Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Plenty of people can relate to characters from fiction. Some take it a step further and start “conjuring fanciful biographies for the characters”, as Alan Jacobs puts it . Heard of fan-fiction? It’s the fiction written by fans of serials/books write based who then post it on the Internet. Lev Grossman describes it thus: “They don’t do it for money. That’s not what it’s about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They’re fans, but they’re not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.” A few years back, when the last of the Harry Potter books was released, the “Is Dumbledore gay?” question became red-hot on the Internet. Author JK Rowling’s take on the question was very interesting: “My truthful answer to you…I always thought of Dumbledore as gay…Yeah, that’s how I always saw Dumbledore.” I personally agree with Jacobs’ comment on Rowling’s response: “Rowling see...

“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.” -          Susan Sontag I never understood the sense in interpreting literary figures. I mean, these are works of fiction. The characters may be all that the author tells about them, maybe more. But how can anyone know that for sure? Least of all in cases of characters from a different era. Besides, are humans really rational? Or are they contradictory? I personally agree with John Gray who said: “If belief in human rationality were a scientific theory it would long since have been falsified and abandoned.” And if we aren’t rational, who is to say why a person (literary or otherwise) did what he did? Rational reasons, for spite, to see if he could do it or just to mess with everyone else? JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame believes that too. Which is why when she was asked if Albus Dumbledore was gay , replied: “I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” Note she doesn’...