Book Versions

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I can understand that. What I don't thinks is acceptable is the way these (sometimes major) changes are made with no notification at all...

...There is no note, from either the author or the publisher, in the ebook version to indicate this is a re-release/modified/updated version of the original published version. Shouldn't this be made known to the consumer?

I do agree. The author (or publisher, but the Nemesis ebook looks self-pubbed) should tag it somehow. If the changes are minor enough (just the numbers in Nemesis) maybe a little note before the text is fine.

More major changes should me made known prior to purchase. Heck, they can use it as a selling point, like what was done with The Stand.

What if Isaac Asimov decided to re-release Foundation, because it had be be updated for the 2020's? (assume he is still alive) He edits his novel and adds terms like "internet", "iPad's", "smart phones", "Warp speed", changing "Transcription Machine" to "Laptop". Would that be acceptable?

Meddling like that is understandable if the author is still alive and is the one requesting the changes. But you have to be careful because of the butterfly effect. When the longer version of The Stand was released, lots of dates were updated and dollar amounts changed, but then that caused knock on effects elsewhere.

What happened with Star Wars has become a poster child for bad editing. But then there is The Hobbit, where the changes were for the better. So not all changes are bad ones.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Karellen

What if Isaac Asimov decided to re-release Foundation, because it had be be updated for the 2020's? (assume he is still alive) He edits his novel and adds terms like "internet", "iPad's", "smart phones", "Warp speed", changing "Transcription Machine" to "Laptop". Would that be acceptable?

The Saddle Club (kid's series about horses from the 1990s) updated some of their earlier books to change references to cassettes and the like to CDs.

This also produced a bit of a funny snarl in the first book. The original version had a character buy ten cassettes at $6-7 each, and wipe out the $65 she had saved up for something else. The newer edition has her buy ten CDs at $10-12 each... except she still only had 65 dollars to begin with.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The Saddle Club (kid's series about horses from the 1990s) updated some of their earlier books to change references to cassettes and the like to CDs.

This also produced a bit of a funny snarl in the first book. The original version had a character buy ten cassettes at $6-7 each, and wipe out the $65 she had saved up for something else. The newer edition has her buy ten CDs at $10-12 each... except she still only had 65 dollars to begin with.

Updates to kids’ books is one of my pet peeves. They never work, for one. Too many inconsistencies and implausibilities result. Two, the books can end up having little resemblance to the original story. Three, it frequently also involves dumbing down.

And finally, why, why, why? Let the kid read something set in a slightly earlier time. Could be fun. They could pick up some background. Exercise a few additional chops when interpreting the material.

Yeah, yeah, I’m a codger. As a kid, I happily read books set in all sorts of eras which had been written as contemporary without a flicker of an eyelash, when I wasn’t trudging to school in the snow that is. It was all fodder to my maw. So many of my childhood favorites have been absolutely ruined by updates. Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden in particular, I’m looking at you. But it’s not limited to them.

[JSWolf]

I got to read The Hardy Boys back before they got changed.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I got to read The Hardy Boys back before they got changed.

Me, too, but while I liked Frank and Joe, Nancy was the best.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Me, too, but while I liked Frank and Joe, Nancy was the best.

I've never read Nancy Drew. Though I did watch the original Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries on TV.

[DNSB]

When I was in Grade 8 in school, I read Booth Tarkington's Penrod. Even at my age at that time, I realized that it was dated, racist, etc. My parents agreed but pointed out that for it's publication date around 1910, it was not all that bad.

Fast forward to 2017 when an edition was published that revised or omitted certain ethnic descriptions that might be considered inappropriate, offensive, whatever. A book club I belonged to at work made it the book to read one month. The opinion of most of the members was that not only had they revised or omitted much of the ethnic descriptions, they had also omitted much of the readability of the original edition. Thomas Bowdler would have approved.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I got to read The Hardy Boys back before they got changed.

Didn't we have this discussion before and find that the books were edited even before those sixties copies you guys had read? These books began publication in the 1920's after all.

Yes:

The Hardy Boys volumes were extensively revised beginning in 1959 at the insistence of publishers Grosset & Dunlap, and against the wishes of Harriet Adams. The revision project, which also encompassed the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, was sparked largely by letters that parents had been writing to Grosset & Dunlap since at least 1948, complaining about the prevalence of racial stereotypes in the books.

I have a hard time getting too het up about revising books that were created and owned by a syndicate and written by ghostwriters from the beginning. Nancy and the Boys have their place. But great works of art they ain't.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

...The original version had a character buy ten cassettes at $6-7 each, and wipe out the $65 she had saved up for something else. The newer edition has her buy ten CDs at $10-12 each... except she still only had 65 dollars to begin with.

Maybe she received the five-finger discount

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Didn't we have this discussion before and find that the books were edited even before those sixties copies you guys had read? These books began publication in the 1920's after all.

The Hardy Boys copies I read most definitely pre-dated the 1960s by a couple decades, as they had all belonged to my father when he was a child.

True, they aren't great literature, but the originals were much better than the revised editions.

A couple of times, for fun, I've compared a childhood title to a library ebook version. There is definitely a lot of "dumbing down" going on. Words like "fedora" being changed to, say, the more generic, "hat". Ugh. What the heck does it hurt for a child to learn what fedora means? One of my pleasures as a child was learning new words!

I wish that when titles are abridged or updated or modernized, the publisher would mention it. It'd be nice to let the consumer know.

[Little.Egret]

theoretically the copyright date © should have an additional year added

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by graycyn

I wish that when titles are abridged or updated or modernized, the publisher would mention it. It'd be nice to let the consumer know.

I feel the same way about authorship of a book. But again, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were created as a product right from the get-go.

[SuperDerpBro]

This happens with all digital/streaming media. Games, movies, TV shows and music. Sucks hearing a song on Spotify that's been changed. Its a big reason the slowly dwindling minority still love physical media.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by graycyn

A couple of times, for fun, I've compared a childhood title to a library ebook version. There is definitely a lot of "dumbing down" going on. Words like "fedora" being changed to, say, the more generic, "hat". Ugh. What the heck does it hurt for a child to learn what fedora means? One of my pleasures as a child was learning new words!

Red Hat Linux: Commercial version
Fedora: Free version

Also stupid conversions of LSD, Pounds, shillings and Pence. My grandchildren have no problem with original versions. My Children had no problem with old versions or old money and they were born after UK & Irish decimalisation.

Also record players, cassette players and CD players and the media are still made and sold. Though I think the later 8-Track, Betamax, laser disc, VHS and minidisc players are only available S/H.

Many kids under 10 know what a rotary dial phone is and how to work them, they've seen retro-replicas and old films.

Authors don't usually write books for a lowest common denominator or the least educated that can read. Publishers are just being stupid editing old titles like they do. They brought out heavily revised Famous Five and had to revert most of the changes. There are no shortage of modern books if people don't want to read the older ones, but it's a kind of cultural vandalism to edit (especially silently) and re-issue old material.

[theducks]

They must educate kids better on your side of the pond.

I ran into a teen that had no clue about my sisters Rotary phone (was a display piece. We had a Magneto set also.) .

I learned electronics while tubes (valves) were the main component.
I learned IT when computers had 'core' memory.