Book Differences - the future

[alhewison]

No: HPFGUIDX 40294

I understand why the US Publishers decided to "Americanise" the HP 
books in the beginning. But now that Harry Potter is, err, quite 
popular, surely its time for a rethink, surely now the American 
Public could accept the "real" thing?

I actually think that the average US HP reader would have no more 
difficulty accepting the term "trainer" than the average Brit 
would "sneaker". Most words can be easily understood by their 
context. I agree that there is a case for changing words that have a 
different meaning in the two countries. It might cause cultural 
misunderstandings if say Harry & co decided to try smoking and had 
a "fag" each, but then by book 5 perhaps even that could be coped 
with! 

The one thing that I guess should still be changed is the spelling 
which could get confusing. The more "American" I read, the more I 
risk spelling words where we Brits use "s"s with "z"s, although I 
always seem to remember to put my "u"s in the "right" places!

On a slightly different note, I think it was Ambir who asked "Does it 
really matter what the differences are?" Perhaps I'm too much of a 
LOON but I like things to feel "authentic".  Cultural interchange is 
fairly onesided across the Pond - which given the size of the 2 
countries is only to be expected - but I believe that HP represents a 
real opportunity for the average American Punter to 
experience "British" English. As far as I can tell the 
current "Americanisation" of HP creates a kind of bastardised-British 
which an average reader might misconstrue as the "real" thing. Also, 
as has been noted many of the changes seem to be less translation and 
more interpretation. If these changes have really been agreed 
as "better"; then surely later UK versions should have similar 
changes made. Until they do, I can only think that the UK versions 
are what JKR intended, and intends.

Ali

who would be happy for OoP in any format, "British" or "American"