JKR Reading our site
| Well, another JKR actually, but still it's a fun and cool thing. Anyway, she is our first "reader response" post (and I use this phrase with the full pun intended, since I have been rightly accused of being an advocate of the school of literary criticism known as "reader response" criticism ... but in all honesty it is only PART of my literary theory LOL) JKR asks: hi guys, I would love to hear your thoughts on the differing editions of the HP books for the UK and the us. My gut reaction is derision at the powers that be thinking that the poor Americans can't understand that 'mum' means 'mom' and that the Brits call candy 'sweets' and stuff like that. But I am open to being shown differently by an intelligent response!do you think it was necessary/good? Are Americans really unable/unwilling to think outside of their own cultural box as is stereotyped? is that just the opinion of people making decisions based on money? Could they have just included a glossary of terms? If this has been discussed before, would you point me in the right direction. regards, jkr (in Australia) JKR, I agree with you %100. I think variety is a spice of life (sorry, I know it's cliche) and also that language is hugely important. The "slang" or colloquial language that Rowling uses is a part of the distinct English flavor she has. If you read Lewis' Narnia Chronicles (for some reason I especially remember this in the scene where Eustace and Jill meet) there is a total flavor there you can't put your finger on but it draws you into the world He is creating, into the story. If the American editors think US readers won't know that the "loo" is the toilet, then I agree - put a glossary in for them. But learning new things like that will, I think, broaden their experience. Cultures can be so genuinely diverse and you can get such a unique view of how rich a thing basic humanity is from experiencing different ways of speaking, etc. |
Comments on "JKR Reading our site"
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Merlin said ... (December 22, 2005 7:39 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (December 22, 2005 7:46 PM)
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Merlin said ... (December 22, 2005 8:01 PM)
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Merlin said ... (December 22, 2005 8:09 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (December 22, 2005 9:29 PM)
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Merlin said ... (December 22, 2005 9:59 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (December 23, 2005 1:13 AM)
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post a commentI have some classic memories of an Irish bloke named Brendan O'rourke boarding in the group boarding situation I am in for a semester last spring ... had some great times with him asking if the fish was very good in the states and talking about "fish and chips shops" in Ireland and how most of the fish there was very fresh.
And one of my fave saturday morning breakfasts was tortillas from scratch and refried beans from scratch with eggs made by one housemate, Isaias Jaurez from Northern Mexico - he would be standing there carring on a very avid conversation in t-shirt and shorts cooking that stuff up - he was shorter than me and stocky like me and I remember him once asking about some word like "rotund" and saying that in Mexico it didn't mean "fat," but "you know, more like you and me ... um, how would you say it? stocky?" great guy.
so merlin, did you read the scholastic or bloomsbury editions?
jkr (in australia)
The Scholastic, I was more anxious to get to read it than to go to the work of getting one from over sees.
Plus, I'm not terribly adept at the getting stuff from over-sees thing, although I have accomplished it before - when I finsihed a course in "Christian Classics" I really wanted a copy of Sayers' translation of Dante but it was no longer being used by Penguin Classics and so I got it used from Blackwell's of Oxford through their online interface.
PS ... one of my favorite "Brit/Canadian" terms, makes me laugh every time I hear it since I heard it from a "Newfie" professor - "Higgledy-Piggledy"
Oh, um, sorry ... some of my spelling errors actually occur due to my own absentmindedness with homonyms ... such as "over sees" instead of "over seas"
a friend once got so frustrated with it (he edits for a paper in Honolulu) that he wrote a special response just ripping on everything with comments such as "really? how did you accomplish ...?" he knew I knew it was all in good fun though.
yes, my spelling is atrocious too.
do you think that you may have missed some of the richness of the 'experience' by reading the americanised version? maybe not. i suppose it's the context you received it in.
i loved your example of the narnia books. they wouldn't be the same without lewis's chummy language.
it happens in movies too, of course. as a girl i loved 'the little princess' by m hodgsen burnett (i KNOW i spelt that incorrectly. no time to go check). i haven't even seen the movie, though i've heard it is visually stunning, because the fact that it was unneccesarily translated accross the seas upset me too much.
it was very interesting reading some comments elsewhere from a dutch poster who was confused why there were different versions books written in english, since they are multi-lingual and often read books in the original translation.
i thought of a similar thing. something like tom sawyer. would it be ok to adapt that to a little aussie boy in the bush to ensure that kids down under could relate painlessly to his experiences? hehehe. i'm being foolish.
the notoriety (having a thread named after me) is going to my head.
cheers,
jkr (in australia)
higgledy-piggledy is a great phrase. was that seriously the first time you had heard of it?
I think that there is enough of the English/Scottish flavor that they cannot wipe out with changing spellings that I did not miss out on too much but I do wish I had read a copy with all of Rowling's original spellings and phrases.
And that was indeed the first time I had heard the phrase, "higgledy piggledy" but I use it alot now meyself. She was one of my fave profs in undergrad (although from the perspective of an American 20 something male, a little odd, as I have heard "Newfies" usually are ... but in a very endearing way. I love the differences in nationalities/ethnic groups ... in my MA O got to be friends with a young 20 something nun from Poland ... I really only saw her on campus but I had a number of classes with her - very intellugent and very down to earth and extremely engaging in conversation, which would surprise a lot of people because her order of Dominican nuns wore the whole habit at the time, everything but the "wings" ... she used to bust my chops in the library, wouldn't let me get away with any excuses, I would try to "spin" my procrastination and she would just roll her eyes and she used to sit behind me and my buddy in one class and chide us when we, all wired from caffeine and the elation of being done with a paper presentation we had been up all night working on in the class just before which she had with us as well so she knew what was up, would be sitting there cracking up at people in the second class falling asleep, including the professor, during a very dry student presenter ... seriously, there was this great funny priest from Nigeria named Fr Boniface who was having trouble not snoring).
Dr Brown (the "newfie") and I have recently been corresponding on some comments/imagery in Charles Williams' Arthurian poetry for a paper she is presenting at an Inklings conference somewhere in the southern states (Williams' Arthurian poetry is THICK poetry, I have to read Lewis' essay on it soon to get a better handle on it)
i remember the delight i felt when i first heard of 'the inklings'. what a totally marvellous name.
i hope the paper is a huge success.
jkr (in australia)