Who Gets to Decide?

Some years back, I remember, there was not inconsiderable clamor over J. K. Rowling’s confession that Professor Dumbledore was gay. Having been teethed on po-mo fare, this struck me as very odd indeed. Yes, Rowling had invented the character, but he was dead by the end of Harry Potter’s series, and his sexual orientation seemed a moot point.

Having written a few novels myself (don’t run to the bookstore, fantasy readers, for only one has been accepted for publication), I know how attached writers grow to their characters. We are their gods, creating them, nurturing them, punishing and sometimes killing them. We know them better than anyone. Or do we?

Every thought takes on a life of its own. Writers think worlds into being. The problem with thinking worlds into being is not dissimilar from being a parent. You bring a new creature into life, but that child has a life of her own. You can only make decisions up to a point.

So it is with fictional people. We who write create literary children, but then we pass them off to our readers. With publication we pass off our rights to deciding the future of our characters. No matter how intricately we present them, they will grow in the minds of others, taking on the attributes they decide.

Often I have read the description an author offers. That brunette described so vividly in carefully crafted prose becomes a blonde in my head. That man who weighs 250 pounds, I have slimmed down to 175. The homely girl is beautiful in my head.

Is Albus Dumbledore gay? Once the final Harry Potter book rolled off the well-monied printing press, the issue was handed from the author over to the imaginative reader. Should we gasp and wonder if the author disagrees? No. For like the gods, we writers release our characters into the freewill world of imagination. There is no bringing them back.

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K. Marvin Bruce

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