Quote from: Pippa on January 29, 2012, 04:41:39 AM
I love it when they change the names of books in America.  Apparently Americans don't understand what Philosopher means. 

It's not that we don't understand what Philosopher means.  It's that to the average American it is simply means something different.  While a British person might think of an alchemist when they hear that word, to an American it doesn't mean that.  It means someone who ponders great questions and comes up with new philosophies-- Aristotle, Plato, Confucius, etc.  To an American, Nicholas Flamel being a philosopher wouldn't make much sense because he doesn't fit our definition of a philosopher.

They change things for British people, too.  For example-- they took the amazing reference to my uber-amazing state motto in the movie Live Free or Die Hard and made it into boring Die Hard 4.0 because I guess British people don't want to learn any history of the American Revolution.  Maybe they don't like to think about how farmers with pitchforks beat their greatest army in the world...   

Or take one of the greatest TV/Movie/Toy franchises of my childhood-- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  In England it was turned into Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles because apparently ninjas are too scary for the fragile British children.  I wanted to be a ninja from the time I was 4 until I was 7 and I turned out alright.

It happens all over the world, not only in America.

philosopher has exactly the same meaning here in the uk as it does in the states.  a philosopher's stone is an alchemical substance used to transmute metal.... the meaning has been in place for millennia.  changing the name of the book makes absolutely no sense, unless you're implying that americans aren't educated enough to recognise this and need it simplified.

i just got finished reading 'the river why?' ... not my usual choice, i hate fishing, but i picked it up and somehow got drawn into this person's world despite my dislike of the subject.  it's well written and absorbing and by the end of it i felt like i'd really gotten to know a person and taken a journey with him learning about himself and his place in the universe. 

Quote from: schism on January 29, 2012, 10:33:41 AM
philosopher has exactly the same meaning here in the uk as it does in the states.  a philosopher's stone is an alchemical substance used to transmute metal.... the meaning has been in place for millennia.  changing the name of the book makes absolutely no sense, unless you're implying that americans aren't educated enough to recognise this and need it simplified.

Just because different parts of the world have different things in them doesn't mean we're uneducated.  There you go thinking we're still your colony and should do things the exact same way you do.  And people knock Americans for thinking we're the center of the universe...  I'd never heard of the philosopher's stone until Harry Potter came out not because I'm too uneducated to recognize it, but because it's not a very popular story in a America.  Different place, different stories.  That's all there is to it.

philosopher's stone is not a british thing.  the greeks first wrote about it in 300 AD. 

Quote from: schism on January 29, 2012, 10:50:27 AM
philosopher's stone is not a british thing.  the greeks first wrote about it in 300 AD.

Doesn't matter who wrote it-- it's a popular story in England but it's not in America.  Again-- different places, different stories we tell our children.  For example-- my students have never heard of Jack and the Beanstalk or the Three Billy Goats Gruff.  I don't assume it's because they're uneducated.  It's because they're from a different culture than me.  They could tell me dozens of coyote stories I've never heard, or about the four worlds or Turquoise Boy.  I've never heard those stories and they've never heard my stories because we're from different places and have different cultures.  Don't you think it's a little self-centered to assume if other people weren't raised with the same stories you were they must be uneducated?  At least now I know where many white Americans get that sense of "our culture is the only one that's right"-- from our British ancestors (actually, I've known that for a long time).

BTW-- I'm not going to post on this anymore because it's completely off topic and hijacking threads is rude.  If you want to make a separate topic for it, that'd be fun.

sure.  but nowhere did i assume on anyone's education.  if you'll reread what i said, i wondered at your own implications in a post that was already offensive in tone towards the british.  don't be surprised when someone responds in kind (:

A Clash of Kings (Game of Thrones)- George R. R. Martin

I don't want to jump into an argument, but I'm going to jump into this argument anyway. Devin I've always known what a philosopher's stone is, and I was born in Texas. It's in old fairytales and stuff. I think they changed the name not because americans wouldn't recognize it, but because "Sorcerer's Stone" is understood by a wider swath of the populace, and so is more marketable. There are a lot of people in our country, and money is money.

