crumpets & muffins

[Your Name]

I am astonished to find out that the UK edition calls Harry Potter a
philosopher and the US edition calls him a sorcerer.

Not too long ago, I received a letter from a Christian Orthodox priest
saying not to buy Harry Potter's books because they are evil and they
promote Satanism.

There have been a lot of arguments on this issue!



Lina Barbara Hawkins
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Berlitz GlobalNET
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-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Glaser [mailto:tonyglaser at MINDSPRING.COM]
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 7:03 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: crumpets & muffins


>I was in the train station today, reading my US-bought Harry Potter and
>came across Harry and Ron eating English muffins.  I thought "I wonder
>whether the original version had 'muffins' or 'crumpets'."  So, went to the
>newstand, picked up the UK edition, and found the answer:  crumpets.


Train station? So you must have been in the US, surely! :)

>
>Now, why the editors at Scholastic Books think that "sorcerer" is the US
>translation of "philosopher"...well, that's another matter.

I read somewhere (Newsweek or Time, I think) that this was done to
defuse potential protests from Christian fundamentalists and others
who would perceive "sorcerer" as suggestive of Satanism etc. etc.

Tony Glaser