h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Slightly off topic, but to blaue Augen, did you say you were American? Is the first book of His Dark Materials called "The Golden Compass" in the US? I'm just asking, becasue it's called "Northern Lights" here in the UK.

Personally, I I've read His Dark Materials, the Chronicles of Narnia and all the Harry Potter books, and like them all (though Harry Potter is my favourite by far).

Hello Elentari!

Yes, I am American. And the first His Dark Materials book is published as "The Golden Compass" here. I looked on the copyright page and it said it was first published in Great Britain in 1995 by Scholastic books under the title "Northern Lights." I hadn't noticed that until you pointed it out. I wonder why they do that. Is it some sort of copyright issue with the publishers? And why did they change the title of the first Harry Potter book in the US to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Did they think Americans are too dense to look up "Philosopher's Stone" in the dictionary?

????

Certainly! And far too lazy to figure out what "Northern Lights" would be. It does make sense in Pullman's case though, now all the titles of the books match the magical object of which they are about. Even if "Northern Lights" is a better title for the book by itself.

Have any of you tried Robert Rankin? Now there's a man who's clinicly insane.

In the case of Harry Potter book 1, yes, I'm sure I heard that it was because Americans for some reason wouldn't know what the Philosopher's Stone was. (Whether it's true or not I don't know.) It doesn't make much sense to me, becasue at least Philosopher's Stone actually means something, Sorceror's Stone means nothing - I mean, people did actually try to create the Philosopher's Stone for centuries.

There's a story I like - the film "The Madness of King George" (which was about King George III who had syphilis) was originally going to be "The Madness of King George III") but they dropped the "III" bit becasue they thought that American audiences would see that title and not go because they'd think they'd missed the first two parts!

People seem to have quite a low opinion of the intelligence of American audiences it seems...

(Athough actually, I read in a Bill Bryson book that some survey was conducted of several thousand US High School seniors and something like 72% of them couldn't name one single country in Asia. I mean they've been at war with two of them in the last fifty years - wait, Afghanistan - make that three of them.

Sorry, this was so completley off topic I've forgotten what the topic is....

Nope, I had no idea what the Philosopher's Stone was, and still don't after all these years of hearing about how the title was changed. The Philosopher's Stone sounds just as dumb to me as The Mathematician's Stone.

You see, the problem with Asia, in my opinion, is that it doesn't have a distinct shape. It's all blob-like and we can't tell where it begins and ends. Also, they don't teach use much about Geometry over here because that's a waste of time. So we all know the names of dozens of Asian countries, we just don't know that those countries are in Asia.

Additionally, we don't get the idea of small countries, because we live in a place of big fat countries like Canada and Mexico, so half of us think South America is a country and that it has it's own government, because most countries are the size of our states.

We just don't care about the rest of the world except in the few ways that it directly affects us.

P.S. What the hell is the Philosopher's Stone?

Oh dear. Perhaps a reform of the US education system is in order?

Don't take this the wrong way, but knowing next to nothing about the rest of the world is one of the reasons why the US is pretty unpopular worldwide.

As to "most countries are the size of our states", I have heard that there are farms in Texas the size of Wales, which is just mind-blowing. I think I also heard that the UK would fit into the US about fifty times over, which is just disturbing.

Anyway, the Philospoher's Stone in a nutshell (which is all I know about it, frankly) is a thing that alchemists used to think (hundreds of years ago) that they could create, and many of them devoted years to trying to discover how. According to legend, it has two components, the Elixir of Life, which makes you immortal, and another bit which turns lead into gold, so you are filthy rich too. Obviously, they never found out how to create it and eventually realised it was impossible. Must have been very disapointed!

Oops, clearly I meant geography, although there's only one of year of geometry here too.

The only legendary object American's have mostly to their own is the Fountain of Youth. However, scientists have been working on the Infinite Energy Orb and expect to have it disproven to be existable anytime now.

Alternative, the poster could be just trying to wind everyone up and get reaction...and it worked.

There are many authors and books out there that I wouldn't trouble myself with, but saying the author doesn't deserve to live, that's just barking mad.

From what i've ready about the lady, she had her share of hard times, like the rest of us, and it sounds like she's worked hard creating this magical world, she deserve every penny.

Darren

Absoloutely

I respect the fact that you dislike the Harry Potter books, but I don't understand why you wish death upon the woman who wrote them. Are you saying that people whose work you don't admire, or, for that matter, who disagree with you on the definition of a good book, deserve to die? Or perhaps you are jealous because JK Rowling has derived so much success from the series. Wishing death upon a person for such a frivolous reason is deplorable in a person of any origin, whether it be British or American. And, just for the record, I think "To Kill A Mockingbird" is an excellent book. Atticus Finch is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.

Well I'm Irish, and it's allowed over here.

I love To Kill a Mockingbird as well. I read it this summer.

*Points out the fact that the original post was modderated.*

See, some people just can't take a joke.

OK, it has got a bit mad, but it was quite a provocative post. I think we need to accept that GodBen was joking and agree to disagree on which books are better.

Or is that too boring?

Agreed. I live on boredom.

Hey GB, unsure whether you are still subscribed to this conversation or not, but it is hilarious to read-through one year on! I think it should meander off into a debate about British/Irish education versus that from across the pond, in the good ol' US of A...

PS> JK and her Potterverse absolutely ROCK












--- As do Pratchett and his Discworld-verse
---- and Pullman and his His Dark Materials-verse