[HPforGrownups] What is Canon?

[Diana Williams]

No: HPFGUIDX 55465

From: <graniteworks at sbcglobal.net>

> I keep seeing everyone refer to "canon". What is it?? I don't
> understand the connection. Please Explain??

"Canon" is basically the show or book, and can be classified in several
levels.  Primary canon is the movie or book or TV episodes.  Interviews with
the authors/producers are referred to as "secondary canon" - they aren't in
the book or movie or show, but they are out of the mouths of the creators,
so they have a certain validity to them.  (As long as you remember that
creators don't always tell you everything and can change their mind -
example, Chris Carter saying Mulder & Scully would never be romantically
involved.)  Then there's a third level of canon which are authorized books
such as the Quidditch and Fantastic beasts books, which are supposedly
written by people in the know and approved by The Powers That Be, so they
should have things right.  Sometimes these forms of canon will contradict
each other, in which case the primary canon wins out.

Please note that "canon" is never spelled "cannon" - that's a big-barreled
gun used for lobbing great big balls at your enemies.  (Okay you dirty
minds, get out of the gutter)

Also why does everyone
> refer to the first book as Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone??
> As far as my knowledge goes in reading the book, it is called Harry
> Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is what the original publication
was called.  For some reason, the publishers thought that those of us in the
U.S. wouldn't "get it" and so they changed to title for the U.S. publication
to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".  Same for the movie.

Diana Williams
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