[Keiō Line]

"The joys of amazon second hand"
i have read a couple of american editons of children books by UK authors.

Obviously "mobile phones" become "cell phones", and pavement becomes "side walks".

"shit" becomes "darn", even "dam" becomes "darn".

When reading "young bond" a whole sub plot of a uncle dying through cancer becomes "ill due to food poisoning" and he does not die.

I even understand philosopher becomes sorcerer

Is this common? I like hardcover books and when I pick them up they are usually american.editions

[syramu]

I know that when reading British stories out loud to us, one of my teachers would change the vocabulary so it wouldn't confuse us, but when I read the actual book, it still had the British words (these were the Chronicles of Narnia books). I don't know if any other books may have changed the wording, since I've bought most of my children's books here in the US. Changing a storyline seems like complete overkill, as if American children are too fragile to handle a cancer plot!

[teenagemartyr]

It makes me cringe. From a young age I've known about 4th of July, Thanksgiving, prom, sidewalk etc from American TV and literature. It's silly when Americans change foreign products to suit themselves.

[MoreTears]

Originally Posted by teenagemartyr

It makes me cringe. From a young age I've known about 4th of July, Thanksgiving, prom, sidewalk etc from American TV and literature. It's silly when Americans change foreign products to suit themselves.

I am pretty sure all American books republished in the UK are changed to British spelling, so it is not like Brits don't "change foreign products," and there may be bolder changes in content that you or I don't know about.

The UK has changed the titles of American TV shows for whatever reasons too. The US TV series "Eureka" is called "A Town Called Eureka" on British TV, for instance. And in the 1990's the American series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman" aired in the UK simply as "The New Adventures Of Superman."

[morbidangel101]

Originally Posted by MoreTears

I am pretty sure all American books republished in the UK are changed to British spelling, so it is not like Brits don't "change foreign products," and there may be bolder changes in content that you or I don't know about.

The UK has changed the titles of American TV shows for whatever reasons too. The US TV series "Eureka" is called "A Town Called Eureka" on British TV, for instance. And in the 1990's the American series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman" aired in the UK simply as "The New Adventures Of Superman."

Where the **** did you get that idea? Most, if not all, American reprints of British books I've read use American spellings and Americanisms.

[mrkite77]

Originally Posted by morbidangel101

Where the **** did you get that idea? Most, if not all, American reprints of British books I've read use American spellings and Americanisms.

Or you just never noticed that it didn't.

Here's a comparison of changes in The Great Gatsby:

http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/LP/np-great.html

[PhoenixRises]

Originally Posted by morbidangel101

Where the **** did you get that idea? Most, if not all, American reprints of British books I've read use American spellings and Americanisms.

It happens to be true. UK publications of American books do change the language to fit the country. Which seems like an obvious thing to do, you wouldn't want your child reading a lot of American literature and then always spelling colour the American way. And it is the same for British books being read in America.

I would say that the example of changing Cancer to food poisoning and then changing the outcome is strange as that is not just language but actual plot which shouldn't be changed as surely that would have changed other things as a consequence?

[Keiō Line]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRises

It happens to be true. UK publications of American books do change the language to fit the country. Which seems like an obvious thing to do, you wouldn't want your child reading a lot of American literature and then always spelling colour the American way. And it is the same for British books being read in America.

I would say that the example of changing Cancer to food poisoning and then changing the outcome is strange as that is not just language but actual plot which shouldn't be changed as surely that would have changed other things as a consequence?

In the Charlie Higson book "the enemy" the UK version has everyone over 14 becoming zombies, with just the "kidz" left. In the American version they changed all references to "16".

[PhoenixRises]

Originally Posted by Keiō Line

In the Charlie Higson book "the enemy" the UK version has everyone over 14 becoming zombies, with just the "kidz" left. In the American version they changed all references to "16".

Really? This is another instance that I would frown at then - it makes little sense to change it, I mean is it much less horrifying/scary for a 16 year old to change into a zombie rather than a 14 year old. I would say this would impact the story less than the changing cancer to food poisoning and eradicating a death completely, but still seems like an extremely useless revision of the story.

As I said I can understand revision of language since this makes sense to do but changing the plot seems a bit drastic. But I suppose there are two ways to look at it and it is like editing a PG-13 film to make it a U certificate, still silly in my own opinion though