Random Thoughts Five: Ya rolls the dice, ya takes yer chances

[Snerk]

Which orifice shoots the jets of hot tea?

 

[EgonSpengler]

Today I tried to call someone and got a 'busy signal.' I can't remember the last time I heard one of those. An artifact of a bygone age. I imagine there are teenagers today who've never heard one.

 

[Snerk]

Yeah that's true, I forgot about those.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Today I tried to call someone and got a 'busy signal.' I can't remember the last time I heard one of those. An artifact of a bygone age. I imagine there are teenagers today who've never heard one.

You never tried to call an office or store and got a busy signal? That happens fairly often when I call to order groceries or prescriptions.

 

[Cutlass]

Yeah, I'm not sure if any of the international characters written for US superhero comics come across as authentic. I can't think of one, off the top of my head. Maybe V for Vendetta, although it's a stretch to call that a "superhero" story.

Black Panther, maybe?

 

[Takhisis]

(And don't try and tell me that Harry Potter uses a 'flashlight' to do his holiday homework, either...)

You made me go and check and it definitely says ‘torch‘.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Which orifice shoots the jets of hot tea?

You really don't want to know. If you knew, you'd never be able to drink tea again.....

 

[Takhisis]

Oh, come on, you don't think that a man from a country where the national dish is rotten fish and saltless boiled potatoes can be that averse to drinking liquified earwax?

 

[Synobun]

You made me go and check and it definitely says ‘torch‘.

I found out a couple months ago that there exists an American version of Harry Potter. It was really surprising. Every copy I've read/seen was the UK version, even in the US, yet now I know there's a transcreated version floating around out there. I find it difficult to believe that the UKisms were foreign enough to American readers that they wanted American foods and mannerisms instead, but I suppose there's a market...

 

[Takhisis]

Remember that the first book, back when JKR was an unknown author who couldn't exert creative control, was marketed in the US as ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone’ because somebody thought that a book for children shouldn't have a word with four syllables.

 

[Synobun]

That's true, although I could see that just from an appeal viewpoint. Sorcerer is cooler than Philosopher.

But was trifle and torch really so offensive?

 

[Takhisis]

Sorc… man, regardless of your weird conceptions about ‘cool’, the thing is called the Philosopher's Stone!

Trifle and torch… I don't know. As a translator, I've met this beast called ‘localisation’. Worse still, I've met people who insisted on speaking to me in incoherent Spanish because they didn't think it was possible for people outside the US to speak English. So… there's idiots everywhere, I guess?

 

[Synobun]

Sorcery makes a whole lot more sense than philosophy does!

 

[Cutlass]

Sorc… man, regardless of your weird conceptions about ‘cool’, the thing is called the Philosopher's Stone!

Trifle and torch… I don't know. As a translator, I've met this beast called ‘localisation’. Worse still, I've met people who insisted on speaking to me in incoherent Spanish because they didn't think it was possible for people outside the US to speak English. So… there's idiots everywhere, I guess?

"Sorceror's Stone" is something which it was not uncommon for an American kid to have heard of before Harry Potter was written. "Philospher's stone" was something they almost certainly would not have heard of.

 

[Takhisis]

Eeeh, yeah, OK, but it's still ‘lapis philosophorum’ so you cannot change it. Well, obviously they were able to, at least for a while, but derp.

 

[Takhisis]

Hey, I found this: Why is it Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and not the Philosopher’s Stone?

Read at leisure.

 

[Synobun]

I read it. The author seems keen on calling it a shame that the name was changed but offers no context for why.

 

[Takhisis]

Because it was pointless -Rowling herself regrets it in hindsight.

 

[BenitoChavez]

This might be of interest. Changing Philosopher to Sorcerer doesn't seem that big of a change compared to translating it into other languages.

https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_titles_of_Harry_Potter_books_in_other_languages

• Chinese

• Simplified: 哈利·波特与魔法石 (mainland China edition)
  • Pinyin: Hālì Bōtè yǔ mófǎ shí (Harry Potter and the Magic Stone)
• Traditional: 哈利波特─神秘的魔法石 (Taiwan edition)
  • Pinyin: Hālì Bōtè : Shénmì de mófǎ shí (Harry Potter - The Mysterious Magic Stone)

• Danish: Harry Potter og De Vises Sten (Harry Potter and the Stone of the Wise)

• Lithuanian: Haris Poteris ir Išminties akmuo (Harry Potter and the Wisdom's Stone)

• French: Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers
  • Translation: Harry Potter at the School of Wizards
• Frisian (West Frisian): Harry Potter en de stien fan 'e wizen
  • Translation: Harry Potter and the stone of the wise

 

[Takhisis]

Hahahah, one of the alleged ‘translations’ into 'Murican English was ‘Harry Potter and the magic School’.

Some of them completely lose the connection to Western mediæval alchemy, which is excusable in Chinese, but not in danged French.