Sometimes when I read a book that was written in the past and set in what was then the present (but is now the past), there are things or ideas that I don't fully understand because they are no longer current. I might not understand what a particular piece of clothing is, or why a character is shocked or surprised by something.
They should adapt books set in the past like this so modern audiences can understand "cultural" references. It would work along similar lines to what a translator does when the target audience isn't going to get all the references. To give an extremely simplistic example, a translator of a book set in Toronto for an audience who isn't going to be familiar with Toronto might slip in the word "subway" the first time "TTC" is mentioned. If the target audience is unlikely to be familiar with bras (why? I don't know) and it's important to know that bras fasten in the back, the translator might refer to someone doing up their bra by reaching behind their back rather than just doing up their bra.
If they did something similar with older books, i tmight make them more accessible to the reader. Still have the original text available, of course, but add this option for casual readers who just want to get the story.
1 comment:
That would completely ruin reading for me!
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