[HPforGrownups] Canon

The Crashing Boar crashing.boar at ntlworld.com
Wed Aug 20 10:41:13 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 78097


  From: Charlie Moody 

  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.  
  <<snip>>
  Charlie

  -------------------

  Actually, I agree with you.  Personally, I rarely take interviews into account when mulling over theories, and wouldn't consider them canon, but commentary.  However, I've noticed a lot of people on this list consider anything apparently written or said by JKR to be 'canon', which is why I put it into a message designed to be a friendly shove in the right direction, and so that reading those posts might make more sense. 

  Dawn (who would have probably jumped on her reply if she hadn't made it in the first place :)) 




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