In general I am not much bothered by spelling changes, because I grew up in this very peculiar place called Alberta, where we were taught at school — I am not making this up — that both (e.g.) colour and color were equally correct in Canada and we could use whichever we liked, as long as we didn’t switch back and forth within the same piece of writing. But spelling changes that affect pronunciation distract and irritate me — I cannot be doing with Ginny Weasley shouting “Mommy! Mommy!” as she runs along Platform 9 3/4 — and the more drastic forms of US/Brit/Whatever-ization distract and irritate me very much indeed.

I am fortunate to live in Canada, where separate editions of US and British books are very rarely published (the HPs were an exception, but the Canadian editions were identical to the UK ones, so not really), which means you can get the original edition, whatever it happens to be. And then you learn new things.

I read a great deal of British and otherwise non-USian fiction, and as a result have developed over the years a tendency to use expressions such as “dead chuffed” and “I’ll ring you on your mobile later”. My (USian) mother thinks I’m being pretentious,* but I’m not really — just, as I’ve always done in conversation, adapting to my linguistic surroundings. I love discovering new expressions and words (in Saskatchewan a hoodie is called a “bunny hug!” “Sweet tea” in certain parts of the US is actually what we in Canada call ice(d) tea! “Pants” are trousers in North America but undertrou in the UK! In the US it’s rude to say “*ss”, and in the UK it’s rude to say “f*nny” [I think we can all deduce what the missing vowel is, yes?]! What fun!!), and I resent the idea that readers will not read books that challenge their cultural assumptions. It’s silly.

*My (also USian) father has considered me pretentious for most of my life because I use many of my mother’s Connecticut Yankee pronuciations instead of his Michigander ones. You just can’t win sometimes.

I have less of a problem with standardising spelling in different editions, but other changes I can’t hold with at all!

As for the order of the Narnia books: what Pixelfish said. I hate that they have been numbering them in chronological order, ergardless of what Lewis may or may not have said. (Writers can be wrong about their books, she says, ducking.)

Very cool about Alien Onion–both the blog and your new home with them. Yet another one to add to the feedreader!

But to the English- and American- and Autrailian-izing of books, I would say that, while the translator is often (usually) a traitor (It’s more allitertive in the original Italian) translations are not necessarily bad things. Which is why a good editor is above rubies.

Where the whole sense of the word, or sentence or even section of the book will be spoilt if one does not know both idioms, the wise editor will attempt a translation. Preferably by someone who is bilingual. But less, very, very much less, is definitely more.

It’s like Star Wars- you can watch it as Eps.4-6, then 1-3, or watch them as 1-6. Both orders are correct and fine to watch in either order. I’d imagine it’s the same with Narnia.

As for the CoN movies, of course they would’ve started with LWW and not Magician’s Nephew. More people have heard of and read LWW than MN. I have problems remembering the other titles because more focus is put on LWW than any other book in the series.

I adored reading John Marsden’s books and learning all sorts of exciting new words. Heck, I love learning new slang from the internet. If I know a book has been changed I try to find an original-country copy at the second-hand bookstore. (Some of my friends who have gone abroad bought copies of books they already owned for comparison purposes. HP 2 UK version beats HP 2 US Version for the words “great dirty snake.” It’s “great big snake” in the US which is clearly 10x less awesome.)

@Book Chic: My CoN is either my mom’s or my dad’s and it’s in the proper order. Publication order works far better than chronological. Besides, if you really wanted to be chronological you’d have to stop a little before the end of Wardrobe, read Horse & His Boy, then finish Wardrobe.

@Meredith H.: As a reader of Russian sci-fi, I find your comment slightly unfair. I research the setting and ask questions of the Russians I know, but I can only speak a little Russian and will never be the slightest bit literate in the language. Learning a new alphabet is tough. Russian schools teach English before the critical age. English schools don’t. A lot of that fault lies with the school system, not with the readers.

