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Translations from the British (Harry Potter Edition)
Filed under: The Katharine Wheel: On Fiction Tagged: Benjamin Chambers, Complete New Yorker, Daniel Radosh, Harry Potter, newyorker.com
Little did I know at the time that the pleasure of doping out the lingo of our cousins across the pond had been systematically stolen from oodles of American readers of Harry Potter. That’s right: the U.S. editions of the Potter books (pre-2000, anyhow) were, um, bowdlerized (albeit unevenly) with the cooperation of the author, as Daniel Radosh reported in the September 20, 1999 issue of TNY.
Unfortunately, the complete version of Radosh’s “Talk of the Town” piece isn’t available online, so I urge those of you with the Complete New Yorker to check it out in its entirety. For the rest of you, here’s a taste:
In the American edition, “wonky” becomes “crooked”; “bobbles” turn into “puff balls”; and “barking mad” translates to “complete lunatic.” “Git,” “ickle,” and “nutters,” however, are left as they are. Why does Father Christmas become Santa Claus, and “bogey” become “booger,” but “budge up” not become “move over”?Ah, well. Hard enough on the editors as it was, making sure they switched all the single quotation marks for double quotation marks, and vice versa.
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Don’t tell lawyers, but it’s also on my personal site. Sorry about the pre-2000 design.
No worries, Daniel, we’ll protect you: Emdashes is all lawyered up. We have a summer intern who just graduated from Harvard Law, and another one who predicts he will go to law school, one day. You can sleep soundly.
Seriously, thanks for helping out our readers, Daniel. Enjoyed checking out your site.