Are The Schoolbooks Canon?

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 38969

Abigail wrote:
<snip>
> You're right, of course, that if in a future book a Jobberknoll is 
> mentioned, however briefly, this would give a massive boost to your 
> theory and provide sufficient foreshadowing.  The problem is that it 
> hasn't happened yet.  I think we're all agreed that in order for JKR 
> to realistically introduce a Jobberknoll potion (or any other plot 
> point based on the schoolbooks) she would first have to  reintroduce 
> the information in the books themselves.  Which means that the
> presence of a Jobberknoll in FB is of absolutely no importance as far 
> as canon *support* goes, because we're still waiting for JKR to 
> validate that mention in the books themselves. 
> 
> To summarize, there's nothing wrong with using the scholbooks for 
> theorizing, but the schoolbooks themselves don't provide canonical 
> support.  In other words, what I'm trying to say is that I don't feel 
> Jobberknoll has any more or less support in canon than any other 
> flavor of Reverse Memory Charm.
>
> Abigail

To set the record strait, I'm not defending the Jobberknoll theory here 
*especifically*, although it's probably going to look like it.

The fact is that FB(awtft) IS canonical evidence of high rating, from 
the point of view of explaining and theorizing both. Let me put an 
example: months back (when I was almost a newbie), I made a theory that 
was supposed to be a joke about how Neville was going to finish off 
Draco, since by an old japanese story a yellow bird is the only enemy 
the dragon fears, and that would have been foreshadowed by the yellow 
cannary Neville turns into and Draco's name. This wasn't intended to be 
taken seriously but nonetheless, several people wrote back to sink it. 
One of the major canon aginst it was that there is no mention of such 
legend in the Potterverse. That is, no-one has told us about it 
anywhere. There aren't even Japanese dragons in Potterverse, IIRC. 

My point? That the Jobberknoll theory has already got the foundations 
laid: We know that JKR has already created a bird that reproduces the 
souds he has heard when he dies, so she could use it in the future. If 
the theory had been based in an external fantastical creature (lets 
say, the Longbottoms had a Slith friend -note the "i"- who sees it all 
and survives by simulating being a stuffed cocrodile), then it would be 
so much more unprobable that it would ever happen, we wouldn't be even 
have this discussion (it would be stupid, since sliths don't look that 
much like cocrodiles, but it's only an exagerated example).

Resuming: by using a creature JKR has invented, the theory is already 
canon-based, since it *exists* a (non-infenitesimal) posibility of JKR 
sometime using the same plot idea.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who searched for the most obscure fantastical creature he 
could think of, and who wonders if many people in this list even *know* 
what a Slith is, when not refering to a student from Slytherin