(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

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Checking the list (http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/REF/potter.html)... Yep, sherbet lemons were changed to lemon drops. Which doesn't bother me so much as something like "bag of crisps" becoming "packet of chips" which totally changes the meaning.

(I'm feeling particularly anal tonight *g*)

[arundhathi.livejournal.com]

*g* I feel equally anal about it. I mean, I can understand that there are some idiosyncracies that might not make any sense to Americans, because the books are so quintessentially British. But the point is that they're supposed to be quintessentially British. And they changed 'Happy Christmas' to 'Merry Christmas'. I refuse to accept that there are any Americans who wouldn't be able to figure out the meaning, even if they don't generally say Happy Christmas.