[HPforGrownups] Canon

[Charlie Moody]

No: HPFGUIDX 78073

On Tuesday, August 19, 2003, at 06:28  PM, The Crashing Boar wrote:

Dawn:
>   Canon is simply the information we have from the actual works
> (the seven books printed so far) plus additional information
> supplied by JKR through various means such as interviews.

Me (Charlie):
Dictionary.com has this:
>> 3. The collection of books received as genuine Holy Scriptures,
>> called the sacred canon , or general rule of moral and religious
>> duty, given by inspiration; the Bible; also, any one of the canonical
>> Scriptures.

Removing the religious overlay, we arrive at something like this:
"a collection of books accepted as authoritative, or any text included
in that collection".

Which tells me that HP canon is the published body of work by JKR
about HP & the Wizarding World - specifically, the 5 "HP &"  books
& the two 'school books', plus such as she may add in the future.

You include public utterances of JKR in canon;  I do not.  Any
interview with JKR is not her authoritative work, but the work of the
interviewer - and JKR's wicked characterisation of Rita Skeeter
shows directly, I think, how she feels about that line of work.  The
books, on the other hand, have been slaved over to ensure that
they say *exactly* what she wants them to say.

Even barring interviews, it's hard to imagine that any off-the-cuff
public remark can have the weight, the certainty the immutability
of what she's already committed to print.  Until it's committed to
print, she can change her mind about anything she says, if she
wants to bad enough.  Print - published works - are authoritative.

Likewise, I consider fanfic to be a different conversation about a
different topic.
--
Charlie