Are The Schoolbooks Canon?

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 38960

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at c...> wrote:

> The whole Jobberknoll theory is that the Jobberknoll figures into 
> the torture of the Longbottoms.  We have not yet been told exactly 
> what happened that night, although I suspect we will be told in the 
> next three books.  So in OoP (or Book 6 or 7), JKR could easily have 
> Neville (or Moody or Snape or Dumbledore) tell us the tale, 
> explaining right then exactly what the Jobberknoll is and even 
> revealing that the Longbottoms had one. 
> 
> So how would that be a canon problem or violate JKR's foreshadowing 
> tendencies?  Obviously, she would have to explain in OoP what a 
> Jobberknoll is, but I don't see how that fact undermines the 
> Jobberknoll theory at all.

It doesn't.  My comments were not meant to cast aspersions on the
Jobberknoll theory, which I find no more farfetched than any of the
other Neville theories (take that as you will :-).  


> I'm still rather puzzled.  In GoF, the Dark Mark gets fired into the 
> sky.  We have no idea at the time what it is supposed to mean; it 
> comes out of nowhere, IIRC.  It is a very important plot point.  JKR 
> explains it to the reader *after* the whole scene in the forest.  So 
> that is another example where JKR just puts a magical concept out 
> there and explains it for us later.  

I don't think it's quite the same thing.  First of all, the "magical
concept" of the Dark Mark is pretty generic -- it's possible to use
magic to conjure pictures in the sky.  I don't think this is so
radical, or so specific to the HP universe, that it requires special
foreshadowing.  Nor is it important to the plot -- it's not like the
ability to conjure pictures in the sky becomes important later.  The
importance of the Mark lies in its symbolic meaning and the
characters' reactions to it.  As such, the Mark isn't really a plot
point -- it in itself is foreshadowing.  It establishes the existence
of the DEs, allows for the introduction of the Priori Intantatem
spell, gives Arthur a chance to talk about what the bad old days were
like, and sets up the possibility of Lucius Malfoy being a DE.  (It
also provides a visual and thematic tie-in with the Dark Marks the DEs
have on their arms, but I don't know if I'd call that foreshadowing.)

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com