What is canon anyway?

[stgulik]

In eight or ten generations, after The Fall of Civilization, when humankind rebuilds itself from the ashes and the Harry Potter series supplants all major world religions, scholars will argue over canon in ways that make our bickering on LJ seem amateurish.

But until that fateful time, I'd like your opinion on movie canon. Is it as authentically canon as the books? When the movie version of HP7 Part 2 doesn't make it clear that Snape is not Harry Potter's father by Lily, does that idea become alternate history, or just a curiosity that ought not to be taken seriously as book canon?

Let's hear from you:

[Poll #1962449]

Do me a favor and share this poll around, because I don't have a lot of followers and I'd like some decent polling numbers on this, for science.

Comments

[darklotus1211.livejournal.com]

To me, the HP books will always be canon...BUT...having said that, I know that there are many people who came to HP via the movies and have never read the books, so, to them, I'd suppose that the movies would be theirs.

Then there are the fans, like my son, who read the books and also saw the movies and have incorporated the two. I've found some of his views on the story quite fascinating in the way he's melded the two. I don't always agree with him, but it makes for good conversation. The one thing we always agree on, however, is how much we love HP, so it never gets too contentious and as we're both of the opinion that Ron and Hermione never stood a chance of staying together, we have that in common.

He was very young when we started on the books as well, so much of his view of the book canon is through younger eyes than me. He's been thinking of re reading them now he's older and it will be interesting to see what he gets out of them when read through older eyes.

As to the possibility of Snape being Harry's father not being made clear in the movies, I never got that feeling - I thought it was quite clear in the movies that Lily and James were a truly devoted couple and that possibility never sprang to mind.