JoMo's intentions for subtext are neither here nor there in canon - they are just a perception of how something should have been and what was envisioned by the production. That opinion is no more or less valid than the next persons.
Errr ... I kinda agree, kinda disagree.
I think you're absolutely right that "canon" is strictly the facts of what's shown onscreen (or written in the books). In order to get anything out of it at all, the reader/viewer is going to have to provide their own interpretation. The whole process of reading a book or watching a TV show is viewer-interactive in that way.
BUT! I know this puts me at odds with a majority of fandom, but I do believe that the author/creator/official writer's opinion on the characters carries more weight than J. Random Fan's opinion. It's not actual canon in the same sense that what's shown onscreen is canon, but ... I think there's a HUGE load of fannish entitlement in the idea that my opinions carry the same weight as the author's.
It's still massively wanky to use the author's intended subtext as a hammer in arguing one's own point of view -- "The author said so & so are a couple! HAHAHA! In your face, Draco/Dumbledore shippers!" But, IMHO, the worst of the fanwars are fueled not by over-reliance on canon and author subtext, but selective reliance on it -- which is, in turn, driven by the mentality that we can pick and choose those aspects of canon that suit us, and that we're entitled to our selective view of canon as the ONE TRUE PATH OF THE WORLD. The idea that the author is just another fan and if he/she disagrees with me, then he/she is wrong ... that seems like fan entitlement at its worst.
no subject
Errr ... I kinda agree, kinda disagree.
I think you're absolutely right that "canon" is strictly the facts of what's shown onscreen (or written in the books). In order to get anything out of it at all, the reader/viewer is going to have to provide their own interpretation. The whole process of reading a book or watching a TV show is viewer-interactive in that way.
BUT! I know this puts me at odds with a majority of fandom, but I do believe that the author/creator/official writer's opinion on the characters carries more weight than J. Random Fan's opinion. It's not actual canon in the same sense that what's shown onscreen is canon, but ... I think there's a HUGE load of fannish entitlement in the idea that my opinions carry the same weight as the author's.
It's still massively wanky to use the author's intended subtext as a hammer in arguing one's own point of view -- "The author said so & so are a couple! HAHAHA! In your face, Draco/Dumbledore shippers!" But, IMHO, the worst of the fanwars are fueled not by over-reliance on canon and author subtext, but selective reliance on it -- which is, in turn, driven by the mentality that we can pick and choose those aspects of canon that suit us, and that we're entitled to our selective view of canon as the ONE TRUE PATH OF THE WORLD. The idea that the author is just another fan and if he/she disagrees with me, then he/she is wrong ... that seems like fan entitlement at its worst.