Comment by Animats
4 hours ago
> One of my favorite New Criticism corollaries is that an author, after a work has been published, is not in a privileged position from which to speak on its meaning.
That's a line which was more appropriate in a era before the majority of novels had sequels. Now we read series where the plot extends across multiple books. Events in earlier books set up situations to be resolved in later books.
For a recent controversy in this area, ask Google "Is Dumbledore gay?"
> a line which was more appropriate in a era before the majority of novels had sequels
Serialisation pre-dates the novel.
There is a legitimate debate around the degree to which an author can amend canon with sequels. Various fandoms reject sequels in literature and film, as is their right. I think the broad consensus tends towards treating sequels as canon, however.
> For a recent controversy in this area, ask Google "Is Dumbledore gay?"
Did Rowling write a sequel with this? I thought it was scrawled into the margin of a screenplay.
I think you have to reject the text of the books to argue Harry Potter is an alien. You don’t necessarily to accept or reject Dumbledore’s sexuality.