Comment Re:Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Score 3, Informative) 290
Well, it doesn't bother me, but then I'm British. The lack of a 'full stop' after 'Mr' is normal style in British punctuation; it is a little inconsistent, but full stops are becoming less common in abbreviations in British English. Then again, some American conventions are strange as well; like inserting a comma before 'and' in a list, such as 'apples, bananas, and grapes are fruit' compared to the British style 'apples bananas and grapes are fruit'. The comma is intended, historically, to represent the omission of the word 'and'; the American tradition would imply 'apples and bananas and and grapes are fruit' as the original etymology. Such is the price of diversity.
American and British punctuation and spelling differ in many places; I always find US spellings such as 'ax' versus 'axe' or 'color' versus 'colour' jarring. Sometimes a work is re-edited for publication on on the opposite side of the Atlantic to which it was written, but just as often -- as in this case -- it appears that the book has just been imported wholesale without being re-typeset. Typesetting is an expensive activity, and a book will need to be very popular to justify doing it all over again rather than just reprinting and slapping on a new cover.
For an interesting history of the different versions of a book check out some of the prefaces to later editions of the Lord of the Rings (an example that should resonate well with /. readers). It was very popular and underwent several versions with different spellings and house punctuation styles; both American and British versions were produced and in both cases they were published on the opposite side of the Atlantic then they were originally intended.
As for the second point, British writing these days has been tending towards old-fashioned and formal styles, I think as a backlash against the influence of informal American idioms. We are writing ourselves into Merchant-Ivory stereotypes that we have spent the last thirty years trying to escape. Go figure.
I used to find works written for the American market difficult to read, but I got used to it. We may be able to understand each others language, but we should not expect them to be the same. Languages have diverged to the point of unintelligibility in less time then we have been seperate nations. We should get used to each others lingustic foibles, and claim a new fluent reading language on our CVs (or resumes, as they say in the Americas -- a strange, alien land whose tongue I am studying in my spare time).
American and British punctuation and spelling differ in many places; I always find US spellings such as 'ax' versus 'axe' or 'color' versus 'colour' jarring. Sometimes a work is re-edited for publication on on the opposite side of the Atlantic to which it was written, but just as often -- as in this case -- it appears that the book has just been imported wholesale without being re-typeset. Typesetting is an expensive activity, and a book will need to be very popular to justify doing it all over again rather than just reprinting and slapping on a new cover.
For an interesting history of the different versions of a book check out some of the prefaces to later editions of the Lord of the Rings (an example that should resonate well with
As for the second point, British writing these days has been tending towards old-fashioned and formal styles, I think as a backlash against the influence of informal American idioms. We are writing ourselves into Merchant-Ivory stereotypes that we have spent the last thirty years trying to escape. Go figure.
I used to find works written for the American market difficult to read, but I got used to it. We may be able to understand each others language, but we should not expect them to be the same. Languages have diverged to the point of unintelligibility in less time then we have been seperate nations. We should get used to each others lingustic foibles, and claim a new fluent reading language on our CVs (or resumes, as they say in the Americas -- a strange, alien land whose tongue I am studying in my spare time).
