Quote:
Originally Posted by disconnected
I love old mysteries and I'd hate to see them updated to make them more "modern". I know it's sometimes down for pc reasons and I can understand that except that once you start where does it end.
I also hate when British mysteries are Americanized for the US market.
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I agree with both points and I'm not even certain I like the changing of the PC stuff because in general the stories reflected the time period and that means that you get a glimpse of history. Of course for those who don't understand history or are young, they may not grasp that it's a reflection and they may take away some bad habits. But oddly enough I read the original Nancy Drew books and never picked up on some of the politically incorrect mentions. I was taught to treat all people respectfully so any nuances were over my head (granted I was reading at a VERY young age so it wasn't just PC stuff over my head either.)
When I read Harry Potter, I didn't notice the words had been translated until one day, when I was working at the library, one of the librarians was testing the Harry Potter audio in the back. "HEY! She has an English accent!!!" I stood there looking at the audio player and thinking about King's Crossing and thinking, "Huh. I forgot it was published there first." When I'm immersed in a world, I'm *immersed.* But I did wonder why it was okay to record it with an English accent and not use the English words! I mean, I have a hearing problem in one ear and actually have a harder time with accents than a few English words in a book (which doesn't even give me pause). The whole idea of translating English to American is just silly.
It's more work for authors too. Jacka Benedict was blogging one day about having to proof the "American version." I can't remember which version he had already proofed, but he essentially had to do the blooming thing TWICE because they did two versions of the book just to change a few references/words.