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Different customs, different nuance. It's not unheard of to drink with lunch in the US, but it isn't common in most subcultures. The whole concept of "happy ho
by samatman 4y ago
Different customs, different nuance.
It's not unheard of to drink with lunch in the US, but it isn't common in most subcultures. The whole concept of "happy hour" involves immediately after work being the accepted time for daily drinkers to start. Americans on the whole drink rather less, and have more teetotalers.
The easier thing to do is edit the beer out or replace it with coffee or soda, because the message the mid-day beer sends is in fact a parent who drinks too much in front of the kids.
An American with no experience of European culture might be startled that everyone drinks at lunchtime, but wouldn't consider a European, or American, who has a beer with lunch, to be degenerate or alcoholic. A round of drinks during a business lunch is commonplace, some places it's a Friday thing. What it isn't is totally unremarkable.
So as the exception rather than the norm, including this detail in a fictional context does send a different message. The editor is probably right to cut that line in translation.
- mola 4y agoMaybe if these things weren't edited Americans will learn to know other cultures and norms....
- kevinventullo 4y agoSurprised I had to scroll this far to find this point. The ramifications of censorship stretch beyond interpretation of the book itself. Cultural norms are partially established by media, so by censoring this one is in fact reinforcing the puritanical norms.
- Archelaos 4y agoBut is it not common knowledge for a target audience of Americans reading translations of Italian novels that Italians on average are far more relaxed in this matter? And if not, would it not be a good opportunity to teach them something here?
- ThrowawayR2 4y ago> "The editor is probably right to cut that line in translation." I can't agree with that. As a non-European, if I'm buying a translated work from a European author about a European character, I expect them to behave as ordinary Europeans would. I am paying for the authentic foreignness. If I wanted to see people behaving as they would in my own culture, I'd buy a work from a domestic author.
- fsckboy 4y ago>"happy hour" involves immediately after work being the accepted time for daily drinkers to start "happy hour" is the commercial offering of alcoholic drinks at a cheaper price to entice customers to come early. That will create a convivial atmosphere enticing more customers, and once there people will frequently have "just one more" a few times, extending their evening. Pretty sure it's about selling rather than social mores.