James and Intent

[mesmer44]

No: HPFGUIDX 187035

 
> 
> Potioncat:
> Actually, Steve, I think very few people do all those things you suggest. 
> 
> There are valid ways of looking at canon and different readers are going to interpret canon differently without any twisting going on.
> 
><SNIP>
 
Steve replies:
   There are some online posters who do make a valiant effort to objectively stick to canon as best as possible to offer an interpretation of text that presents valid support for a particular pov. But I've also read much more than a few posts by others (and to some degree at times by myself) where canon is interpreted loosely to say the least. I've seen people present 9 or 10 very logical, rational and essentially very perceptive and intelligent examples of canon supporting a point and one not so great example and in the rebuttal post the 10 great examples were totally ignored as if they didn't exist and the not so great example was countered by some rather biased and often unusual extrapolation of canon or reading between the lines in some way. Perhaps this is an effective debating tactic, to only argue against the weaker points of someone's expressed pov and pretend that no strong points of that person's pov was made. But IMO it does the first poster a grand disservice by refusing to offer counter arguments against all of the points that the 1st poster made.  If someone uses canon effectively and presents a very sound pov, I tell them so, even if it is an admission that their argument makes better sense than mine. 

But to get back to my original point. I've observed that more than a few people do tend to read between the lines, manuever and twist canon around to make their points, ignore canon that might show things counterproductive to their pov, and push their pet theories forward in whatever ways they can think of to try and show that their pov is the right one, or the best one, or whatever. JKR didn't always present character's motives and actions in clear and simple ways. And readers who are emotionally attached to and subjectively biased in favor of some characters often become over zealous in defense of these characters.  Some stick to canon very well.  Perhaps as you believe, even most do.  But some don't.

  Because I'm visually impaired, I don't read the actual text, but listen to the books on CD.  That makes it kind of tough at times to research canon to make sensible points that I wish to make. 

Steve, who genuinely wishes that he had a lot more time to research canon and the ability to wisely refer to canon as effectively as most of the people in HPFGU are capable of.