Read the full text here. We’ve discussed much of this interview’s comments before (the importance of Dumbledore’s single-sex attraction incident, her colloquial use of the word ‘fundamentalism,’ etc.) but the whole thing is, as always, much better than the excerpted parts.
There is one passage, though, I hope you will take home and show your friends:
Moving on to a more contentious issue, Rowling has categorically said that she does believe in a higher power, a statement reinforced by her childhood church-going (“Till I was 17,” she clarifies). It must be difficult to reconcile her religious beliefs with those that denounce Harry Potter as anti-Christian, I wonder aloud. Rowling’s expression does not change a fraction. “There was a Christian commentator who said that Harry Potter had been the Christian church’s biggest missed opportunity. And I thought, there’s someone who actually has their eyes open.”
I can think of ten writers who wrote that “missed opportunity” line, several of whom aren’t Christians, but, as one of those commentators, I’ll tell you it is grand to read Ms. Rowling thought this was the “eyes open” understanding of her books.
I should note, too, the fact that this sentence was not mentioned in any of the previous reports about the interview throws light on the blind-spot in Daily Prophet coverage of Harry Potter. All we have read about this interview was homophobia and stupid Christian fundamentalists. Not one mention of the author pointing to the spiritual content of the books and their explicit and implicit Christian meaning!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
This is an incredible interview! One of the best and most mature in subject and scope. Apparently it took a Rowling-friendly, non HP-reading “Muggle” to get deep into Rowling herself, rather than rehashing plot/character questions.
Hurrah for Rowling and the “missed opportunity” statement–we can all clap paws and dance about. It was also interesting to read of her comments on girls’ body image; I didn’t know she’d spoken on this and that it was a controversy. What a role-model.
I look forward to rereading the interview and commenting further. And I’ll be passing it on. Thanks, Professor!
Thudders never misses any opportunity for a treat…
John, thanks for the link. I found it somewhere and had already saved it, but still haven’t read it all the way through. (I had read, or tried to read it, when the scans were posted over at TLC). So I did read that quote but with all the other things she talked about in that interview it was easy for it to get lost.
Whenever she says things like that I find myself wondering just what she has read (your book, perhaps?), because that isn’t the sort of thing that gets reported in any of the newspapers.
And yes, I will be printing out this particular article–the whole thing is full of all sorts of interesting insights.
Pat
I just saw the part where she said Dumbledore became basically “asexual and celibate!” She also said he lost his moral compass at this point and realized it. I find this very reassuring, as it seems to mean that he was not a REAL gay, and that she was not promoing that lifestyle. It greatly restores my faith in her Christianity, and yet deepens my regret on her comments on American politics. Not a good place for such a good, and conroversial, author.
At first I was bothered by Rowling’s political comments, Gladius Terrae Novae, concerned about their impact, but have unbent about it. Really, have you ever met an American who had no opinions of foreign nations’ politics/leaders? And what percentage even expresses them knowledgably?
Many American authors comment on such things outside their works. Rowling’s controversiality has mostly been in the realm of religious views (Christians) and literary quality (academia).
Whether her comments will affect perceptions of the books…I doubt it. I think most can separate a fictional work from an author’s personal views; although I think her personal political views permeate her books. Just who was that “President of a far distant country,” described as a “wretched man,” at the beginning of HBP, the one whose call the Prime Minister awaited? If you go within the books’ timeline, it could be Clinton; if you go with when she wrote it, it could have been a jab at Bush. If she was referring to an American at all.
Rowling has a lively, intelligent mind and I expect we’ll hear many more of her personal views. Our country, what we do and who leads us has global impact. I’d bet most under 40 wouldn’t think twice about her comments.
The kitties certainly never think twice about mine, because they don’t listen to them in the first place…
I found the place where Ms. Rowling read the comment about the books being the Church’s “biggest missed opportunity.” It was in the Time magazine write-up of her being chosen as a runner-up for Time’s person of the Year. The article does not name “the Christian defender” cited:
It turns out that Rowling, like her hero, is a Seeker. She talks about having a great religious curiosity, going back to childhood. “No one in my family was a believer. But I was very drawn to faith, even while doubting,” she says. “I certainly had this need for something that I wasn’t getting at home, so I was the one who went out looking for religion.” As a girl, she would go to church by herself. She still attends regularly, and her children were all christened. Her Christian defenders always thought her faith shined through her stories. One called the books the “greatest evangelistic opportunity the church has ever missed.” But Rowling notes that there was always another side to the holy war. “At least as much as they’ve been attacked from a theological point of view,” she says, the books “have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it’s been by several different faiths.” The values in the books, she observes, are by no means exclusively Christian, and she is wary of appearing to promote one faith over another rather than inviting people to explore and struggle with the hard questions.
I was probably the only “Christian defender” interviewed for that piece besides Pepperdine’s James Thomas and he isn’t given to hyperbole to make a point as I am.
I think, then, we have confirmation that Ms. Rowling has, indeed, read something I said and approved of it, albeit without knowing it was me that said it. I remain gloriously anonymous and acknowledged, for which best of all possible worlds I say (perhaps for the first time) “Thank you, Time magazine.” I can now say Ms. Rowling believes John Granger has read her books “with his eyes open.” Anyone out there having read them in a different and better way than with their eyes open is welcome to claim the higher ground.
From AdeelAmini.com: The Diary
10 March 2008
Had the absolute pleasure of interviewing the very lovely Ms JK Rowling t’other day. You can read the interview by going here
03 April 2008
…
And I suppose I can’t really end this entry without a word on the entire JK Rowling furore that occurred after my last post, i.e. when the international media decided to take a choice snippet from it and plaster it across their front pages. While it did expose me to the admittedly fickle, and often remorseless, nature of journalism, I do feel it necessary to clarify my own standpoint of what happened in that interview room. As the interview states, Rowling seems very much content with her life at the moment, and deservedly so – the ‘suicidal’ comment was indeed an aside, a throwaway thought, presented in such a manner that it would be clear to anyone listening that she is truly past that awful stage of her life. Instead of blowing the issue out of proportion – for front-page news it most certainly isn’t – it is important to recognise how she has come out at the end of it all. On a personal level it is an incredibly inspiring achievement, and I sincerely hope that anyone reading the interview who has suffered a condition even remotely similar can take heart in the fact that there is definitely something positive on the other side.
Amini describes himself as: “a 22 year-old writer and comic from Bradford, West Yorkshire, currently based in Edinburgh.
Following almost four years of a riveting English Language degree, Adeel decided to take to the stage and generally spout caustic nonsense at anyone willing to listen. For some strange reason people have been letting him perform on a regular basis at comedy clubs in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, where he continues to milk his racial heritage for all it’s worth.
When not embarrassing himself and others on stage, Adeel can be seen as a screenwriter and film journalist, heard as a radio presenter, and avoided as a lady of the night. You’ve been warned.”
No wonder the interview was so good.