A quiz program I watch regularly
is Pointless. I like the concept of
the game and I am an admirer of the presenter Alexander Armstrong and his “assistant”
Richard Osman, both of whom are cultured and speak decent English. My
admiration diminishes every time Alexander Armstrong says: “All of our
questions were asked to 100 people…” and invites contestants to: “...please step up to the podium”. I’m sure
they’ve received countless tweets and emails about this: …were
asked of / were put to, would be better and a podium is generally a raised
structure, whereas the prop they use is more like a lectern. If they don’t like
this, they could simply say: …please step
forward. I’m sure they’ll forgive me for this pettiness. Another thing that
strikes me when I watch is that the majority of (younger?) contestants only
know the answers to literary questions because they have seen the film based on
the novel. Very few seem to have read the book.
 |
| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone |
For some reason, this makes me
think of Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone versus Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone which is the title of the American edition.
I have always thought that one of the most valuable aims of books for children was
to introduce them to new words and ideas, to increase their vocabulary and
knowledge. Is this not valid in America? J.K. Rowling, although agreeing to
this change, is said to have regretted it later. The title change brought the following
comments:
"Sorceror" sounds exciting,
"philosopher" sounds boring, and nobody in America knows what a
philosopher is.
Famous title changes to take
account of the incredible ignorance of the average American include
"Licence Revoked" which became "Licence to Kill", when over
70% of those polled didn't know what "Revoked" meant, and "The
Madness of King George III", which had to drop the "III" because
it was realised that Americans would be uninterested in the film since they'd
obviously missed the first two films of the trilogy”, and
“Perhaps it was thought that an American
readership wouldn't pick up on the mystical connotations of "Philosopher's
Stone", and
“American kids (and parents) are
far less likely to have heard of the Philosopher's Stone”, thus depriving
American children and their parents of the following information concerning the
said Philosopher’s stone:
“A reputed solid substance or
preparation supposed by the alchemists to possess the property of changing
other metals into gold or silver, the discovery of which was the supreme object
of alchemy. Being identified with the elixir, it had also, according to some,
the power of prolonging life indefinitely, and of curing all wounds and
diseases”. OED.
In France, H P and the
Philosopher’s Stone became Harry
Potter à l'Ecole des Sorciers (HP at Wizard’s School). I’m not sure why as the French have la pierre philosophale and
the same historical references. The Spanish do much better with: Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal.
This then made me think of that
statistic about the number of Americans who have a valid passport. According to
the State Department, the answer to this, as of January 2014, was about 46%. So,
all the stories about only 10% of Americans having a passport are false, but
were true around 1994. That settles that, then.
To finish on a couple of my
hobby-horses, Norman Smith, one of the BBC's finest, has now started to sprinkle
the awful Americanism big time over
his reports in addition to overworking his most favourite awful Americanism, …give us a sense of what’s happening in
Westminster. Talking of Westminster, I was delighted to hear Mrs May saying
at her first Prime Minister’s Questions: I'm
going to meet Mrs Merkel... and not meet
with. Perhaps we can now look forward to the English language being used more
carefully, more elegantly, in Parliament at least.
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