Need Quote: Help with Sirius's Motorcyle - More

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 92807

> Geoff:
> My hardback UK edition, which is dated 1999 on the info page and 
> which I bought last autumn has "get this bike away".
>  
> "Give Sirius his bike back" and "Give Sirius' bike back" would both 
> be acceptable Britishisms.
> 
> Carol:
> Right. Britishisms or Briticisms, but not Americanisms. My point is
> that the American editor is unlikely to be responsible for the 
change
> to "Give Sirius his bike back" because it's not American English, 
and
> if it were the British editor's change
<snip>


Neri:
>From the data we have so far, it appears that pre-2000 UK editions 
have "get this bike away" and post-2000 UK editions have "I'll be 
takin' Sirius his bike back", while all US editions (even pre-2000) 
have "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back ". 

Since it is now established that "get this bike away" is not just a 
mistake in my you-know-what version, I'll hazard a theory how the US 
edition came to be the first to come out with a correction that was 
later adopted also by the UK version (is this a heavy blow to British 
patriotism?). My guess is that the original manuscript by JKR had 
indeed "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back". The editor thought that 
it would be distractive for the reader to mention twice a character 
that (so he thought at the time) has no role whatsoever in the plot 
of the book, so he removed the second mention of the name, and JKR 
hadn't had enough authority to object at the time. Remember that it 
was then the first book of an unknown writer and nobody but JKR knew 
that there are meticulous plans for 6 additional books.
 
Next, JKR perhaps had the first chance to correct this wrong if she 
was asked to proofread the "translation" to american before it was 
published, and during this proofreading she managed to sneak in the 
second mention of Sirius' name.

Then she was probably asked to proofread the first UK edition in 
order to correct mistakes for the next UK edition, and by 2000 she 
had enough authority to add the second mention of Sirius in the UK 
version also.

I agree that JKR probably wanted to mention Sirius twice so the 
reader will remember the name for the next books. As for the future 
importance of Sirius' motorcycle to the plot, however, I can't see 
how this detail changes anything. In both cases Hagrid had the bike 
and we don't know what did he do with it.

Neri