January 14, 2008
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Implied Voice
Dumbledore is not gay. After examining the books of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, I have found no backing to the media statements that he was gay. Indeed, a review of his Wikipedia page reveals that J. K. Rowling only thought of Dumbledore as a homosexual, not that any particular portion of the book series actually lends itself to support this claim. Since the books are what people read, they are what matter. Which leads me to my title, implied voice.
Implied voice is some literary term my freshman English teacher talked with us about. I won’t pretend to know a formal definition, but what it amounts to is that no matter what your intentions are when writing, only the words you write have any importance. If the words you write can be construed in another matter, then you are responsible for that meaning as well as your intended meaning. I could say “I’m getting off now.” Some would take that to mean that I was logging off of an instant message conversation. Others interpret to have a meaning that is best left in the gutter. And ultimately, whatever you write is what you wrote, and if the way you selected and arranged words has a certain meaning, who are you to call what you wrote wrong?
Ultimately, the meaning of anything that is not precisely stated is left in the hands of the readers. And as a reader of the Harry Potter series, it is up to me to decide if Dumbledore is heterosexual or homosexual. I choose to interpret the books as if he is a heterosexual.
Comments (4)
Well the media tries to force all of us to be stooges who just follow everything they say. Sadly, many people are just that stooges.
I had forgotten about implied voice, but I try to forget everything related to every english class I’ve ever taken.
love your thought. With others actually used the brain once in a while. I agree re dumbledore. What a crazy hype. oh well.
Who cares if he is or isn’t?
Ha, I enjoyed this. The implied voice is my favorite thing to play with.