(no subject)

[doyle]

Checking out a post on hp_essays about Britpicking - because some of the Harry Potter fic I was reading last night was fantastic but had an Americanism every couple of paragraphs1, and dumpsters and diapers2 and candy stores in a British setting just bring me to a screeching halt - and am I understanding the comments right? The books were translated into American English? :boggles: I knew the title of Philosopher's Stone was changed but assumed the text had been left alone. That just seems odd.

1: Yep, aware of the irony in this since I'm plenty guilty of sticking Briticisms into Buffy fic.

2. Uh, the nappies/diapers were on a baby, they weren't the kind for grown-ups.

Comments

[gloss]

This always reminds me of an opposite case, where the British publisher of L'engle's A Wrinkle in Time wanted to change the first line - "It was a dark and stormy night" - to add "...in a small Connecticut town".

Anyway. I *still* crave Brit details in my reading; how the hell would I know about Y-fronts and Marks & Sparks and comprehensives otherwise?

Also, rather than shelling out for the British editions, interested North American readers should just get the Canadian editions from Indigo or Amazon; they're published by Raincoast, far more affordable, and lack Yank-translation as well as that crappy cover art. ;}

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Hee! And I'm scratching my head as to why they wanted it changed. Because British readers have never seen dark and stormy nights, possibly?

[gloss]

Because British readers have never seen dark and stormy nights, possibly?
Hee. Because storms are very different in Connecticut, and you don't want the little dears being confused and assuming that the story takes place in Outer Uffington or something?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I love the name Outer Uffington.

[gloss]

It's just so very, very Cotswolds. And as a (former) Yank who knows both meanings of "jumper", how much do I giggle every time I read the Christmas scenes when Mrs. Weasley sends them jumpers? Harry in oh-so-sensible drag!

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I had neevr heard that meaning of jumper till someone on this thread pointed it out. I'm waiting to see how many comments we can get before the many meanings of fag/faggot in the UK come up *g*

[gloss]

Yay for the age-old fag discussion! There must be some kind of Net rule about it, like Godwin's Law on mentions of Hitler.

I get so freaked writing Giles for these reasons - all the little details that wouldn't occur to a non-Brit, like revising for exams and such. Don't get me started on my agonies while trying to figure out A-Levels and O-Levels. Oy. but at least I don't ascribe GPAs and dorms to Oxbridge colleges...

There's a very scary moment on, I think, the Buffy s3 DVD extras, in the Buffyspeak documentary, where Jane Espenson talks about the difficulties writing for the Brit characters. "I just pass it off to Joss to see if I got it right," I think she says. Skeery. Why not just ask ASH?

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Ha! I wonder how Wes's Angel season 1 dialogue got through because I refuse to believe that any British person has said "those doxies" or "a couple of fillies" unless they're being deeply, deeply ironic. Or are *very* upper-class, which I suppose could be Wesley's excuse (as well as the Watcher's Academy potentially being a terribly posh boarding school)

[gloss]

I think Wes is just a *huge* closet Wodehouse fan. I want to write him growing up poor and miserable in council housing outside of Liverpool, scheming to get out, drinking up Wodehouse and practicing a posher-than-thou accent and inventing a Watcher for his absent dad. Just to deflate some of the rather bizarre American assumptions about every British character being a member of the nobility and in possession of grand country homes and ...

I'll stop ranting now. Hee.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Bwah!! That's utter genius.

I'd originally thought Etha was one of the few non-posh Brits we'd ever seen but his accent was pretty plummy by A New Man.

And what's with the names? Quentin? Wesley? *Rupert*? Although, again, maybe Watcher families saddle their kids with these outdated names.

I'm suddenly picturing the current crop of young Watchers (before they were wiped out by Caleb). Kylie, Darren and Jason just don't have the same they're-English-honest-guvnor ring...

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I somewhat feel your pain on writing Giles - it's easier for me, obviously, but there's so much difference in culture that writing Ripper-era Giles or Ethan's pretty damn difficult for someone born in 1982 (my single attempt left me with able fifteen sentences highlighted for fact checking - what year did B&Q open? Or Tesco, or Sainsburys? When did Newsnight start, or Crimewatch? What year did O-Levels switch to GCSEs and the school leaving age go up?) This is why I have a bunch of books on 70s England/London. In a really tight spot, I can ask my dad, but it thankfully hasn't come to that yet.