V's fears - Movie fears

[A.E.B.Bevan at open.ac.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 22147

Amy Z  wrote: 
>>
that we'll keep being clear about the distinction between canon and 
"HP-related work made by another artist, approved by Jo" (might need 
a new -anon term for the movie--cinanon? Isn't that like Esalen?). 
This will become crucial as people join the list who have seen the 
movie and not read the books. They will, of course, be sent to 
indoctrination camps--uh, I mean, gently urged to read the books 
pronto.
<<,

Things will change and we are living in the golden age of unlimited 
possibilities.  Make the most of it.

The part of the HP experience  which surprised so many people – all 
those kids reading books. That world will change even if tens of 
thousands of kids read the books in the future – in some ways the 
choices they have will be less because the film exists.

So will the choices we have now reading the books without the final 
volumes available.  After about 2005 for example new readers will 
know in a way that  Sirius is innocent when they start PoA, and what 
happens to him afterwards. 

There is an old story about someone who said they preferred radio to 
television because the pictures were better.  That's a comment on 
film in general. As noted before we just have to live with the fact 
that the cinema media for telling the story will bring its own canon, 
no matter how faithful the adaptors stick to `The Rules' that JKR  
set herself.   

These images may be so powerful they flavour the Canon.  Think for a 
moment of Sherlock Holmes. What trivia images spring to mind for many 
people when asked to recall details of the Holems book. Well for 
example

The catchphrase `Elementary my dear Watson'
The deerstalker hat
The long curved pipe.

Sounds familiar? None of those appear in the Canon as written by 
Conan Doyle. They all come from a 1901 stage adaptation  by the  
actor-manager William Gillette of two short stories. This was filmed 
in the 1920s and the brand image fixed in the public mind.  Something 
similar is likely to happen with the HP books. 

We just have to live with it and assert the continuing right and 
power of all readers to create our own worlds.

By the way has anyone done a comparison between the Canon as 
expressed in English and the demi-Canons of the various translations? 
They too have lives of their own as will the film version.  

I am thinking for example of the French version of PS/SS in which a 
lot of the dialogue is turned into reported speech (and all that 
implies for French literary style and complex grammar). So that the 
speed and rhythm of childrens' dialogue joking and teasing is (for 
me)  quite lost and a whole dimension fades away. And Hagrid talks 
standard French throughout as far as I see, so the whole dimension of 
class and separateness is absent.  

Edis