I love that the “French” word for makeover is relooking.
I recently finished my first book in French, and I feel quite proud of myself. It really was a “book in French” rather than a “French book” though, as it was a translation from an English author’s original work, trouvable in the “Young Adults” section at any bookstore. But still! 482 pages all in French, partially fantasy and alternate universes and I read and UNDERSTOOD it, all en français!
Like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s I mean Philosopher’s Stone, this book was retitled The Golden Compass from the original The Northern Lights for the American market. Why? Both books are the first in their series, so getting their marketing appeal correct hopefully cascaded readers into the next releases. Snowballs and critical mass, don’t you know.
Who decides that Young American Adults will reject a novel – nay, an entire series based on the word “philosopher’s”? Or will embrace one because it has the word “golden” in it? And why does “compass,” what with its propensity for negative connotations from geometry class and camp orienteering, outdo “northern lights”? I think they should have retitled it with the French word for compass, which according to my translation is aléthiomètre, which sounds exotic.
I wonder what that publisher-author conversation sounds like. “Ms. Rowling, we have a mandate to reassert English intellectual superiority and convince Americans that they prefer magic to reasoned discourse. Plus, they like it better if they don’t think something is good for them. Pretending your little book here isn’t based on legend seems like a great start, you know, makes it a little more fun and palatable for them, like putting frosting on bran.”
After the success of the first book (and we only know about the success stories), the author has enough clout to silence such silly suggestions for future titles. I imagine both publisher and author point to the success of the first book as proof the retitling strategy is effective or unnecessary. Who can really say?
The real impact of this decision is felt when people cross-pollinate and discover maybe they both love Philip Pullman and the hood is lifted from their eyes and their whole universe is shaken when the possibility that the Aurora Borealis was actually a more central theme than the golden compass. What was originally common ground becomes yet new trenches of difference.
All this to say I think my next French book will be by a French author, originally written in French. So I can get my prose straight from the source. No title relooking, thank you very much.
