Quote:
Originally Posted by GraceKrispy
When I first heard that there were two versions of the Harry Potter books- one with the original UK phrasing and one that was "Americanized," I was sort of insulted. Yes, it's sort of geared towards a younger set (to some extent), but surely it would have broadened their horizons a bit to read something with different words used!
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Especially the first book, which referred to "the Philosopher's Stone". The argument from the US publishers for changing it to "Sorcerer's Stone" was that most US readers in the target age group wouldn't know what a "philosopher" was (which I find incredible, but okay) - except it completely, utterly missed the point. The Philosopher's Stone was itself a famous object in the theory and history of alchemy; anyone could have found out what it was in Wikipedia, for gosh sakes. So the whole thing was a case of what we in Australia call "nannyism" - unwarranted over-protection from perceived problems that may not be a real issue.