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fox weighs in
So as you've heard, Herself is on the Today show and the MSNBC website talking about ... what happened next-next, I guess. Or what she meant by All That. And essentially, my position is this:
That's nice, Jo. Things you said in interviews weren't canon before, and they're not canon now.
People are pretty exercised about what she has to say, I guess, but I don't think there's any reason to be. She can have all the opinions she likes; it's out of her hands, now. She's done with the writing, and she can't control how our minds interpret what she's given us, so if she meant for us to know Hermione grows up to be a lawyer -- if it was important to her that we get this -- she should have said so in canon, where it's canon. Spouting off to Meredith Vierra doesn't count, I'm afraid.
I am, as many if not most of you know, rigidly conservative on this point. Canon is The Books, Full Stop. Where the books disagree with one another (or with themselves; who came out of Harry's wand first, in the graveyard at Little Hangleton? -- depends which edition you read), you may choose your version (for the record, my preference is for the UK first edition in every instance), but that's it. Where the books are silent, you may adopt whatever pseudo-canon you like -- film canon, fanon, personal canon, or author-quoted-in-the-press canon -- but it's not canon, because if it were it wouldn't have that kind of qualifier. This goes, as well, for Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages. Not Canon. Extra. And if/when JKR gets around to publishing herspiral notebooks Encyclopedia of We've Always Called it the Lexicon, that, too, will -- insofar as it differs from what's in the seven books that are canon -- Not Be Canon.
Message ends.
That's nice, Jo. Things you said in interviews weren't canon before, and they're not canon now.
People are pretty exercised about what she has to say, I guess, but I don't think there's any reason to be. She can have all the opinions she likes; it's out of her hands, now. She's done with the writing, and she can't control how our minds interpret what she's given us, so if she meant for us to know Hermione grows up to be a lawyer -- if it was important to her that we get this -- she should have said so in canon, where it's canon. Spouting off to Meredith Vierra doesn't count, I'm afraid.
I am, as many if not most of you know, rigidly conservative on this point. Canon is The Books, Full Stop. Where the books disagree with one another (or with themselves; who came out of Harry's wand first, in the graveyard at Little Hangleton? -- depends which edition you read), you may choose your version (for the record, my preference is for the UK first edition in every instance), but that's it. Where the books are silent, you may adopt whatever pseudo-canon you like -- film canon, fanon, personal canon, or author-quoted-in-the-press canon -- but it's not canon, because if it were it wouldn't have that kind of qualifier. This goes, as well, for Fantastic Beasts and Quidditch Through the Ages. Not Canon. Extra. And if/when JKR gets around to publishing her
Message ends.
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You're beginning to sound like me with respect to Darth Plaid.
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I'm picking and choosing what parts of the author's output are considered "work".
:-D
I confess it was A Long Time Ago, on a Message Board Far, Far Away that I developed this position; I used to consider the Extended Universe novels to be Star Wars canon, when I was young and starry-eyed, and the gang at Echo showed me the error (folly, madness, not to say impracticability) of my ways. That "spiral notebooks" crack was in there for a reason. [g]
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I can't fault you for taking that stance, because it would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I absolutely refuse to recognize the Special Editions, and big chunks of the Prequels, as canon.
The only true SW canon is found in the original theatrical releases of IV - VI. No amount of protestation from The Great Winger will change my mind.
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What's not canon by any stretch includes the screenplays, the novelizations, the novels, the comic books, the merchandise, any interviews given by or on behalf of George Lucas, the spiral notebooks, etc., etc.
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As for the interview, I really really wish she HAD put these tidbits in the books because then there wouldn't be any doubt. This is the kind of stuff I'd been hoping for because, like you say, books=canon.
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