The American Editors are Idiots! Is JKR an American Editor, therefore, an idiot?

[nera at rconnect.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16174

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Doreen wrote:
> 
> > Sorry, but JKR made ALL of the editing changes "by herself."
> > 
> <snipped JKR quote> 
> 
> JKR:
> 
> > I have had some criticism from other British writers about 
allowing 
> any
> > changes at all, but I feel the natural extension of that argument 
is 
> to go
> > and tell French and Danish children that we will not be 
translating 
> Harry
> > Potter, so they'd better go and learn English.
> 
> JKR again:
> 
>  And they were literally words 
> that
> > meant something utterly different - like 'jumper', which means 
> 'pinafore
> > dress' in America. 
> 
> Doreen adds:
> 
> > Ahem ... does this make JKR an idiot?
> 
> Our Lady and Creator is, of course, not an idiot, but She is not 
> omnipotent nor infallible.  I respectfully disagree with her 
judgment, 
> and I doubt her complete honesty ("mum" is not "literally [a word] 
> that mean[s] something different).  Sorry, but I do.
> 
> I also don't think this kind of change is comparable to translating 
> the books into French and Dutch.  Translating expressions like 
> "jumper" or (this one made me laugh) "pop my clogs" (what Harry, 
> according to Hermione, wisely failed to do upon seeing the Grim 
(PoA 
> 6)--the U.S. translates it as "kick the bucket") is more comparable 
to 
> translating to a foreign language, though I think a glossary would 
> have been a more enjoyable solution; also, in both of these cases, 
> context would rapidly make it clear.  Just think:  if I hadn't 
bought 
> the UK edition, I never would have learned the expression "pop 
one's 
> clogs," and just think how much less meaningful my life would be.
> 
> Amy Z
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
I guess that I should have made my point more clearly, as it seems to 
have been missed. *sigh*

When it was *thought* that 'the American Editors' were the ones at 
fault, it was ok to call them idiots and to make disparaging remarks 
about them. Now, that it is clear that it was not the American 
editors, but rather, JKR, herself, I wonder if she will be called an 
idiot and be criticized as harshly? 

Doreen, who has a personal problem with name calling and most 
negative generalizations.