[HPforGrownups] US Insanity and Translations

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 42781

bboy_mn:

> 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?

Rowlings? With an 's'? You mean they've even translated her *name*?

I'm sorry, that was unkind; I'm prone to more than the odd typo myself, but I 
couldn't resist it. ;-)

I wasn't aware that the vault no had been omitted, that does seem to be one 
of the stranger anomalies. As for metres (NB spelling!) to feet, I don't 
recall. I *think* that she uses Imperial measurements. I don't think the WW 
would have adopted metric! It's a recent development here, and as I've 
pointed out before, unreconstructed persons such as myself naturally think in 
Imperial. (I am of the crossover generation who learned both systems at 
school.)

However, at the risk of repeating myself (I did mention that I find it very 
easy to be both invisible and inaudible), my theory is that things like the 
curse/murder problem actually result from JKR correcting errors which then 
recieved different editorial treatment on different sides of the Atlantic. I 
don't think it's a case of 'translation'.

I'm not aware of the chronology. Were the two versions published 
simultaneously?
The most obvious explanation to me, is that JKR realised a mistake in her 
manuscript (fairly late in the day); Bloomsbury corrected it, but Scholastic, 
for whatever reason, did not.

This theory is backed up by the wand order problem having been corrected in 
UK editions, but not, (IIRC) in the US. I am sure that JKR is aware of these 
anomalies. (I wonder if this has anything to do with what we have heard about 
Scholastic not having the contract for Book 5?)

Eloise






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