3 ms·
I've always been told that it's dumbing down, usually the line is "American children wouldn't understand it". I suppose it's the same as the Harry Potter books,
by nwh 13y ago
I've always been told that it's dumbing down, usually the line is "American children wouldn't understand it". I suppose it's the same as the Harry Potter books, "Philosopher" changed to "Sorcerer" in the title. It's very prevalent to change "foreign" names to Americanised ones.
- jstalin 13y agoPerhaps philosopher has a different connotation in UK English. Sorcerer just seems more appropriate in a book about magic.
- kbenson 13y agoThe Philosofer's Stone[1] is a commonly used mythological item in fiction. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone
- JonnieCache 13y agoThe term "Philosopher's stone" is from medieval european alchemical lore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone I don't know if they imagined british kids all knowing about that, but I can assure you the term would be just as fantastical to them as to americans.
- jstalin 13y agoInteresting. Having never looked into the history of alchemy, I would never have associated philosophers with alchemy. Sorcerer just makes more sense (to me).
- iends 13y agoExcept his name is changed in almost every country, so it's not "dumbing down": Germany - Walter Norway - Willy France - Charlie Denmark - Holger Israel - Effi Source: http://mentalfloss.com/article/22414/wheres-waldo-and-whos-wally http://mentalfloss.com/article/22414/wheres-waldo-and-whos-w...
- callum85 13y agoI'm not sure if that applies in this case... There's nothing to 'understand' about the name Wally or Waldo. They're both just random, invented names, AFAICT.