Things that make you go hmmmmm...
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntbijouOkay, so the Impertinent Daughter's class is reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Miss Priss is doing very well on the chapter tests, because she's only read the entire series maybe ten or eleven times or so! So anyway, one night, she was practically in tears, and appealed to me for help. I was washing dishes while she was working at the kitchen table, and so I dried my hands, walked up, and said, "What's wrong?"
"It's this question here," she said, clearly frustrated. It said, "What is the name of the White Witch's chief of police?"
Well, you know guys, I am an incurable bookworm. I'm one of those readers who gets so absorbed in a book that the entire house could fall down around me and I'd never notice, unless part of the roof knocked the book out of my hands, and then I'd probably frown, pick the book back up, and get right back to it. Yes, I'm that bad. And I also remember everything I read. And I've read the Narnia series over and over again, whenever the whim takes me. So, I did a search in my memory, and said, "Oh, Fenris Ulf. What's the problem? I know you know this."
This is when she started getting teary. "Well, yeah, in this book," which was our own personal copy of the book, a much older edition printed in 1950, "it's Fenris Ulf. But in the edition we're using in the class, it's Maughrim."
I blinked. And I blinked again. "Maughrim? You're kidding, right?"
"NO!" she wailed.
This confused me, because it seems to me Maughrim was the name of a siege engine in The Simarillion, or one of the Lost Tales books by Tolkien. Or a Wolf in Tolkien, I can't quite bring it to mind. But I really don't associate that name with C. S. Lewis. So I gave her the best answer I could. "Okay, then write down what the teacher will count as correct, but bring this copy to school and show it to her and ask her what she thinks."
Turns out the teacher wasn't aware of the name change. She thought it was Fenris Ulf, too, and if the Impertinent Daughter hadn't brought it to her attention, a lot of the kids who had never read the book before that class would have had their papers marked as incorrect. The version they are using was published in 2001, I think, and it made me wonder... was this edition approved by whoever is protecting C. S. Lewis' interests? And just who the heck is changing names and such in these books? Did the same people who decided that Americans are too stupid to pick up a dictionary or do a web search to figure out what a Philosopher's Stone is think Fenris Ulf wasn't... I dunno... a wolfish enough name, and threw in Maughrim to make the wolf more...menacing?? WTF??
Just so you know, I knew what a philosopher's stone was back when I was in third grade. Hello. Bookworm.
Think I have a slight beef with the publishing industry's dumbing down of books from across the sea?
I've been reading the British versions of the Harry Potter books, and you know, it's like reading a whole new book. I'm stunned. I think the one thing that leaped out the biggest to me, was a conversation in the third book, regarding the Grim, between Hermione and Ron. He mentions that his Uncle Bilius saw the Grim and died, and she said in the American version, "... Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better kick the bucket then!"
But... in the British version, she says, "... Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better pop my clogs then!"
I never laughed so hard in my life!
There are a great many examples I could give, many of which change entire scenes, completely altering their meaning, and it drives me nuts. I guess what I'm saying is, if someone's done this with the Narnia books, it's doing a great disservice to people who haven't read it yet. Now I understand why my daughter keeps saying the book she's reading in class is different. It makes me wonder about children's book publishers in this country right now. I think next time I go to the book store, I'm going to pick up one of the "new" editions of children's book classics and skim through it to see if I can spot anything obviously different.
*sigh*
I'm obsessing again, aren't I?
"It's this question here," she said, clearly frustrated. It said, "What is the name of the White Witch's chief of police?"
Well, you know guys, I am an incurable bookworm. I'm one of those readers who gets so absorbed in a book that the entire house could fall down around me and I'd never notice, unless part of the roof knocked the book out of my hands, and then I'd probably frown, pick the book back up, and get right back to it. Yes, I'm that bad. And I also remember everything I read. And I've read the Narnia series over and over again, whenever the whim takes me. So, I did a search in my memory, and said, "Oh, Fenris Ulf. What's the problem? I know you know this."
This is when she started getting teary. "Well, yeah, in this book," which was our own personal copy of the book, a much older edition printed in 1950, "it's Fenris Ulf. But in the edition we're using in the class, it's Maughrim."
I blinked. And I blinked again. "Maughrim? You're kidding, right?"
"NO!" she wailed.
This confused me, because it seems to me Maughrim was the name of a siege engine in The Simarillion, or one of the Lost Tales books by Tolkien. Or a Wolf in Tolkien, I can't quite bring it to mind. But I really don't associate that name with C. S. Lewis. So I gave her the best answer I could. "Okay, then write down what the teacher will count as correct, but bring this copy to school and show it to her and ask her what she thinks."
Turns out the teacher wasn't aware of the name change. She thought it was Fenris Ulf, too, and if the Impertinent Daughter hadn't brought it to her attention, a lot of the kids who had never read the book before that class would have had their papers marked as incorrect. The version they are using was published in 2001, I think, and it made me wonder... was this edition approved by whoever is protecting C. S. Lewis' interests? And just who the heck is changing names and such in these books? Did the same people who decided that Americans are too stupid to pick up a dictionary or do a web search to figure out what a Philosopher's Stone is think Fenris Ulf wasn't... I dunno... a wolfish enough name, and threw in Maughrim to make the wolf more...menacing?? WTF??
Just so you know, I knew what a philosopher's stone was back when I was in third grade. Hello. Bookworm.
Think I have a slight beef with the publishing industry's dumbing down of books from across the sea?
I've been reading the British versions of the Harry Potter books, and you know, it's like reading a whole new book. I'm stunned. I think the one thing that leaped out the biggest to me, was a conversation in the third book, regarding the Grim, between Hermione and Ron. He mentions that his Uncle Bilius saw the Grim and died, and she said in the American version, "... Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better kick the bucket then!"
But... in the British version, she says, "... Harry's still with us because he's not stupid enough to see one and think, right, well, I'd better pop my clogs then!"
I never laughed so hard in my life!
There are a great many examples I could give, many of which change entire scenes, completely altering their meaning, and it drives me nuts. I guess what I'm saying is, if someone's done this with the Narnia books, it's doing a great disservice to people who haven't read it yet. Now I understand why my daughter keeps saying the book she's reading in class is different. It makes me wonder about children's book publishers in this country right now. I think next time I go to the book store, I'm going to pick up one of the "new" editions of children's book classics and skim through it to see if I can spot anything obviously different.
*sigh*
I'm obsessing again, aren't I?
