Posted by Robert Dilley on September 27, 2003 at 15:57:26 from 216.211.5.149 user rdilley.
In Reply to: Re: - Disney; wholesale removal posted by Katharine on September 27, 2003 at 09:57:41:
Katharine, I beg to differ. I think the "sense of place" is tremendously important in AR, and that the stories would be much weaker without it. Not just the scenery, but the whole culture of the locations -- especially the Lake District, with which I am most familiar. The fells and lakes are not quite like those elsewhere -- parts of North America and New Zealand may have somewhat similar topography, but they do not have the settlement history or comparable land use. The local accents (is it possible to "hear" the Billies with an American voice? -- the first one to suggest HillBillies gets strung from the yardarm) are an integral part of the story, as are the farming operations (what would you do about Dixon's marked sheep? branded cattle on a Western ranch?), the charcoal burners, even the layout of the farmhouses.
Sorry, I get carried away. I do a section in my Behavioural Geography course on Literary Landscapes and it is easy to slip into lecture mode. I use examples I hope the students might at least have heard of: but a couple of years ago I set an essay topic on the lines of "Discuss the use of geographical landscapes as an essential element in mystery literature" and was approached by one student who asked "Could she change the topic to 'children's literature' as she wanted to write about an author I may not have come across, called Arthur Ransome". My permission was not hard to obtain.
As must be well known, the first Harry Potter book was published in the US (not, I am glad to say, in Canada) in an "Americanised" version; the title even being changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as it was condescendingly assumed that Americans would not know what a Philosopher's stone was and would be unable to comprehend the explanation given in the book. Harry's school timetable was changed to "schedule", and various other attempts to destroy the whole British atmosphere. I understand some scenes in the first movie were also shot twice, so as not to confuse our southern neighbours (again, we were fortunate in Canada to get the British release).
However, soon after the book appeared I was lining up at our local book superstore when I heard a group of retired Americans behind me discussing how they had driven up from Minneapolis (550 km away) expressly to buy the real version.
Now that both books and movies have been so successful, I wonder if the author allowed these liberties with later titles? I have not heard.
Anyway, I would hate to see such "de-localisation" of AR's works. Even more so than for Harry Potter, as AR's stories (well, apart from PD and ML) are set in real, recognisable landscapes.
Disney, keep off!