Harry Potter and Philosophy

I lead a young adult philosophy discussion group on Sunday morning for the Unitarian Universalists. It's mostly two teenage girls who have going to UU fellowship their whole lives, sometimes a friend of theirs, my teenage sister, sometimes my pre-teen sister, and myself. The UU's give me 30 dollars a week for this and the younger kids group during the service. Anyway, I found a book called The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy : Hogwarts for Muggles by Gregory Bassham at BAM, so I checked it out, read it, and then used it for discussion with my teens.
One of my favorite discussions we had were regarding patriotism and whether or not it is a virtue. At first the girls were on the side of no, but after some discussion there was some wavering. Patriotism is essentially the belief that you are better than others for something that neither person has any control over. What about Hogwarts though? Harry and Co. are patriotic Griffindors? Is that not virtuous? We concluded that Patriotism could be a virtue, as long as it doesn't infringe on other peoples rights. It can be virtuous to be patriotic and work for the betterment of your country or community, however all beings have the same inherent worth no matter what country or community they hail from.
It was also interesting to discuss a chapter of the book that dealt with J K Rowling's statement regarding Dumbledore's homosexuality.

<<<<"The question was: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!">>>>

The book describes the 3 primary reactions people had after Rowling made this announcement. People were either overjoyed to have the a character so complex and respected be gay, or furious about Rowling having a "secret gay agenda." The third reaction was less obvious and much more surprising. People disputed Rowling's right to make such an announcement. As she had ended the series, she had lost the right to make additions or amends and was taking away the readers' ownership of characters that they had all made their own interpretations of. At what point does a creative piece cease to belong solely to the creator? Does it ever? Once it is shared with an audience? Is everyone's Dumbledore gay because Rowling's Dumbledore is gay?

These girls are such bright engaging young women and I love our time together. They give me hope for the world.

The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy : Hogwarts for Muggles by Gregory Bassham ********