US Insanity and Translations

[bboy_mn]

No: HPFGUIDX 42774

A while back, I start a thread about how stupid I thought it was to
translate people surnames when translating the book into other
languages. The worst example was Professor DUMBledore being changed to
Professor Silencio in Italian. My name is my name regardless of where
I am in the world. But some people debate that opinion.

NOW however, in recent posts, an even more insane translation has come
to light. This insanity is compounded by the fact that the translation
is from English to English; British English to American English.

OK, they changed 'jumper' to 'sweater' and change 'meters' to 'feet'
(I assume). That's seems reasonable, but it has come to light that in
chapter 1 of GoF, that 'curse' was changed to 'murder', and in the
letter Sirius wrote to Harry explaining that it was Sirius that sent
Harry the Firebolt, the vault number was taken out (vault 711, I
believe). 

What kind of insanity is this? How much more of this is there that we
haven't discovered yet, that has corrupted the accuracy of the story?
Do they (who ever these idiots are) believe that we Americans are too
stupid to figure out for ourselves the implicatoins of the word
'curse'? Are we so mentally inferior that we can't let our delicate
minds be befuddled with icky nasty numbers like 'vault 711'? Who are
these idiots who have decided they know more about this story than
Rowlings does? 

Rowlings seems to have research everything about Harry Potter down to
the smallest detail, and it is very rare to come across a specific
reference that doesn't have some important meaning to the story. In
fact, the minute level of meticulous detail in these books is
astounding. Beyond what I would have expected or imagined that any
author would do. What idiot editor took it upon himself to decide that
there is no significants to that vault number? 

Despite all I have said, I'm dumbfounded. I am in stunned disbelief
that any editor or published felt they could take it upon themselves
to actually change the functional content of the book. 

I have to wonder if Rowlings has ever read the American version of her
book. And I have to wonder if she would ever (certainly not in my
opinion) approve these changes?

bboy_mn