Probably not a strictly American phenomenon ::g:: -- even if as a country we do it so exceedingly well (and often) -- but so darn stupid. That's one of my major peeves in society / culture / education. (I've been frustrated and appalled by this... stupid... concept since I was in seventh grade and our band instructor refused to let the band try to play any music that the fourth and fifth grade beginning band people couldn't already play. Heaven forfend there would be any chance for the poor unteachable fourth and fifth graders to actually stretch toward learning something *new*! ::breathes deeply and mutters, "I am letting this go. I am letting this go..."::)
This all reinforces to me that I love the differences in culture and spelling and idiom; I would abhor a homogenized world (or a homogenized English). On the level of published works like Harry Potter (which I have not read), I'm totally against Americanization. Nobody Americanized or Twentieth-Centuried Jane Eyre or David Copperfield or Sherlock Holmes (thank god). I don't want writing to lose its flavor.
Fanfic -- I can't help but think that using the spelling that's used in the characters' country can only add to the feeling of authenticity for the characters. But it's a very small thing, and should totally be the author's choice. It's not going to keep me from loving a story. And fanfic is written for the fun and the love of writing it; I read it for the fun and love of reading it, and I'm not going to sabotage myself out of reading *anything* unless I don't care for the story itself or the writing overall as writing (not as spelling -- and even idiom, to some extent).
no subject
Probably not a strictly American phenomenon ::g:: -- even if as a country we do it so exceedingly well (and often) -- but so darn stupid. That's one of my major peeves in society / culture / education. (I've been frustrated and appalled by this... stupid... concept since I was in seventh grade and our band instructor refused to let the band try to play any music that the fourth and fifth grade beginning band people couldn't already play. Heaven forfend there would be any chance for the poor unteachable fourth and fifth graders to actually stretch toward learning something *new*! ::breathes deeply and mutters, "I am letting this go. I am letting this go..."::)
This all reinforces to me that I love the differences in culture and spelling and idiom; I would abhor a homogenized world (or a homogenized English). On the level of published works like Harry Potter (which I have not read), I'm totally against Americanization. Nobody Americanized or Twentieth-Centuried Jane Eyre or David Copperfield or Sherlock Holmes (thank god). I don't want writing to lose its flavor.
Fanfic -- I can't help but think that using the spelling that's used in the characters' country can only add to the feeling of authenticity for the characters. But it's a very small thing, and should totally be the author's choice. It's not going to keep me from loving a story. And fanfic is written for the fun and the love of writing it; I read it for the fun and love of reading it, and I'm not going to sabotage myself out of reading *anything* unless I don't care for the story itself or the writing overall as writing (not as spelling -- and even idiom, to some extent).