How to Steal a Dog will soon be out in Italian.
This particular publisher tries "to not refer to smoke and beer."
They changed:
The man who had been working on his car was sitting in a lawn chair smoking a cigarette.
To:
The man who had been working on his car was sitting in a lawn chair drinking a soda.
They eliminated the line: Cigarette butts were scattered on the floor beneath it.
They substituted "beer bottles" with "bottles."
In addition, they wanted a few other changes:
They eliminated the word "idiot."
They eliminated the word "dern."
They changed "dern world" to "stupid world." [huh?]
They changed "I like to died when I saw Patsy" to "I like to sink when I saw Patsy." [huh?]
They prefer to eliminate all references to religion. Therefore they eliminated the bumper sticker "Honk if you love Jesus."
And last, they wanted to "change the following Mama's action because in our opinion it's not a good example for young readers""
Changed: "The bread we had in the milk crate in the trunk of the car had turned green with mold, and Mama tossed it out the window."
To:
"...Mama threw it in the bin."
There ya go!
3 comments:
This is fascinating. I had never thought about how much content could change when moving to another language. Those phrases don't have quite the same ring to them. Of course, being from Georgia and visiting the smoky mountains every weekend, I connect so much with the language you use.
I, personally, am surprised that an Italian publisher would reprint ANY book written by a woman who drinks Cafe Francais.
I love Italy more than almost any place in the world, but I am convinced the Italians are CRAZY! Maria
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