Anyways, you’ll note that the movie makers agree with me too, as we didn’t start with The Magician’s Nephew.

Eth: English people get Stephen Fry to read their audio versions of HP? UNFAIR. Revolt! Revolt! I want Stephen Fry!

(At least nobody has suggested that an American reader should read the Terry Pratchett audio books. It’s been Nigel Planar and Stephen Briggs, and my boyfriend loves ‘em both to death, although he notes Briggs is more consistent with the voices.)

The Philosopher’s Stone change is one of those ones that particularly irked. Publishers said, “Well, kids won’t understand the title.” Well, they will once they read the book. There used to be this educational aspect to reading that went just beyond whatever lessons the publisher and author obliquely intended. You got to learn about concepts and other places and customs.

Also, I have to note that Elizabeth Enright’s Gone Away Lake (1957) features a whole chapter about the philosopher stone concept. Which I didn’t know about until I read the book. But never once did I go, “Gee, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Guess this book sucks. I’m not going to read it.” I think there’s some underestimating how much persistance and thirst for knowledge kids have.

Although she did write an amusing riposte. Snort.

My ear wasn’t happy. It wasn’t happy at all. And then I realised: the narrator/reader isn’t Australian. She’s bunging on her version of an Australian accent, with a faint, deadly whiff of Cockney and a New Zealandish flattening here and there.

If they’re going to let the book’s international audiobook version have an Australian accent, why not hire someone who can do an authentic Aussie accent, rather than a simulacrum/pastiche like this? I think, from checking, that the reader is an English-born actress; her other narrating gigs on Audible are in English accents and don’t, to my ear, sound dicky.

I won’t be investing in this audiobook – they lost me at hello, with their daft choice of narrator (in this day and age they couldn’t organise an Australian actress/reader? – we do have a few, here and there.)

With the Harry Potter audiobooks, I believe that the Americans think their American reader is quite wonderful, while the English think highly of Stephen Fry. And never the twain…

As a kid, the oddities of American kidlit – the dimes and vacations and soda fountains and drugstores – were a lovely adventure, and not in the slightest disorienting or disturbing.

I’m mostly charmed by the phrasing and the nature of the questions; but also by the fact that these people are writing fanfic on a book in a foreign country. I’m outraged by the notion that Americans can’t appreciate the Philosopher’s Stone; but have to humbly say that most Americans wouldn’t have read a book translated from the Russian and been so enthralled that they learned some Russian in order to ask all about what Russia was like 10-20 years ago. We need to come a longer way. (And, damnit, leaving British and Australian and New Zealand writing like it is would help that!)

M

The two changes that had me fairly incoherent were the change from Philosopher’s Stone (which is a real historical term) to Sorcerer’s Stone (which is a nonsense term) because Americans can’t possibly learn any history; and Bridget Jones’ Diary, whose charm was reduced by the change in measurements from stones and grams to pounds and ounces; and the transformation of the answerphone into the answering machine; &-sundry-c. All of it, to my mind, completely unnecessary.

Reading a different sort of English gives you a sense of a world outside yourself. Americans don’t need to feel more like the-rest-of-the-world-is-just-like-us. They need to experience the sense that wow, there is other culture, and I can understand it, and that’s pretty cool.

(Okay, I will admit to one Americanization that I did not mind that was in the Harry P. books. Because I remember the time when my Welsh teacher (from Wales) in college told us to revise the textbook chapter for the next class. A heartstopping moment later, someone translated it to “review.” )

Bro.

I will however refrain from saying anything about a country whose president did not have a valid passport when he was elected.

PS, Lil, I think you will find that the word is ‘autumn’.

(I also have the Russian version but not being fluent in Russian, I’m not sure how different it is…)

I’ve been reading so much in “British” that the other day at work, I wrote “Fall Favorites” as “Favourites” and had to correct “behviour” in a paper because Word didn’t like the spelling.