The Canon Rule

[Dicentra spectabilis]

--- In HPFGU-Feedback at yahoogroups.com, "Doriane" <delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> "Jen Reese" said, in post 3 :

> > I've always interpreted the canon rule to mean you actually quote 
> > from the book or an interview with JKR, and base an argument around 
> > that (but then, I take things very literally <g>). There are quite 
> > a few posts every day with incorrect quotes, 'guesses' at what the 
> > canon said b/c the books aren't handy, or even making comments on 
> > another person's misquote. (Not correcting the mistake, just 
> > writing about something using the wrong information!)
> 
> Er... I post mainly from work (shhhh!), and I can't imagine how I 
> could possibly have the books here with me. Okay, I *could* have them 
> in e-book form, but that's nowhere as handy as far as I'm concerned. 

Being "canon based" means that the theory or argument is based on
known facts as established in canon (books, interviews) rather than on
the movies, fanfic, or other material.  

It is not necessary to provide the exact quote to be canon based.  It
is also not necessary that the theory or argument be particularly
plausible (though "plausible" is a subjective term), just that it
start with canon and go from there.

However, if someone "misremembers" what the books said and makes a
factual error, it's a good idea for someone to *gently* correct the
factual error so that it's not propagated down-thread -- or worse,
throughout fandom.  Several well-known "facts" that people base on JKR
interviews are in fact false: she never said such a thing.  For
example, shortly before the OoP release, someone (Amy Z?) discovered
that JKR never said that the OoP death would be "a fan of Harry's." 
(Watch this: what I just said will turn out to be a rumor, too. :D)

As far as having the books handy, I keep my hardbacks at home and my
paperbacks at work, but not everyone can afford a double set of books,
and not every workplace would be cool with its employees keeping HP
books around for research purposes.

I'll caution here that the e-books are illegal copies of the HP series
and break copyright laws.  We can't forbid you from using them, but we
will delete any links to them.  

--Dicentra, speaking in her own, unofficial capacity