Americanization of Harry Potter = BAD

[IronParrot]

This goes beyond just the whole "Philosopher's Stone"/"Sorceror's Stone" thing, though that's part of it.

The changes in the American editions are in fact more pervasive and numerous than most people recognize. There are a lot of edits in the text not made by J.K. Rowling that attempt to "Americanize" the books for American readers, and a lot of them are kept under the covers so that people hardly notice.

In terms of the integrity of J.K. Rowling's use of the English language, and her distinct writing style, I think even such minor, subtle changes are a big problem, because culturally they are not representative of the author's intentions for the world she created.

Instead of Americanizing the books to make them appeal to readers, they should be left intact and untouched to draw readers into the quirks of British culture - because that's what literature is fundamentally about: being exposed to new ideas through storytelling.

It's times like this that I'm proud to be in Canada where I can get the real, original British text. I urge the American readers out there to get a hold of the right editions whenever possible, as difficult as it is.

For lists of changes to the text, try this site.