FROM DUTTONS OF BRENTWOOD WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Odds and Ends....

...................With all the high-minded literary prize news of recent weeks (the Booker, the NBA finalists, the Nobel) it's easy to overlook one of the great literary honors - the esteemed Bulwer-Lyton Prize. The annual award is named in honor of the Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, author most famously of The Coming Race and, more importantly, of the novel Paul Clifford which gifted our literary culture the immortal opening line: "It was a dark and stormy night....". The contest, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University ever since its inception by Prof. Scott Rice, seeks the worst possible opening lines in the spirit of Bulwer-Lytton's famous phrase. Though, admittedly, submissions are almost always composed specifically for the contest and not as actual novels, the results are always splendidly uggh-worthy. This year's winning entry was submitted by Jim Gleeson of Madison, Wisconsin:
"Gerald began--but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them 'permanently' meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash--to pee."
To read more about the contest, including other winning entries, please visit their website at http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

Outing Albus...........Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling recently admitted that Hogwarts' beloved headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is gay. The revelation - which was greeted by a few vigorous reactions on either end of the spectrum but generally went unnoticed, or at least uncommented upon, by the general public - plays no visible role in any of the novels, but does raise the interesting question of what life a character might inhabit outside the words that define him or her. Rowling has stated that Dumbledore's back story, though only fleetingly explored in the novels, did figure in to how she approached his character and helped to inform his actions.

This would imply that Dumbledore's character resides as much in his creator's imagination as on the written page (a claim that may give textual literalists a pause). Another question that the revelation raises is who is allowed to "out" a character? Presumably, the writer would have the authority to do so; but what about a third party?

What is to stop theorists from combing works for clues as to a character's sexuality in the same way that Freudian critics have tried to psychoanalyze fictitious characters or Marxist analysts tried to shoe-horn works of literature into their ideological frameworks? What if the author disagrees? Is it possible that the character is keeping secrets even from his or her creator? (And if so, who is really keeping secrets from whom?) Of course, ultimately Albus Dumbledore is really nothing more (and nothing less) than a beloved character in a cherished septology which has entertained millions of readers.

Harry Potter news (2).........With the series now officially at an end, Scholastic has finally released the slipcased collector's edition. The seven-volume set of hardcovers also includes a replica (albeit cardboard) Hogwarts trunk. At the price of $195.00, the set is the perfect way to introduce someone to the magic.

However, if you've already collected the hardcovers individually you may want to think twice.