On Fri, 16 May 1997 17:31:12 -0500 Neil Rest wrote:
> Nalo Hopkinson <bl213@FREENET.TORONTO.ON.CA> wrote:
> >NH: Re British vs. North American children's lit: I'd never thought
of
> >it that way before. I believe you're correct; one of the few places
> >where the canons overlap is in kid's fantasy.
>
> I once got into an argument with an Australian friend who was
shocked that
> a well-read, cultured person like myself had only read a couple of
Somerset
> Maugham's novels and wasn't familiar with his short stories. I
pressed her
> to list dome essential authors. When the list reached a dozen I
was able
> to point out that she'd named one Frenchman, One Russian, and
ten Englishmen.
>
>
> Neil Rest
Its a very good point. It seems to be only relatively recently that the
English and American canons began to overlap (possibly as
publishers merged). One interesting thing, I discovered only recently
that when books were imported from the US to Britain they used to be
rewritten to accord with our grammar. I owned a book called Zozo
Goes to the Hospital for years, and it is a very treasured possession.
Much to my delight, I discovered in Philadelphia last year that there
is a series, otherwise known as Curious George. When I compared, I
discovered that almost every sentence had been reworked.
In addition, realizing what Curious George was about, adds a new
element to the film Forrest Gump.
Farah
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