of the Chamber was 50 years earlier as noted by the year on the diary and several professors. This must then have been in 1942. So that makes Tom Riddle 16 in 1942. The 11-year-old Riddle must then have lived in 1937. Dumbledore will have gone to see him in the spring or summer of 1937.

  Now that I think of it, quite interesting. We know that Tom Riddle was born on the 1st of January from the orphanage’s headmistress’ tellings and Dumbledore’s instruction of Harry on this topic. Assuming that Dumbledore visited the 11-year-old boy Riddle in the spring or summer of 1937, Tom Riddle must have been born on the 1st of January 1926.

  We know that Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore (presumably on the 30th of April) in 1945. So when Grindelwald fell Voldemort must then have been 19 years old. We know that Voldemort was very contemplative for his age.

  Do we expect Voldemort to have had a reverance for Grindelwald in his youth ? Would Grindelwald have been a role model of the young Riddle ?

• 17 Harry Potter Prognostications » Around the Prognosticators’ Table // Feb 22, 2008 at 5:41 pm

  [...] I totally stole the title of this post from Travis, sorry but it [...]

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