Brit-picking: vital or a waste of time?

[emmagrant01]

jedirita and I discussed this topic over lunch yesterday, and it pops up on LJ constantly. I've never given it much thought, honestly, because everyone who's ever called me for an Americanism has been extraordinarily nice about it. The culture in the HP fandom seems to be that writers should use British English whenever possible, and I'll admit that I've bought into that 100%. I always looked at it as a respect-for-canon issue.

Rita feels differently, though, as do a lot of other people. So I started thinking about it, and now I'm questioning my sudden zeal to make sure my HP fic is as Americanism-free as possible. Can I really accomplish that? And is it really a worthwhile goal, considering there are so many other more important things to work on as a writer?

I'll keep this brief because so many people have already said something about this at some point. I'm still forming my thoughts, and I won't bore you with anything half-assed, for once! ;-)

For now, I'll just point to this post by lykaios, and say. "Yeah. What she said."

Comments

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

There was a discussion (http://www.livejournal.com/users/angstslashhope/637937.html) about the use of language a while ago in angstslashhope's journal, you might find it interesting. Of course it's not all about language, but other things too.

And nope, I'm not picking a fight with you or anyone else. It's just interesting how this language thing hadn't really occurred to me (I'm a non-native speaker of English) but now it seems to come up everywhere).

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link! That was a really interesting post. And I do understand that this issue is a little bit about anti-Americanism, and I honestly don't blame people for feeling that way. Perhaps there's a reason why Americans don't get so worked up about Briticisma in American-based fic as happens the other way around? I'm just guessing here, but I do sympathize with angstslashhope's position.