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

Re: Eh, turned into a rant - am not ranting at you...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I think it makes a difference. But then, I also have major issues with the decision to "translate" the HP books into US English in the first place.

Right. The thing I'm not sure British fen really understand is how different the Brit and US versions are. I mean, Harry & co. don't come across as American teenagers by any means, but it's precisely the subtle differences in the two dialects that were changed. The average American HP fan doesn't have access to the British versions, unless she goes to amazon.co.uk to order them, and they're much more expensive than the American versions. The expectation that we should just know better is unrealistic, I think. People who don't see that, ironically, know very little about American culture.

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to write in Britglish, because I agree that we should, for characterization reasons. That is a point I think

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<i>I think it makes a difference. But then, I also have major issues with the decision to "translate" the HP books into US English in the first place.</i>

Right. The thing I'm not sure British fen really understand is how different the Brit and US versions are. I mean, Harry & co. don't come across as American teenagers by any means, but it's <i>precisely</i> the subtle differences in the two dialects that were changed. The average American HP fan doesn't have access to the British versions, unless she goes to amazon.co.uk to order them, and they're much more expensive than the American versions. The expectation that we should just <i>know better</i> is unrealistic, I think. People who don't see that, ironically, know very little about American culture.

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to write in Britglish, because I agree that we should, for characterization reasons. That is a point I think <my darling friend <user site="livejournal.com" user="jedirita"> and I disagree on. But I can't help but get rankled when Brits pull the whole "American cultural hegemony" bit, because we're <i>not</i> doing it on purpose! Most of us are more than willing to learn!

Okay, until this moment, I had no idea "bullshit" was American. Really? Must go search LMH for any occurences of that word...