What is canon (from movie list)

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 28589

Steve said, over on the movie list:

> Canon doesn't mean that a fact is completely without inconsistencies. It means that it's clearly stated that way in the books. Although there are inconsistencies with it (there are inconsistencies all over the books on many topics), that date [NHN's death in 1492] is very clearly stated. 

and then:

> Hermione being born in 1980 falls into the same category. It says so in the books, therefore it's canon, even though there are extemely good arguments either way. 

I don't fully understand.  It doesn't say in the books that Hermione was born in 1980.  That's why we have all these debates, and, indeed, why the Lexicon includes a lengthy post from Ebony arguing the 1980 date.

So is canon what is actually stated in the books?  Or is it also what we deduce from them?  An example of the former would be that NHN died in 1492.  An example of the latter is that his 500th deathday party took place in 1992, which we can only deduce because we can add 500 to 1492 to get 1992.

However, if NHN adopted a different counting method, as many cultures have historically done, for example, taking 1492 as his first deathday (just as we have no year zero in our calendar), that would lead to a 1991 date for COS (wow, when I began this post I didn't expect to bowl you *that* curve ball/googly), and 1979 for Harry, etc.

So we can define 'canon' in any of the following ways:

a) 1492 is canon, no twentieth century date is;
b) 1492 is canon, and both 1991 and 1992 are 'alternative canon', because both are possible
c) 1492 is canon, and 1992 is canon, but not 1991, because the balance of probability in interpretation lies with 1992.

The assertion above, and in the Lexicon, that Hermione was born in 1980, and that that is canon, in my view conforms most closely with definition c).

Definition c) is by far the best for constructing sites like the Lexicon, because it allows us to take tentative matters as provisionally settled and make further deductions.  But because probability (at least in this context, I don't want to get into a Bayesian debate here) is a subjective matter, it does mean that canon is *not* unique: someone who believes that the arguments for a 1979 date for Hermione's birth outweigh those for 1980 will be entitled to take *that* as canon, for them.

Perhaps a better case is large versus small Hogwarts, where more 'objective' evidence is more or less equally ranged on both sides.

BTW, Steve, did you write to JKR about trading cards? And if so, was there a reply?

David


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