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J.K. Rowling to Kill Off Another Character

pyrotoaster said:
I know there were some pretty odd differences back in book one (like the title: "Philospher's Stone" vs. "Scorcerer's Stone").
In the UK Version Harry wins Hedwig (his snowy owl) in a contest, instead of receiving her as a birthday gift from Hagrid.
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hmm...are these UK versions available this side of the proverbial pond? i knew about the philosopher's stone but not about the hedwig thing. what sort of contest?
 
paulwhannel said:
while normally i'm the first one to be personally offended by a broad social trend, Harry Potter has been, and continues to be, a great way to reestablish reading in children. After decades of dumbing-down by use of pictures, oversimplifications, and most recently technology, it's tremendously heartening to see kids as young as 5 and 6 taking an interest in old fashioned books. I applaud Rowling for that.

Besides that, she did it with such imagination that she has created an utterly charming world with her works. I think it's interesting that she's exploring the mortality of her characters, which is often avoided even in adult books.

But I haven't read the books myself, so i only know the movies :) wonder how many more they'll make.

paul
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well said! i agree completly.

you should try reading the books as they are so much more complex and interesting than the films (like in the 3rd film half of the plot is missed out and what is included is the wrong way round!)
 
AmigoMac said:
Does harry Potter use a Mac? ...

Nevermind, I don't like that trend, you may find Harry potter toilet paper as well :mad:
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Keeping in tone with the book, Harry wouldn't have any computer unless his cousin broke one and gave it to Harry :D

As for social trends - its true in many cases that there are ones you'd like to forget or wish that never happened. This is one exception to that...

Can anyone else think of a social trend that has had as much benefit?

D
 
I really hope Rowling doesn't turn it into something cliched at the end of the series...something along the lines of "Harry and Voldemort are connected and if one dies the other dies, so in order to defeat the V-man Harry must die". I figure that's probably what will happen at the end of the series but I'm really hoping it doesn't.
 
mvc said:
Are you serious, is the U.S version different to the U.K version? Tell me its not true. :(
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Yes, I'm sorry to say it's true. The book binding cover is much nicer. The writer and story is from England and native language just adds to the story. It doesn't make sense to me that they would change some of the words and cover when it is sent to the US..
 
wdlove said:
It doesn't make sense to me that they would change some of the words and cover when it is sent to the US..
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I can see them changing some of the wording, making it more relevant to the appropriate market, but changing the story itself (i.e. Hedwig) is just wrong.

I had heard about the whole Hedwig in a contest thing but I didn't completely believe it. Personally I think Hagrid giving Harry Hedwig as a "11 years worth of birthday presents" is much better than Harry simply winning her in a contest. The U.S. version adds so much character development for Hagrid, you get to know his giving side a lot sooner and get a true feeling for him.

That's my opinion anyway, that part just always stuck out in my mind as important to Hagrid, so having it not happen just seems wrong to me.

As far as the whole "Harry and Voldemort are connected so Harry has to die for Voldemort to die" thing goes, I don't think that's how it'll go down.



!!BOOK FIVE SPOILER!!




It says in the prophecy at the end of book five that Harry must either kill or be killed by Voldemort, so I don't think Harry must die for Voldemort to die. He has to kill him, apparently, and might very well die in the process, but I don't think it will be a "connected" type of thing.
 
evilgEEk said:
!!BOOK FIVE SPOILER!!




It says in the prophecy at the end of book five that Harry must either kill or be killed by Voldemort, so I don't think Harry must die for Voldemort to die. He has to kill him, apparently, and might very well die in the process, but I don't think it will be a "connected" type of thing.
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that was the lamest ending....i was so pissed that was the big revelation, as it seemed fairly obvious to me. (since every good sci-fi/fantasy/action good vs evil battle has ended that way.)
 
mattroberts said:
Canada gets the British Version - Scholastics is responsible for the editing of the story for American audiences.

However, The Hedwig contest story is not true. The editing is limited to british vs. American spelling. Check out the link below for a general idea.

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences.html

cheers
m
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I have that site bookmarked, but never really thought to go there to check the validity of the whole Hedwig thing. That's good news though. :)

question fear said:
that was the lamest ending....i was so pissed that was the big revelation, as it seemed fairly obvious to me. (since every good sci-fi/fantasy/action good vs evil battle has ended that way.)
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I was a little peeved about that too, but I wasn't overly upset about it. I think it will still be a great conclusion in Book Seven....hopefully.. ;)
 
AL-FAMOUS said:
well.. i for one could never read the US version..
i mean harry potter wouldnt be the same if he said trashcan or soccer ball...
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And the British versions of those are???

I'm a little upset that they actually make different versions as well. One 15 hour trip to Florida, my wife and I borrowed a friends audio book version of book 2. It was great - the narrator was British, so it lent a authentic feel to the listening. But now I'm thinking it was the US version of the book on CD. :(

D
 
Mr. Anderson said:
And the British versions of those are???

I'm a little upset that they actually make different versions as well. One 15 hour trip to Florida, my wife and I borrowed a friends audio book version of book 2. It was great - the narrator was British, so it lent a authentic feel to the listening. But now I'm thinking it was the US version of the book on CD. :(

D
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Mr. Anderson you should purchase the "Harry Potter" books from amazon.com/uk. You won't at all be disppointed. That's what my wife does. Besides the wording, you will find that the book cover is much nicer. ;)
 
AL-FAMOUS said:
well.. i for one could never read the US version..
i mean harry potter wouldnt be the same if he said trashcan or soccer ball...
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I understand what you're saying, but just for the record it doesn't say "trashcan", it still says "bin". The soccer thing is true though, and it would have to be since football means something completely different in our neck of the woods. I've always thought soccer should be called football though, it makes much more sense than what we refer to as football. I mean, our 'football' only involves actual foot/ball contact a fraction of the time!

oh well...
 
evilgEEk said:
I understand what you're saying, but just for the record it doesn't say "trashcan", it still says "bin". The soccer thing is true though, and it would have to be since football means something completely different in our neck of the woods. I've always thought soccer should be called football though, it makes much more sense than what we refer to as football. I mean, our 'football' only involves actual foot/ball contact a fraction of the time!

oh well...
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Actually football (US) and futbol/soccer both developed around the same time during the late 1800's. US football has actually changed quite a bit, it was far more rugby like back then, hence the name football.
 
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