Translated from British to American

Sep 21, 2007 21:34

It annoys me when British book titles are altered for the American market, be it Philosopher's Stone to Sorceror's Stone or Blood of the Isles to Saxons, Vikings And Celts.

arts and letters, not anglophobia

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Comments 6

polypragmosyne September 22 2007, 08:00:31 UTC
I suppose it's the same phenomenon that happens with Italian translation of books and movies (titles, but not just those ones- I remember the Magic Metrican Of The Vampire Lestat's Heigh, which made him a lot smaller than he was...).

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sansenmage September 23 2007, 01:16:21 UTC
Most strange indeed.

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alcina2 September 22 2007, 11:28:49 UTC
Oh yes, it's an absolute pet hate! I also froth at the mouth when the spelling of them is altered, so British Babylon 5 viseos come out with Matters of Honour as episode titles.

The mutilation of the Harry Potter books for the American market gioes much deeper than the titles, though; there are anything from 200-500 differences in most of the books. Most of them are changes to American grammar and spelling, but some are completely incomprehensible, like insering 'he said', or changing sherbet lemons to lemon drops.

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sansenmage September 23 2007, 01:18:28 UTC
I suppose the American publishers of Harry Potter did not trust the ability of the audience to use context after said publisher, Scholastic, had years of experience printing educational materials.

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zigsternenstaub September 22 2007, 20:25:34 UTC
I suppose it's an attempt to keep everyone ignorant, cultures firmly divided and stupidity a continuing force in the universe!

...someone has to do it. I suppose.

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sansenmage September 23 2007, 01:19:06 UTC
That sounds intelligent to me!

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