The Problem with Queer Theory...

...is turning it off.

I'm reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time. It will be the first HP book that I've actually read--but I was recommended by some reliable sources that it was actually a better place  than the first book to jump into the series.

But I'm facing a problem. Reading the series after Rowling has outed the fictional Headmaster of Hogwarts as homosexual means that I'm preconditioned to read the text in a rainbow colored light.

Imagine my scandal when I came across the following passage:

"Harry had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of his books, and hidden them in his bedroom. As long as he didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursleys need never know that he was studying magic by night."

Let's paraphrase this idea, shall we? Harry has to make sure not to stain the sheets when secretly perusing illicit literature that his parental guardians have stashed away because they find it offensive.

On the very next page...Harry's uncle scolds him because one of his Hogwart's school friends has just called: "HOW DARE YOU GIVE THIS NUMBER TO PEOPLE LIKE--PEOPLE LIKE YOU?"

Don't forget that the book begins with Harry doing a homework assignment on medieval witch trials with the opening statement:

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it.

Now, I'm not saying that Rowling has written her entire book to be a grand Queer allegory...a modern day LGBTA Faerie Queen if you will. However, once you juxtapose any of those passages with the self-expressed authorial intent to make one of the main characters a closet homosexual, it's easy to turn the story into just such an allegory.

Oh, wait a second...Harry Potter goes to an English boarding school. How could I possibly think there's anything sexually deviant going on here?

Comments

[Mike]

I think that's a pretty good point. Once that character was "outed," I was very happy that I had already read the books. Had I not, I would have spent all those hundreds of pages wondering what each chapter *really* meant...