And schism, License to Kill is way more marketable here than Licence Revoked. That has nothing to do with whether we can parse the meaning. The culture in the US is not less intelligent or all that much less educated, we just think we're crazy cowboys (or rockstars or pioneers or whatever) and that needs to be pandered to. Products are constantly competing to be more eyecatching or more quickly assessed, and books of some genres get packaged like any other product.

We in the US do take a lot of guff for being arrogant and bumbling, so please understand if some of us are sometimes touchy about any perceived attacks on that front.

Also, hey people, what should I read next? Right now I'm working through a stack of old Dana Foundation newsletters. I'm under a lot of stress, so I need something either lighthearted or really escapist. The only unread books on my shelf are Tolstoy and Proust. I'll be visiting the library.

Quote from: Beverley on February 01, 2012, 05:46:47 PM
'Mort' by Terry Pratchett

or

'An alien heat' by Michael Moorcock

or

'Master and Commander' by Patrick O'Brian (it is not the movie and the 18th Century english is a bit challenging, but it is a good story)

Beverley

noted, thanks

I'm reading The Hobbit, lolz

Quote from: Felix on February 01, 2012, 05:35:26 PM
Also, hey people, what should I read next? Right now I'm working through a stack of old Dana Foundation newsletters. I'm under a lot of stress, so I need something either lighthearted or really escapist. The only unread books on my shelf are Tolstoy and Proust. I'll be visiting the library.

i was gonna jump in here, then i noticed you said lighthearted.... i think everything i read is morose and/or intense.  escapist, though.... china mieville.  my favourite novel is perdido street station.  it isn't lighthearted but it's an incredible story, his writing is brilliant and it's definately escapist.  new weird/fantasy/horror... alt universe, weird creatures, steampunk, original.  awesome stuff.

Quote from: schism on February 04, 2012, 03:06:45 AM
i was gonna jump in here, then i noticed you said lighthearted.... i think everything i read is morose and/or intense.  escapist, though.... china mieville.  my favourite novel is perdido street station.  it isn't lighthearted but it's an incredible story, his writing is brilliant and it's definately escapist.  new weird/fantasy/horror... alt universe, weird creatures, steampunk, original.  awesome stuff.

My library has 32 copies of just one of his books (Embassytown) and they are all checked out. I'll put a hold on it as soon as I convince them to put off holding me accountable for the generic manga book that my daughter destroyed recently. GD little monster didn't even read it - she never reads any fiction, she just checked it out to impress a kid at school.

So, ah, maybe I'm betraying my pulpiness or age or something, but is he anything like Clive Barker or Poppy Z Brite or Kathy Koja? I've read a lot of other horror but not much modern/current. Familiar with cyberpunk but not steampunk (literaturewise). I like science fiction but I fell out of the culture long enough ago that I'm not grounded there either. I guess the only genre I read regularly is social commentary/history, but that isn't intentional.

I think the last adult fiction I read that wasn't a short story or comic book was American Gods.

he's.... different.  his writing can get very purple, but he does it in a way that isn't suffocating (i think).  i haven't read embassytown though so i can't give an opinion on it; i know it isn't one of his Bas Lag books, which is his steampunk universe.

I read Scriblerus last night for a small Clarissa break, but back onto Clarissa - If I can have it finished by April, I will be a happy bunny.

Just picked up She's Not There off Amazon for a few bucks after seeing it mentioned here. About 3 chapters into it, but I'm enjoying it so far. So many parallels with my own childhood and feelings I can't quite put to words. Jenny does a fantastic job of bringing some humor and wit into her story. Definitely going to have to lend it out to people who are interested in learning what it's been like to be me.

Currently reading Eragon: Brisingr

Quote from: Maya Zimmerman on February 04, 2012, 12:39:48 PM
Anything by Tom Robbins or Haruki Murakami.  I think I mentioned Kafka on the Shore elsewhere on here for having a trans guy as one of the main characters and the other major plotline in it follows an older gentle man who can speak with cats.

I like Tom Robbins and I don't think I've read all of his books, but I wrote down Haruki Murakami on a notepad by my keyboard. My ex/only close friend came over and when he saw it he thought I'd written it down on his recommendation. He wouldn't believe me it was from someone else. XD So I'm doubly interested.

Currently having a slight problem with the library but we'll get it worked out when I get the nerve to just go talk to them about it.

Just finishing up reading We The Living, for the second time.  The next book on my list is Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.