Random Thoughts.
11 December 2001
A-Boo: a game that everybody should know how to play.
Every small child knows A-Boo. I guess that's short for Peek-A-Boo. You hide behind a suitable door, book, placemat, whatever... and you leap out with a stupid grin on your face... "aaaaaaaaaAA--BOO!"
I was having lunch with my friend David last week and there was this amazingly cute toddler sitting next to us. He regarded me with wide eyed suspicion at first, even when I smiled at him. But having had much practice playing A-Boo with Jenna, I decided to try my skills with this cute stranger. And he smiled!
And his mum didn't even think I was crazy.
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We went to see the Harry Potter movie over the weekend. It was quite good, and interesting to see how an American director handled the adaptation of a very British book.
Di sent me this website which details all of the changes they made to the books for their American release. I don't know what to think about this - if you believe the publisher, they changed the name of the first book from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" to "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" because Americans wouldn't be interested in anything that has the word "philosophy" in the title. Are Americans really that averse to thinking, or is the publisher completely patronising them?
Then you look at the extensive list of changes and wonder, as my friend Richard did, is it at all possible to import another culture into the United States? Or do Americans really demand that everything be made easily understood and digestible? The Harry Potter books follow a long tradition of British boarding-school adventures. By changing the language so that the Americans can understand it easily, they are removing some of the Britishness that makes the stories so delightful. No doubt there are many Americans who would not want to do the research to find out what the British terms mean. So I suppose sales would suffer if they didn't "translate" the books. But if I was stuck with the American editions, I would feel ripped off that I didn't have the originals.
Anyway, in this age of everything online, surely someone would compile and post a list of translations for Americans to use when reading the books. But I suppose the publishers want to maximise sales above everything. I really would like to hear what the author J.K. Rowling thinks about it.
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If Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans really existed, would you buy them? Why buy a sweet that has as much chance of containing yucky flavours as it does of containing good flavours? Why not buy a sweet that always tastes good?
Don't ask me. I think the idea of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans is so cool, I would buy them. Even if I got the occasional earwax flavoured one.
I wonder if the inevitable real-life version of these beans will contain any yucky flavours. Do you think a candy manufacturer would be so brave?
