(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]

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 Although, again, maybe Watcher families saddle their kids with these outdated names.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...