Need Quote: Help with Sirius's Motorcyle - More

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 92589

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "drjuliehoward"
<drjuliehoward at y...> wrote:
> <snip>
> > As you already know, the Bloomsbury edition does not mention 
> > Sirius's name twice; Hagrid only says "I'd best get this bike
> > away" when he leaves Privet Drive. I consider the UK edition as 
> > more  "canon" than  any other edition I must say :-)
> > 
> > Berit
> > http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html


> 
> IMO, "I'd best get this bike away" is much different from "I've ot 
> to return this to Sirius."  Getting it away may simply mean out of a 
> Muggle neighborhood.  Any other UK canon evidence that Hagrid 
> intended to return it to Sirius?
> 
> Julie


bboy_mn:

I took the UK version, '...get this bike away...' as a Brit-Speak
truncation of that statement '...best get this bike PUT away...'
implying that he is going to store it in some fashion. 

If the statement is taken in a very general fashion, he is saying, 'I
have to do something about this bike'.  In a sense, saying that his
night isn't over until he has somehow resolved his possession of the
bike, whether that be by returning it, abandoning it, ditching it, or
storing it, it has to be deal with before he can end his night.

The US edition has taken this general statement or Hagrid's implied
statement that he is simply going to store the bike (put it away), and
shifted it to specifically returning it to Sirius.

This is very much like that changing of the words 'one more curse' to
'one more death' in GoF. It does make some logical sense, and the
editor may have thought he was clearing up some vagueness, but any of
these details could become very important in future books. 

If these problem occur between one English edition and another, I
can't imagine the nightmare of problems that occur when book are
translated into foriegn languages.

Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn