What is Canon?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 55947

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tom Wall" <thomasmwall at y...> wrote:
> Melissa wrote:
> Canon is anything that actually happens in the books or that Rowling 
> says in her interviews.
> 
> ...edited...
> 
> I comment:
> I am actually of the opinion that interviews are almost *more* valid 
> than the books. <ducks rotten tomatoes careening at him.> 
> 
> Why? Because the interviews are direct from the horse's mouth. 
> 
> ...edited...
>
> -Tom, 

bboy_mn:

The problem with interviews is that JKR's answers aren't always
clear-cut. For example, the 'does the wizard choose his animagus form'
question. In the 2 or 3 interviews I've read on the subject, the
belief that a wizard does NOT choose is only implied. It seems a
reasonable assumption from what she said, but she never said
point-blank in no uncertain terms that a wizard does not choose.

So what happens then? We are stuck with the same problem we have with
many of the issues in the book, we have to use reasonable analysis and
the application of our imaginations to create a reasonable extension
or interpretation of the wizard world. The problem is, we frequently
do not reach the same conclusions from analysing the same information,
and of course, that's what makes our discussions so lively.

I do take JKR's statements as 'gospel', but it is at times ambiguous.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn