[HPforGrownups] Re: What is Canon?

[The Fox]

No: HPFGUIDX 55927

From: Rebecca Stephens <rsteph1981 at yahoo.com>
>--- Dan Delaney <Dionysos at Dionysia.org> wrote:

>>Canon can also be writings that were commissioned and approved by the 
>>author to be a part of his or her creation. Take the Star Wars saga, for 
>>instance. Lucas writes the main stories and creates movies out of them. 
>>But he doesn't consider himself a writer, so he hires professional sci-fi 
>>novelists to write the novel versions of the movies. He also approves 
>>other novels by other writers that expand on the stories of the original 
>>Star Wars universe. All of those official Star Wars novels are canonical 
>>for the Star Wars universe, because Lucas himself (the creator of the Star 
>>Wars universe) allows them to be official.
>
>Actually, despite them being licensed, I belive that George Lucas himself 
>has said the novels are non canon.  With the possible exception of the ones 
>based on the movie.  But EU [Extended Universe] is not canon.  It's been 
>much contradicted by the movies.

Lucas has actually called the novels "glorified fan fiction".  This is 
pretty rich, considering he's the one doing the glorifying, but there you 
go.  :-)  This includes the novelizations of the films themselves, so 
strictly speaking the Star Wars canon presently consists only of the five 
films.

This makes every bit as much sense as considering the Harry Potter canon 
presently to consist only of the four books[1], and not the films.  You've 
got canon in one medium, and you've got material in another medium based on 
the original canon material.  Only one of them can be right, when they 
disagree.

[1]  I'm less comfortable including the schoolbooks, and *even* less 
comfortable including statements made in interviews -- but at least in this 
fandom, it's a safe bet that our storyteller won't change horses in 
mid-stream.  I believe JKR has planned this all through; I no longer believe 
George Lucas ever had a spiral notebook.

Fox

...........
Matthew 7:1
Luke 6:37
...
"You want to tempt
the wrath of the whatever
from high atop the thing?"
-- West Wing
...
Come on, Nature
Just because I don't feel weak
Don't mean I feel so strong.
-- the Proclaimers
..............................

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